Deep dive on Ansible VScode extension

Ansible as part of the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform continues to grow and mature. Recent enhancements include Ansible Content Collections, automation execution environments, and an increasing list of integrations using plugins and modules. It is more important than ever that both new and experienced content creators have access to tools that help them write better content faster. The newly created Ansible Devtools initiative focuses on developing and enhancing tools like ansible-navigator, Ansible VScode extension, ansible-lint and so on to help ease the Ansible automation content creator experience. In this blog, we will do a deep dive into the Ansible VSCode extension, giving an overview of how it works and the initial setup required to get it working after installation.

Evolution

The Ansible VSCode extension was initially a fork of Tomasz Maciążek’s VSCode extension. After the fork, the server and client-side code were decoupled into their own separate repositories to allow independent releases for both server and client.

1. Ansible language server
2. Ansible VSCode extension 

The Ansible Language Server is released as a node module on the npm repository, allowing it to be reused by other editors supporting language server protocol, while Continue reading

Using New Ansible Utilities for Operational State Management and Remediation

Comparing the current operational state of your IT infrastructure to your desired state is a common use case for IT automation.  This allows automation users to identify drift or problem scenarios to take corrective actions and even proactively identify and solve problems.  This blog post will walk through the automation workflow for validation of operational state and even automatic remediation of issues.

We will demonstrate how the Red Hat supported and certified Ansible content can be used to:

• Collect the current operational state from the remote host and convert it into normalised structure data.
• Define the desired state criteria in a standard based format that can be used across enterprise infrastructure teams.
• Validate the current state data against the pre-defined criteria to identify if there is any deviation.
• Take corrective remediation action as required.
• Validate input data as per the data model schema

Gathering state data from a remote host:

The recently released ansible.utils version 1.0.0 Collection has added support for ansible.utils.cli_parse module, which converts text data into structured JSON format.  The module has the capability to either execute the command on the remote endpoint and fetch the text response, or Continue reading

Using New Ansible Utilities for Operational State Management and Remediation

Comparing the current operational state of your IT infrastructure to your desired state is a common use case for IT automation.  This allows automation users to identify drift or problem scenarios to take corrective actions and even proactively identify and solve problems.  This blog post will walk through the automation workflow for validation of operational state and even automatic remediation of issues.

We will demonstrate how the Red Hat supported and certified Ansible content can be used to:

• Collect the current operational state from the remote host and convert it into normalised structure data.
• Define the desired state criteria in a standard based format that can be used across enterprise infrastructure teams.
• Validate the current state data against the pre-defined criteria to identify if there is any deviation.
• Take corrective remediation action as required.
• Validate input data as per the data model schema

Gathering state data from a remote host:

The recently released ansible.utils version 1.0.0 Collection has added support for ansible.utils.cli_parse module, which converts text data into structured JSON format.  The module has the capability to either execute the command on the remote endpoint and fetch the text response, or Continue reading

New LibSSH Connection Plugin for Ansible Network Replaces Paramiko, Adds FIPS Mode Enablement

As Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform expands its footprint with a growing customer base, security continues to be an important aspect of organizations’ overall strategy. Red Hat regularly reviews and enhances the foundational codebase to follow better security practices. As part of this effort, we are introducing FIPS 140-2 readiness enablement by means of a newly developed Ansible SSH connection plugin that uses the libssh library. 

Ansible Network SSH Connection Basics

Since most network appliances don't support or have limited capability for the local execution of a third party software, the Ansible network modules are not copied to the remote host unlike linux hosts; instead, they run on the control node itself. Hence, Ansible network can’t use the typical Ansible SSH connection plugin that is used with linux host. Furthermore, due to this behavior, performance of the underlying SSH subsystem is critical. Not only is the new LibSSH connection plugin enabling FIPS readiness, but it was also designed to be more performant than the existing Paramiko SSH subsystem.

The top level network_cli connection plugin, provided by the ansible.netcommon Collection (specifically ansible.netcommon.network_cli), provides an SSH based connection to the network appliance. It in turn calls the Continue reading

The Network CLI is Dead, Long Live XML! (just kidding, it’s an Ansible+NETCONF+YANG Deep Dive)

Now that I've startled you, no, the network CLI isn’t going away anytime soon, nor are people going to start manipulating XML directly for their network configuration data. What I do want to help you understand is how Ansible can now be used as an interface into automating the pushing and pulling of configuration data (via NETCONF) in a structured means (via YANG data models) without having to truly learn about either of these complex concepts. All you have to understand is how to use the Ansible Content Collection as shown below, obfuscating all technical implementation details that have burdened network operators and engineers for years.

Setting the stage

Before we even start talking about NETCONF and YANG, our overall goal is for the network to leverage configuration data in a structured manner. This makes network automation much more predictable and reliable when ensuring operation state. NETCONF and YANG are the low-level pieces of the puzzle, but we are making it easier to do via well known Ansible means and methodologies.

What we believe as Ansible developers is that NETCONF and YANG aren't (and shouldn't) be quintessential or ultimate goals for network automation engineers. You should not need to Continue reading