IOS-XR Platform Options

The Cisco IOS-XR collection supports multiple connections. This page offers details on how each connection works in Ansible and how to use it.

Connections available 

	CLI	NETCONF only for modules `iosxr_banner`, `iosxr_interface`, `iosxr_logging`, `iosxr_system`, `iosxr_user`
Protocol	SSH	XML over SSH
Credentials	uses SSH keys / SSH-agent if present accepts `-u myuser -k` if using password	uses SSH keys / SSH-agent if present accepts `-u myuser -k` if using password
Indirect Access	by a bastion (jump host)	by a bastion (jump host)
Connection Settings	`ansible_connection:` `ansible.netcommon.network_cli`	`ansible_connection:` `ansible.netcommon.netconf`
Enable Mode (Privilege Escalation)	not supported	not supported
Returned Data Format	Refer to individual module documentation	Refer to individual module documentation

The ansible_connection: local has been deprecated. Please use ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli or ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.netconf instead.

Using CLI in Ansible 

Example CLI inventory `[iosxr:vars]`

[iosxr:vars]
ansible_connection=ansible.netcommon.network_cli
ansible_network_os=cisco.iosxr.iosxr
ansible_user=myuser
ansible_password=!vault...
ansible_ssh_common_args='-o ProxyCommand="ssh -W %h:%p -q bastion01"'

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: Retrieve IOS-XR version
  cisco.iosxr.iosxr_command:
    commands: show version
  when: ansible_network_os == 'cisco.iosxr.iosxr'

Using NETCONF in Ansible 

Enabling NETCONF 

Before you can use NETCONF to connect to a switch, you must:

install the ncclient python package on your control node(s) with pip install ncclient
enable NETCONF on the Cisco IOS-XR device(s)

To enable NETCONF on a new switch with Ansible, use the cisco.iosxr.iosxr_netconf module through the CLI connection. Set up your platform-level variables just like in the CLI example above, then run a playbook task like this:

- name: Enable NETCONF
  connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli
  cisco.iosxr.iosxr_netconf:
  when: ansible_network_os == 'cisco.iosxr.iosxr'

Once NETCONF is enabled, change your variables to use the NETCONF connection.

Example NETCONF inventory `[iosxr:vars]`

[iosxr:vars]
ansible_connection=ansible.netcommon.netconf
ansible_network_os=cisco.iosxr.iosxr
ansible_user=myuser
ansible_password=!vault |
ansible_ssh_common_args='-o ProxyCommand="ssh -W %h:%p -q bastion01"'

Example NETCONF task 

- name: Configure hostname and domain-name
  cisco.iosxr.iosxr_system:
    hostname: iosxr01
    domain_name: test.example.com
    domain_search:
      - ansible.com
      - redhat.com
      - cisco.com

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.