FRR Platform Options

The FRR collection supports the ansible.netcommon.network_cli connection. This section provides details on how to use this connection for Free Range Routing (FRR).

Connections available

CLI

Protocol

SSH

Credentials

uses SSH keys / SSH-agent if present

accepts -u myuser -k if using password

Indirect Access

by a bastion (jump host)

Connection Settings

ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli

Enable Mode
(Privilege Escalation)

not supported

Returned Data Format

stdout[0].

Using CLI in Ansible

Example CLI group_vars/frr.yml

ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli
ansible_network_os: frr.frr.frr
ansible_user: frruser
ansible_password: !vault...
ansible_ssh_common_args: '-o ProxyCommand="ssh -W %h:%p -q bastion01"'

  • The ansible_user should be a part of the frrvty group and should have the default shell set to /bin/vtysh.

  • If you are using SSH keys (including an ssh-agent) you can remove the ansible_password configuration.

  • If you are accessing your host directly (not through a bastion/jump host) you can remove the ansible_ssh_common_args configuration.

  • If you are accessing your host through a bastion/jump host, you cannot include your SSH password in the ProxyCommand directive. To prevent secrets from leaking out (for example in ps output), SSH does not support providing passwords through environment variables.

Example CLI task

- name: Gather FRR facts
  frr.frr.frr_facts:
    gather_subset:
     - config
     - hardware

Warning

Never store passwords in plain text. We recommend using SSH keys to authenticate SSH connections. Ansible supports ssh-agent to manage your SSH keys. If you must use passwords to authenticate SSH connections, we recommend encrypting them with Ansible Vault.

See also

Setting timeout options