Automation, Orchestration & DevOps > Class 9: Basic BIG-IP Configuration Management with Ansible > Section 1 - Ansible F5 Basic Exercises Source | Edit on
Exercise 1.1: Using the bigip_device_info module¶
Objective¶
Demonstrate use of the BIG-IP Facts module to grab facts (useful information) from a F5 BIG-IP device and display them to the terminal window using the debug module.
Guide¶
Make sure you are in the home directory
[centos@ansible networking-workshop]$ cd ~
Step 1:¶
Use VS Code Explorer to create a new file called bigip-facts.yml.
The Ansible node is equiped withVisual Studio Codeand can be accessed via UDF ACCESS Methods.
Step 2:¶
Ansible playbooks are YAML files. YAML is a structured encoding format that is also extremely human readable (unlike it’s subset - the JSON format).
Enter the following play definition into bigip-facts.yml:
---
- name: GRAB F5 FACTS
hosts: f5
connection: local
gather_facts: no
- The
---at the top of the file indicates that this is a YAML file. - The
hosts: f5, indicates the play is run only on the F5 BIG-IP device connection: localtells the Playbook to run locally (rather than SSHing to itself)gather_facts: nodisables facts gathering. We are not using any fact variables for this playbook.
Do not close editor yet.
Step 3¶
Next, add the first task. This task will use the
bigip_device_info module to grab useful information from the BIG-IP
device.
Warning
The tasks: item should line up to the same indentation as gather_facts:
while the - name: item should be indented 2 spaces under tasks:
tasks:
- name: COLLECT BIG-IP FACTS
bigip_device_info:
gather_subset:
- system-info
provider:
server: "{{private_ip}}"
user: "{{ansible_user}}"
password: "{{ansible_ssh_pass}}"
server_port: 8443
validate_certs: no
register: device_facts
A play is a list of tasks. Tasks and modules have a 1:1 correlation. Ansible modules are reusable, standalone scripts that can be used by the Ansible API, or by the ansible or ansible-playbook programs. They return information to ansible by printing a JSON string to stdout before exiting.
name: COLLECT BIG-IP FACTSis a user defined description that will display in the terminal output.bigip_device_info:tells the task which module to use. Everything exceptregisteris a module parameter defined on the module documentation page.- The
gather_subset: system_infoparameter tells the module only to grab system level information. - The
provider:parameter is a group of connection details for the BIG-IP. - The
server: "{{private_ip}}"parameter tells the module to connect to the F5 BIG-IP IP address, which is stored as a variableprivate_ipin inventory - The
user: "{{ansible_user}}"parameter tells the module the username to login to the F5 BIG-IP device with - The
password: "{{ansible_ssh_pass}}"parameter tells the module the password to login to the F5 BIG-IP device with - The
server_port: 8443parameter tells the module the port to connect to the F5 BIG-IP device with. 8443 is what’s being used in this lab, but could be different depending on the deployment. register: device_factstells the task to save the output to a variable bigip_device_info
Step 4¶
Next, append the second task to above . This task will use the
debug module to print the output from device_facts variable we
registered the facts to.
- name: DISPLAY COMPLETE BIG-IP SYSTEM INFORMATION
debug:
var: device_facts
- The
name: COMPLETE BIG-IP SYSTEM INFORMATIONis a user defined description that will display in the terminal output. debug:tells the task to use the debug module.- The
var: device_factsparameter tells the module to display the variable bigip_device_info.
Save the file and exit out of editor.
Step 5¶
Run the playbook - exit back into the command line of the control host and execute the following:
[centos@ansible ~]$ ansible-playbook bigip-facts.yml
The output will look as follows.
[centos@ansible ~]$ ansible-playbook bigip-facts.yml
PLAY [GRAB F5 FACTS] *****************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [COLLECT BIG-IP FACTS] **********************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [f5]
TASK [DISPLAY COMPLETE BIG-IP SYSTEM INFORMATION] ************************************************************************************************************
ok: [f5] =>
device_facts:
ansible_facts:
discovered_interpreter_python: /usr/bin/python
changed: false
failed: false
queried: true
system_info:
base_mac_address: 06:95:66:ab:b6:1c
chassis_serial: a2ad2fec-c283-2cc9-3610e7425914
hardware_information:
- model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2666 v3 @ 2.90GHz
name: cpus
type: base-board
versions:
- name: cpu stepping
version: '2'
- name: cpu sockets
version: '1'
- name: cpu MHz
version: '2900.042'
- name: cores
version: 8 (physical:4)
- name: cache size
version: 25600 KB
marketing_name: BIG-IP Virtual Edition
package_edition: Final
package_version: Build 0.0.11 - Fri Aug 2 21:38:03 PDT 2019
platform: Z100
product_build: 0.0.11
product_build_date: Fri Aug 2 21:38:03 PDT 2019
product_built: 190802213803
product_changelist: 3115640
product_code: BIG-IP
product_jobid: 1128587
product_version: 15.0.1
time:
day: 19
hour: 15
minute: 41
month: 2
second: 1
year: 2020
uptime: 9380.0
PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
f5 : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
Step 6¶
Finally let’s append two more tasks to get more specific info from facts gathered, to the above playbook.
- name: DISPLAY ONLY THE MAC ADDRESS
debug:
var: device_facts['system_info']['base_mac_address']
- name: DISPLAY ONLY THE VERSION
debug:
var: device_facts['system_info']['product_version']
var: device_facts['system_info']['base_mac_address']displays the MAC address for the Management IP on the BIG-IP devicedevice_facts['system_info']['product_version']displays the product version BIG-IP device
Because the bigip_device_info module returns useful information in structured data, it is really easy to grab specific information without using regex or filters. Fact modules are very powerful tools to grab specific device information that can be used in subsequent tasks, or even used to create dynamic documentation (reports, csv files, markdown).
Step 7¶
Run the playbook - exit back into the command line of the control host and execute the following:
[centos@ansible ~]$ ansible-playbook bigip-facts.yml
Playbook Output¶
The output will look as follows.
[centos@ansible ~]$ ansible-playbook bigip-facts.yml
PLAY [GRAB F5 FACTS] *****************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [COLLECT BIG-IP FACTS] **********************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [f5]
TASK [DISPLAY COMPLETE BIG-IP SYSTEM INFORMATION] ************************************************************************************************************
ok: [f5] =>
device_facts:
ansible_facts:
discovered_interpreter_python: /usr/bin/python
changed: false
failed: false
queried: true
system_info:
base_mac_address: 06:95:66:ab:b6:1c
chassis_serial: a2ad2fec-c283-2cc9-3610e7425914
hardware_information:
- model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2666 v3 @ 2.90GHz
name: cpus
type: base-board
versions:
- name: cpu stepping
version: '2'
- name: cpu sockets
version: '1'
- name: cpu MHz
version: '2900.042'
- name: cores
version: 8 (physical:4)
- name: cache size
version: 25600 KB
marketing_name: BIG-IP Virtual Edition
package_edition: Final
package_version: Build 0.0.11 - Fri Aug 2 21:38:03 PDT 2019
platform: Z100
product_build: 0.0.11
product_build_date: Fri Aug 2 21:38:03 PDT 2019
product_built: 190802213803
product_changelist: 3115640
product_code: BIG-IP
product_jobid: 1128587
product_version: 15.0.1
time:
day: 19
hour: 15
minute: 42
month: 2
second: 4
year: 2020
uptime: 9443.0
TASK [DISPLAY ONLY THE MAC ADDRESS] **************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [f5] =>
device_facts['system_info']['base_mac_address']: 06:95:66:ab:b6:1c
TASK [DISPLAY ONLY THE VERSION] ******************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [f5] =>
device_facts['system_info']['product_version']: 15.0.1
PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
f5 : ok=4 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
Solution¶
The finished Ansible Playbook is provided here for an Answer key. Click
here for bigip-facts.yml.
Going Further¶
For this bonus exercise add the tags: debug paramteter (at the task
level) to the existing debug task.
- name: DISPLAY COMPLETE BIG-IP SYSTEM INFORMATION
debug:
var: device_facts
tags: debug
Now re-run the playbook with the --skip-tags-debug command line
option.
ansible-playbook bigip-facts.yml --skip-tags=debug
The Ansible Playbook will only run three tasks, skipping the
DISPLAY COMPLETE BIG-IP SYSTEM INFORMATION task.
You have finished this exercise. Click here to return to the lab guide