Deep Dive on cli_command for Network Automation
In October Ansible 2.7 was released and brought us two powerful agnostic network modules, cli_command and cli_config. Do you have two or more network vendors within your environment? The goal of agnostic modules is to simplify Ansible Playbooks for network engineers that deal with a variety of network platforms. Rather than having to deal with platform specific modules (e.g. eos_config, ios_config, junos_config), you can now use cli_command or cli_config to reduce the amount of tasks and conditionals within a playbook, and make the playbook easier to use. This post will demonstrate how to use these modules and contrast them to platform specific modules. I’ll show some playbook examples and common use cases to help illustrate how you can use these new platform agnostic modules.
Both the cli_command and cli_config only work with the network_cli connection plugin. For those unfamiliar with the network_cli connection plugin check out this blog post I did last April. The goal of network_cli is to make playbooks look, feel and operate on network devices, the same way Ansible works on Linux hosts.
What can you do with the cli_command?
The cli_command allows you to run arbitrary commands on network devices. Let’s show a simple Continue reading
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We would like to thank VIAVI Solutions for sponsoring this episode of Network Collective. VIAVI Solutions is an application and network management industry leader focusing on end-user experience by providing products that optimize performance and speed problem resolution. Helping to ensure delivery of critical applications for businesses worldwide, Viavi offers an integrated line of precision-engineered software and hardware systems for effective network monitoring and analysis. Learn more at 
We would also like to think PathSolutions for sponsoring this episode of Network Collective. PathSolutions TotalView is designed to automatically dig deep into network devices to learn what they know about your network’s performance. This means your network is no longer full of mysteries because you know everything your network knows. Try TotalView on your network, and it will show you 5 things about your network that you didn’t previously know. You can find out more about PathSolutions at 