ansible.netcommon.netconf_config module – netconf device configuration

Note

This module is part of the ansible.netcommon collection (version 6.1.3).

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 ansible.netcommon. You need further requirements to be able to use this module, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: ansible.netcommon.netconf_config.

New in ansible.netcommon 1.0.0

Synopsis

  • Netconf is a network management protocol developed and standardized by the IETF. It is documented in RFC 6241.

  • This module allows the user to send a configuration XML file to a netconf device, and detects if there was a configuration change.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

  • ncclient

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

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. If the backup_options value is not given, 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 in that case a backup directory will be created in the current working directory and backup configuration will be copied in filename within 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 format defined by <hostname>_config.<current-date>@<current-time>

commit

boolean

This boolean flag controls if the configuration changes should be committed or not after editing the candidate datastore. This option is supported only if remote Netconf server supports :candidate capability. If the value is set to False commit won’t be issued after edit-config operation and user needs to handle commit or discard-changes explicitly.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

confirm

integer

This argument will configure a timeout value for the commit to be confirmed before it is automatically rolled back. If the confirm_commit argument is set to False, this argument is silently ignored. If the value of this argument is set to 0, the commit is confirmed immediately. The remote host MUST support :candidate and :confirmed-commit capability for this option to .

Default: 0

confirm_commit

boolean

This argument will execute commit operation on remote device. It can be used to confirm a previous commit.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

content

aliases: xml

any

The configuration data as defined by the device’s data models, the value can be either in xml string format or text format or python dictionary representation of JSON format.

In case of json string format it will be converted to the corresponding xml string using xmltodict library before pushing onto the remote host.

In case the value of this option isn text format the format should be supported by remote Netconf server.

If the value of content option is in xml format in that case the xml value should have config as root tag.

default_operation

string

The default operation for <edit-config> rpc, valid values are merge, replace and none. If the default value is merge, the configuration data in the content option is merged at the corresponding level in the target datastore. If the value is replace the data in the content option completely replaces the configuration in the target datastore. If the value is none the target datastore is unaffected by the configuration in the config option, unless and until the incoming configuration data uses the operation operation to request a different operation.

Choices:

  • "merge"

  • "replace"

  • "none"

delete

boolean

It instructs the module to delete the configuration from value mentioned in target datastore.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

error_option

string

This option controls the netconf server action after an error occurs while editing the configuration.

If error_option=stop-on-error, abort the config edit on first error.

If error_option=continue-on-error, continue to process configuration data on error. The error is recorded and negative response is generated if any errors occur.

If error_option=rollback-on-error, rollback to the original configuration if any error occurs. This requires the remote Netconf server to support the error_option=rollback-on-error capability.

Choices:

  • "stop-on-error" ← (default)

  • "continue-on-error"

  • "rollback-on-error"

format

string

The format of the configuration provided as value of content.

In case of json string format it will be converted to the corresponding xml string using xmltodict library before pushing onto the remote host.

In case of text format of the configuration should be supported by remote Netconf server.

If the value of format options is not given it tries to guess the data format of content option as one of xml or json or text.

If the data format is not identified it is set to xml by default.

Choices:

  • "xml"

  • "text"

  • "json"

get_filter

any

This argument specifies the XML string which acts as a filter to restrict the portions of the data retrieved from the remote device when comparing the before and after state of the device following calls to edit_config. When not specified, the entire configuration or state data is returned for comparison depending on the value of source option. The get_filter value can be either XML string or XPath or JSON string or native python dictionary, if the filter is in XPath format the NETCONF server running on remote host should support xpath capability else it will result in an error.

lock

string

Instructs the module to explicitly lock the datastore specified as target. By setting the option value always is will explicitly lock the datastore mentioned in target option. It the value is never it will not lock the target datastore. The value if-supported lock the target datastore only if it is supported by the remote Netconf server.

Choices:

  • "never"

  • "always" ← (default)

  • "if-supported"

save

boolean

The save argument instructs the module to save the configuration in target datastore to the startup-config if changed and if :startup capability is supported by Netconf server.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

source_datastore

aliases: source

string

Name of the configuration datastore to use as the source to copy the configuration to the datastore mentioned by target option. The values can be either running, candidate, startup or a remote URL

target

aliases: datastore

string

Name of the configuration datastore to be edited. - auto, uses candidate and fallback to running - candidate, edit <candidate/> datastore and then commit - running, edit <running/> datastore directly

Choices:

  • "auto" ← (default)

  • "candidate"

  • "running"

validate

boolean

This boolean flag if set validates the content of datastore given in target option. For this option to work remote Netconf server should support :validate capability.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

Notes

Note

  • This module requires the netconf system service be enabled on the remote device being managed.

  • This module supports devices with and without the candidate and confirmed-commit capabilities. It will always use the safer feature.

  • This module supports the use of connection=netconf

  • This module is supported on ansible_network_os network platforms. See the :ref:`Network Platform Options <platform_options>` for details.

Examples

- name: use lookup filter to provide xml configuration
  ansible.netcommon.netconf_config:
    content: "{{ lookup('file', './config.xml') }}"

- name: set ntp server in the device
  ansible.netcommon.netconf_config:
    content: |
      <config xmlns:xc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
          <system xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-system">
              <ntp>
                  <enabled>true</enabled>
                  <server>
                      <name>ntp1</name>
                      <udp><address>127.0.0.1</address></udp>
                  </server>
              </ntp>
          </system>
      </config>

- name: wipe ntp configuration
  ansible.netcommon.netconf_config:
    content: |
      <config xmlns:xc="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
          <system xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-system">
              <ntp>
                  <enabled>false</enabled>
                  <server operation="remove">
                      <name>ntp1</name>
                  </server>
              </ntp>
          </system>
      </config>

- name: configure interface while providing different private key file path (for connection=netconf)
  ansible.netcommon.netconf_config:
    backup: true
  register: backup_junos_location
  vars:
    ansible_private_key_file: /home/admin/.ssh/newprivatekeyfile

- name: configurable backup path
  ansible.netcommon.netconf_config:
    backup: true
    backup_options:
      filename: backup.cfg
      dir_path: /home/user

- name: "configure using direct native format configuration (cisco iosxr)"
  ansible.netcommon.netconf_config:
    format: json
    content:
      {
        "config":
          {
            "interface-configurations":
              {
                "@xmlns": "http://cisco.com/ns/yang/Cisco-IOS-XR-ifmgr-cfg",
                "interface-configuration":
                  {
                    "active": "act",
                    "description": "test for ansible Loopback999",
                    "interface-name": "Loopback999",
                  },
              },
          },
      }
    get_filter:
      {
        "interface-configurations":
          {
            "@xmlns": "http://cisco.com/ns/yang/Cisco-IOS-XR-ifmgr-cfg",
            "interface-configuration": null,
          },
      }

- name: "configure using json string format configuration (cisco iosxr)"
  ansible.netcommon.netconf_config:
    format: json
    content: |
      {
          "config": {
              "interface-configurations": {
                  "@xmlns": "http://cisco.com/ns/yang/Cisco-IOS-XR-ifmgr-cfg",
                  "interface-configuration": {
                      "active": "act",
                      "description": "test for ansible Loopback999",
                      "interface-name": "Loopback999"
                  }
              }
          }
      }
    get_filter: |
      {
            "interface-configurations": {
                "@xmlns": "http://cisco.com/ns/yang/Cisco-IOS-XR-ifmgr-cfg",
                "interface-configuration": null
            }
        }

# Make a round-trip interface description change, diff the before and after
# this demonstrates the use of the native display format and several utilities
# from the ansible.utils collection

- name: Define the openconfig interface filter
  set_fact:
    filter:
      interfaces:
        "@xmlns": "http://openconfig.net/yang/interfaces"
        interface:
          name: Ethernet2

- name: Get the pre-change config using the filter
  ansible.netcommon.netconf_get:
    source: running
    filter: "{{ filter }}"
    display: native
  register: pre

- name: Update the description
  ansible.utils.update_fact:
    updates:
      - path: pre.output.data.interfaces.interface.config.description
        value: "Configured by ansible {{ 100 | random }}"
  register: updated

- name: Apply the new configuration
  ansible.netcommon.netconf_config:
    content:
      config:
        interfaces: "{{ updated.pre.output.data.interfaces }}"

- name: Get the post-change config using the filter
  ansible.netcommon.netconf_get:
    source: running
    filter: "{{ filter }}"
    display: native
  register: post

- name: Show the differences between the pre and post configurations
  ansible.utils.fact_diff:
    before: "{{ pre.output.data|ansible.utils.to_paths }}"
    after: "{{ post.output.data|ansible.utils.to_paths }}"
# TASK [Show the differences between the pre and post configurations] ********
# --- before
# +++ after
# @@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
#  {
# -    "@time-modified": "2020-10-23T12:27:17.462332477Z",
# +    "@time-modified": "2020-10-23T12:27:21.744541708Z",
#      "@xmlns": "urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0",
#      "interfaces.interface.aggregation.config['fallback-timeout']['#text']": "90",
#      "interfaces.interface.aggregation.config['fallback-timeout']['@xmlns']": "http://arista.com/yang/openconfig/interfaces/augments",
#      "interfaces.interface.aggregation.config['min-links']": "0",
#      "interfaces.interface.aggregation['@xmlns']": "http://openconfig.net/yang/interfaces/aggregate",
# -    "interfaces.interface.config.description": "Configured by ansible 56",
# +    "interfaces.interface.config.description": "Configured by ansible 67",
#      "interfaces.interface.config.enabled": "true",
#      "interfaces.interface.config.mtu": "0",
#      "interfaces.interface.config.name": "Ethernet2",

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/config.2016-07-16@22:28:34"

diff

dictionary

If –diff option in enabled while running, the before and after configuration change are returned as part of before and after key.

Returned: when diff is enabled

Sample: {"after": "<rpc-reply> <data> <configuration> <version>17.3R1.10</version>...<--snip-->", "before": "<rpc-reply> <data> <configuration> <version>17.3R1.10</version>...<--snip-->"}

server_capabilities

list / elements=string

list of capabilities of the server

Returned: success

Sample: ["urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.1", "urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:confirmed-commit:1.0", "urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:candidate:1.0"]

Authors

  • Leandro Lisboa Penz (@lpenz)

  • Ganesh Nalawade (@ganeshrn)