f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_imish_config module – Manage BIG-IP advanced routing configuration sections

Note

This module is part of the f5networks.f5_modules collection (version 1.27.1).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install f5networks.f5_modules.

To use it in a playbook, specify: f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_imish_config.

New in f5networks.f5_modules 1.0.0

Synopsis

  • This module provides an implementation for working with advanced routing configuration sections in a deterministic way.

Note

This module has a corresponding action plugin.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

after

list / elements=string

The ordered set of commands to append to the end of the command stack if a change needs to be made.

Just like with before, this allows the playbook designer to append a set of commands to be executed after the command set.

allow_duplicates

boolean

added in f5networks.f5_modules 1.2.0

Allows duplicate commands to be sent to the device. This is to accommodate scenarios where address families are configured.

Only used with the lines parameter.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

attributes

aliases: attr

string

The attributes the resulting filesystem object should have.

To get supported flags look at the man page for chattr on the target system.

This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed by lsattr.

The = operator is assumed as default, otherwise + or - operators need to be included in the string.

backup

boolean

This argument will cause the module to create a full backup of the current running-config from the remote device before any changes are made.

The backup file is written to the backup folder in the playbook root directory or role root directory, if playbook is part of an Ansible role. If the directory does not exist, it is created.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

backup_options

dictionary

This is a dict object containing configurable options related to backup file path. The value of this option is read-only when backup is set to yes. If backup is set to no, this option will be silently ignored.

dir_path

path

This option provides the path ending with directory name in which the backup configuration file will be stored. If the directory does not exist, it will be first created and the filename is either the value of filename or default filename as described in filename options description. If the path value is not given, a backup directory will be created in the current working directory and backup configuration will be copied in filename within the backup directory.

filename

string

The filename to be used to store the backup configuration. If the filename is not given, it will be generated based on the hostname, current time and date in the format defined by <hostname>_config.<current-date>@<current-time>

before

list / elements=string

The ordered set of commands to push onto the command stack if a change needs to be made.

This allows the playbook designer the opportunity to perform configuration commands prior to pushing any changes, without affecting how the set of commands are matched against the system.

diff_against

string

When using the ansible-playbook --diff command line argument, the module can generate diffs against different sources.

When this option is configured as startup, the module will return the diff of the running-config against the startup-config.

When this option is configured as intended, the module will return the diff of the running-config against the configuration provided in the intended_config argument.

When this option is configured as running, the module will return the before and after diff of the running-config with respect to any changes made to the device configuration.

Choices:

  • "startup" ← (default)

  • "intended"

  • "running"

diff_ignore_lines

list / elements=string

Use this argument to specify one or more lines that should be ignored during the diff.

This is used for lines in the configuration that are automatically updated by the system.

This argument takes a list of regular expressions or exact line matches.

group

string

Name of the group that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to chown.

When left unspecified, it uses the current group of the current user unless you are root, in which case it can preserve the previous ownership.

intended_config

string

The intended_config provides the master configuration the node should conform to and is used to check the final running-config against.

This argument will not modify any settings on the remote device and is strictly used to check the compliance of the current device’s configuration against.

When specifying this argument, the task should also modify the diff_against value and set it to intended.

lines

aliases: commands

list / elements=string

The ordered set of commands that should be configured in the section.

The commands must be the exact same as those found in the device running-config.

Be sure to note the configuration command syntax, as some commands are automatically modified by the device config parser.

match

string

Instructs the module on the way to perform the matching of the set of commands against the current device config.

If match is set to line, commands are matched line by line.

If match is set to strict, command lines are matched with respect to position.

If match is set to exact, command lines must be an equal match.

Finally, if match is set to none, the module will not attempt to compare the source configuration with the running configuration on the remote device.

Choices:

  • "line" ← (default)

  • "strict"

  • "exact"

  • "none"

mode

any

The permissions the resulting filesystem object should have.

For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must give Ansible enough information to parse them correctly. For consistent results, quote octal numbers (for example, '644' or '1777') so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number. Adding a leading zero (for example, 0755) works sometimes, but can fail in loops and some other circumstances.

Giving Ansible a number without following either of these rules will end up with a decimal number which will have unexpected results.

As of Ansible 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r).

If mode is not specified and the destination filesystem object does not exist, the default umask on the system will be used when setting the mode for the newly created filesystem object.

If mode is not specified and the destination filesystem object does exist, the mode of the existing filesystem object will be used.

Specifying mode is the best way to ensure filesystem objects are created with the correct permissions. See CVE-2020-1736 for further details.

owner

string

Name of the user that should own the filesystem object, as would be fed to chown.

When left unspecified, it uses the current user unless you are root, in which case it can preserve the previous ownership.

Specifying a numeric username will be assumed to be a user ID and not a username. Avoid numeric usernames to avoid this confusion.

parents

list / elements=string

The ordered set of parents that uniquely identify the section or hierarchy the commands should be checked against.

If the parents argument is omitted, the commands are checked against the set of top level or global commands.

provider

dictionary

added in f5networks.f5_modules 1.0.0

A dict object containing connection details.

auth_provider

string

Configures the auth provider for to obtain authentication tokens from the remote device.

This option is really used when working with BIG-IQ devices.

no_f5_teem

boolean

If yes, TEEM telemetry data is not sent to F5.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_TELEMETRY_OFF.

Previously used variable F5_TEEM is deprecated as its name was confusing.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

password

aliases: pass, pwd

string / required

The password for the user account used to connect to the BIG-IP or the BIG-IQ.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_PASSWORD.

server

string / required

The BIG-IP host or the BIG-IQ host.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_SERVER.

server_port

integer

The BIG-IP server port.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_SERVER_PORT.

Default: 443

timeout

integer

Specifies the timeout in seconds for communicating with the network device for either connecting or sending commands. If the timeout is exceeded before the operation is completed, the module will error.

transport

string

Configures the transport connection to use when connecting to the remote device.

Choices:

  • "rest" ← (default)

user

string / required

The username to connect to the BIG-IP or the BIG-IQ. This user must have administrative privileges on the device.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_USER.

validate_certs

boolean

If no, SSL certificates are not validated. Use this only on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates.

You may omit this option by setting the environment variable F5_VALIDATE_CERTS.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

replace

string

Instructs the module on the way to perform the configuration on the device.

If the replace argument is set to line, the modified lines are pushed to the device in configuration mode.

If the replace argument is set to block, the entire command block is pushed to the device in configuration mode if any line is not correct.

Choices:

  • "line" ← (default)

  • "block"

route_domain

string

Route domain on which to manage the BGP configuration.

Default: "0"

running_config

aliases: config

string

By default, the module will connect to the remote device and retrieve the current running-config to use as a base for comparing against the contents of source.

There are times when you do not want to have the task get the current running-config for every task in a playbook.

The running_config argument allows the implementer to pass in the configuration to use as the base config for comparison.

save_when

string

When changes are made to the device running-configuration, the changes are not copied to non-volatile storage by default.

If the argument is set to always, the running-config will always be copied to the startup-config and the modified flag will always be set to True.

If the argument is set to modified, the running-config will only be copied to the startup-config if it has changed since the last save to startup-config.

If the argument is set to never, the running-config will never be copied to the startup-config.

If the argument is set to changed, the running-config will only be copied to the startup-config if the task has made a change.

Choices:

  • "always"

  • "never" ← (default)

  • "modified"

  • "changed"

selevel

string

The level part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range.

When set to _default, it will use the level portion of the policy if available.

serole

string

The role part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

When set to _default, it will use the role portion of the policy if available.

setype

string

The type part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

When set to _default, it will use the type portion of the policy if available.

seuser

string

The user part of the SELinux filesystem object context.

By default it uses the system policy, where applicable.

When set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available.

src

path

The src argument provides a path to the configuration file to load into the remote system.

The path can either be a full system path to the configuration file if the value starts with /, or relative to the root of the implemented role or playbook.

This argument is mutually exclusive with the lines and parents arguments.

unsafe_writes

boolean

Influence when to use atomic operation to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target filesystem object.

By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target filesystem objects, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted filesystem objects, which cannot be updated atomically from inside the container and can only be written in an unsafe manner.

This option allows Ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating filesystem objects when atomic operations fail (however, it doesn’t force Ansible to perform unsafe writes).

IMPORTANT! Unsafe writes are subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

Notes

Note

  • Abbreviated commands are NOT idempotent

  • For more information on using Ansible to manage F5 Networks devices see https://www.ansible.com/integrations/networks/f5.

  • Requires BIG-IP software version >= 12.

  • The F5 modules only manipulate the running configuration of the F5 product. To ensure that BIG-IP specific configuration persists to disk, be sure to include at least one task that uses the f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_config module to save the running configuration. Refer to the module’s documentation for the correct usage of the module to save your running configuration.

Examples

- name: configure top level configuration and save it
  bigip_imish_config:
    lines: bfd slow-timer 2000
    save_when: modified
    provider:
      user: admin
      password: secret
      server: lb.mydomain.com
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: diff the running-config against a provided config
  bigip_imish_config:
    diff_against: intended
    intended_config: "{{ lookup('file', 'master.cfg') }}"
    provider:
      user: admin
      password: secret
      server: lb.mydomain.com
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Add config to a parent block
  bigip_imish_config:
    lines:
      - bgp graceful-restart restart-time 120
      - redistribute kernel route-map rhi
      - neighbor 10.10.10.11 remote-as 65000
      - neighbor 10.10.10.11 fall-over bfd
      - neighbor 10.10.10.11 remote-as 65000
      - neighbor 10.10.10.11 fall-over bfd
    parents: router bgp 64664
    match: exact
    provider:
      user: admin
      password: secret
      server: lb.mydomain.com
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: Remove an existing acl before writing it
  bigip_imish_config:
    lines:
      - access-list 10 permit 20.20.20.20
      - access-list 10 permit 20.20.20.21
      - access-list 10 deny any
    before: no access-list 10
    provider:
      user: admin
      password: secret
      server: lb.mydomain.com
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: for idempotency, use full-form commands
  bigip_imish_config:
    lines:
      # - desc My interface
      - description My Interface
    # parents: int ANYCAST-P2P-2
    parents: interface ANYCAST-P2P-2
    provider:
      user: admin
      password: secret
      server: lb.mydomain.com
  delegate_to: localhost

- name: configurable backup path
  bigip_imish_config:
    lines: bfd slow-timer 2000
    backup: true
    provider:
      user: admin
      password: secret
      server: lb.mydomain.com
    backup_options:
      filename: backup.cfg
      dir_path: /home/user
  delegate_to: localhost

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

backup_path

string

The full path to the backup file.

Returned: when backup is yes

Sample: "/playbooks/ansible/backup/bigip_imish_config.2016-07-16@22:28:34"

commands

list / elements=string

The set of commands that will be pushed to the remote device.

Returned: always

Sample: ["interface ANYCAST-P2P-2", "neighbor 20.20.20.21 remote-as 65000", "neighbor 20.20.20.21 fall-over bfd"]

updates

list / elements=string

The set of commands that will be pushed to the remote device.

Returned: always

Sample: ["interface ANYCAST-P2P-2", "neighbor 20.20.20.21 remote-as 65000", "neighbor 20.20.20.21 fall-over bfd"]

Authors

  • Tim Rupp (@caphrim007)

  • Wojciech Wypior (@wojtek0806)