Documentation structure

About this project
About Ansible
About Ansible modules for Junos automation
Requirements for Junos automation with Ansible
Requirements to use this repository
Repository structure
Repository branches and network topology changes
Continuous integration with Travis CI
Contributions, questions
Looking for more examples on of how to use Ansible with Junos
Looking for more Junos automation solutions

About this project

This project has many ready-to-use Ansible playbooks to interact with Junos devices.

This repository has been tested using:

• Ubuntu 16.04
• Ansible 2.4.2.0
• the version 1.4.3 of the Juniper.junos role available on Galaxy.

About Ansible

Ansible is an open-source IT automation tool.

Here's an ansible presentation

Ansible vs Saltstack vs Stackstorm

About Ansible modules for Junos automation

There are two modules librairies to interact with Junos:

• An Ansible library for Junos built by Juniper
  • These modules are available on Ansible Galaxy website
• An Ansible library for Junos built by Ansible
  • Since Ansible version >= 2.1, Ansible natively includes core modules for Junos.
  • These modules are shipped with Ansible
  • The Junos modules included in Ansible core have names which begin with the prefix junos_.

These two sets of modules for Junos automation can coexist on the same Ansible control machine.
Both of them are used in this repository.

Ansible modules for Junos built by Juniper and hosted on Galaxy

• They are hosted on the Ansible Galaxy website:
  • The role is Juniper.junos
• Here's the source code
• Until the version 1.4.3 of the modules included in the Juniper.junos role:
  • Their names begun with the prefix junos_.
  • Here's the doc for the version 1.4.3
  • To download and install them to the Ansible server, execute the command sudo ansible-galaxy install Juniper.junos,1.4.3
• From version 2 of the modules included in the Juniper.junos role:
  • To avoid conflict with the names used by ansible native modules for Junos, since the version 2 of the modules included in the Juniper.junos role on Galaxy, their names begin with the prefix juniper_junos_.
  • Here's the doc for the last version
  • To download and install them to the Ansible server, execute the command sudo ansible-galaxy install Juniper.junos

Ansible modules for Junos built and shipped by Ansible

• Here's the documentation
• The Junos modules included in Ansible core have names which begin with the prefix junos_.
• Here's the source code
• Installation: They are shipped with ansible itself (from Ansible 2.1). Ansible 2.1 or above is required.

Requirements for Junos automation with Ansible

On the Ansible server

Most of these Ansbile modules require to install the python library py-junos-eznc on the Ansible server.
Some options require also to install the python library jxmlease on the Ansible server.
Some options (like the console option in the junos_install_config module) require also the python library junos-netconify on the Ansible server.

On the Junos devices

Except for the module junos_netconf, all the Ansible modules for Junos require the NETCONF to be configured on the Junos devices.
Note: It is not required to use Junos CLI to configure Netconf on Junos devices. This can be done with the Ansible module junos_netconf.

Requirements to use this repository

Get the content of the remote repository locally

sudo -s
git clone https://github.com/ksator/junos-automation-with-ansible.git
ls junos-automation-with-ansible

Move to the local copy of the remote repo

cd junos-automation-with-ansible
sudo -s

Install PyEZ, Jxmlease, Ansible, JSNAPy and all their dependencies

This repository has been tested using Ansible 2.4.2.0

Run these commands on Ubuntu 16.04 to install these tools:

sudo -s
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install -y python-dev libxml2-dev python-pip libxslt1-dev build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev git
pip install junos-eznc jxmlease wget jsnapy ansible==2.4.2.0 requests ipaddress cryptography 
ansible-galaxy install Juniper.junos,1.4.3

Check the Ansible version:

ansible --version

Verify you have the Juniper.junos role:

ls /etc/ansible/roles/

This repository has been tested using the version 1.4.3 of the Juniper.junos role available on Galaxy.
Use this command to see the name and version of each role installed:

ansible-galaxy list

Configure NETCONF on the Junos devices

set system services netconf ssh
commit

Repository structure

Inventory file:

The default hosts file lives in /etc/ansible/hosts.

The inventory file we are using in this repository is hosts.

• It is at the root of the repository, so it is not at the default place.
• It defines the inventory (hosts and groups).
• It also defines the ip address of each device with the variable junos_host. This variable is re-used in the playbooks.

Config file for ansible

There is an ansible.cfg file at the root of the repository.
It refers to our inventory file: So even if the inventory file is not in /etc/ansible/hosts, there is no need to add -i hosts to your ansible-playbook commands.

Variables

group_vars and host_vars directories at the root of this repository define variables for hosts and for groups.
The inventory file hosts at the root of the repository also defines some variables.
The playbooks in this directory use all of them.
Some playbooks use also other variables.
In order to see all variables for a hostname, you can run this command:

ansible -m debug -a "var=hostvars['hostname']" localhost

Playbooks

All playbooks in this repository are named pb*.yml These playbooks use the two sets of modules for Junos automation. They also use other Ansible modules (template, assemble, uri, wait_for, debug, ...).

Directories

This repository use several directories.
I am reusing the Ansible module names for the directories names.
Each directory has:

• Playbooks
• a readme fil

Lab topology

The lab topology is described in the file lab topology.pdf

You can very easily re-use this automation content with your own Junos devices: you just need to build a similar topology and then adapt this content with your IP addresses, username and password.

repository usage instructions

You need to run the playbooks from the root of the project tree.
Use the ansible-playbook commands to execute the playbooks:

cd junos-automation-with-ansible
ls
ls -l
ls xxx/
more xxx/readme.md
ansible-playbook xxx/pb*.yml  

Repository branches and network topology changes

There are currently 2 branches in this repository:

• master - This is the default and active one. This is the one to use.
• topology_independent - This branch allows to use a different network topology without changing the playbooks. The automation content in this branch is not up to date/in sync with the master branch, so, dont use it, so you can skip this section.

Here's how the topology_independent branch works: There is a topology.yml file in group_vars/all directory. This yaml file defines the topology. Here's an example:

---
topo:
    ex4300-4:
        port1: { name: ge-0/0/0,     peer: ex4300-9,     pport: port2 }
        port2: { name: ge-0/0/1,     peer: ex4300-10,     pport: port2 }
        
    ex4300-9:
        port1: { name: ge-0/0/0,     peer: ex4300-10,     pport: port1 }
        port2: { name: ge-0/0/1,     peer: ex4300-4,     pport: port1 }
        
    ex4300-10:
        port1: { name: ge-0/0/0,    peer: ex4300-9,       pport: port1 }
        port2: { name: ge-0/0/1,    peer: ex4300-4,       pport: port2 }

This file is a dictionary with the key topo. The value of this key is the topology.
Because this file is located in the group_vars/all directory, the variable {{topo}} can be used for all devices.

The files in the host_vars directory were re-written:

• The files in the host_vars directory in the master branch are static. So if you use another network topology, it doesn’t work anymore until you rewrite these files. Example with this file (host_vars/ex4300-10/bgp.yml)
• The files in the host_vars directory in the topology_independent branch use the {{topo}} variable. So if we change the topology, we just need to update the file topology.yml, and there is no need to change the content of the files in the host_vars directory nor the playbooks.

Continuous integration with Travis CI

There is a github webhook with Travis CI
The playbooks in this repository are tested automatically by Travis CI.
The files .travis.yml and requirements.txt at the root of this repository are used for this.

We are using two types of playbooks in this repository:

• Some playbooks do not interact with Junos:
  • Travis CI is executing them.
• Some playbooks interact with Junos
  • ansible-playbook has a built-in option to check only the playbook's syntax (using the flag --syntax-check). This is how Travis is testing them. If there is any syntax error, Travis will fail the build and output the errors in the log.

Here's the last build status

Contributions, questions

Please submit github issues or pull requests

Looking for more examples on how to use Ansible with Junos

For more examples, you can visit these repositories:
https://github.com/JNPRAutomate/juniper_junos_ansible_modules_examples
https://github.com/JNPRAutomate/ansible-junos-examples
https://github.com/dgjnpr/ansible-template-for-junos
https://github.com/JNPRAutomate/ansible-junos-evpn-vxlan
https://github.com/JNPRAutomate/ansible-demo-ip-fabric

Looking for more Junos automation solutions

https://github.com/ksator?tab=repositories
https://gitlab.com/users/ksator/projects
https://gist.github.com/ksator/