Training Course for Ansible Automation Platform
This project is maintained by ericzji
In this scenario, you will create a playbook to back-up Arista router configurations. In subsequent labs we will use this backed up configuration, to restore devices to their known good state.
Note: Since this is a common day 2 operation for most network teams, you can pretty much re-use most of this content for your environment with minimum changes.
Create a new file called backup.yml using your favorite text editor and add the following play definition:
---
- name: BACKUP ROUTER CONFIGURATIONS
hosts: network
gather_facts: no
Use the eos_config Ansible module to write a new task. This task should back up the configuration of all devices defined in network group.
The backup parameter automatically creates a directory called backup within the playbook root and saves a time-stamped backup of the running configuration.
Note: Use ansible-doc eos_config or check out docs.ansible.com for help on the module usage.
---
- name: BACKUP ROUTER CONFIGURATIONS
hosts: network
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: BACKUP THE CONFIG
eos_config:
backup: yes
register: config_output
Why are we capturing the output of this task into a variable called config_output? Step 5 will reveal this.
Go ahead and run the playbook:
[vagrant@ansible linklight]$ ansible-playbook backup.yml
PLAY [BACKUP ROUTER CONFIGURATIONS] **********************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [BACKUP THE CONFIG] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [spine02]
ok: [spine01]
ok: [leaf02]
ok: [leaf01]
PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
leaf01 : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
leaf02 : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
spine01 : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
spine02 : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
The playbook should now have created a directory called backup. Now, list the contents of this directory:
[vagrant@ansible linklight]$ ls -l backup
total 16
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1356 Jun 22 03:03 leaf01_config.2018-06-22@03:03:58
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1340 Jun 22 03:03 leaf02_config.2018-06-22@03:03:57
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1297 Jun 22 03:03 spine01_config.2018-06-22@03:03:57
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1297 Jun 22 03:03 spine02_config.2018-06-22@03:03:57
Feel free to open up these files using a text editor (vim & nano work as well) to validate their content.
Since we will be using the backed up configurations as a source to restore the configuration. Let’s rename them to reflect the device name.
In Step 2 you captured the output of the task into a variable called config_output. This variable contains the name of the backup file. Use the copy Ansible module to make a copy of this file.
---
- name: BACKUP ROUTER CONFIGURATIONS
hosts: network
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: BACKUP THE CONFIG
eos_config:
backup: yes
register: config_output
- name: RENAME BACKUP
copy:
src: ""
dest: "./backup/.config"
Re-run the playbook.
[vagrant@ansible linklight]$ ansible-playbook backup.yml
PLAY [BACKUP ROUTER CONFIGURATIONS] **********************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [BACKUP THE CONFIG] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [spine01]
ok: [spine02]
ok: [leaf02]
ok: [leaf01]
TASK [RENAME BACKUP] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [spine01]
changed: [leaf02]
changed: [spine02]
changed: [leaf01]
PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
leaf01 : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0
leaf02 : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0
spine01 : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0
spine02 : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0
Once again list the contents of the backup directory:
[vagrant@ansible linklight]$ ls -l backup
total 32
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1356 Jun 22 03:05 leaf01.config
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1356 Jun 22 03:05 leaf01_config.2018-06-22@03:05:37
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1340 Jun 22 03:05 leaf02.config
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1340 Jun 22 03:05 leaf02_config.2018-06-22@03:05:36
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1297 Jun 22 03:05 spine01.config
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1297 Jun 22 03:05 spine01_config.2018-06-22@03:05:36
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1297 Jun 22 03:05 spine02.config
-rw-rw-r-- 1 vagrant vagrant 1297 Jun 22 03:05 spine02_config.2018-06-22@03:05:36
Notice that the directory now has another backed-up configuration but one that reflects the device’s name.
You have completed Exercise 02.