Appendix

Articles » Yet Another Network Automation Journey » Appendix

This article was written by Anne Baretta, network architect at Falco Networks.

EEM Scripts

Cisco IOS EEM script that creates missing SSH keys on router reboot

event manager applet EEM_SSH_Keygen
 event timer cron cron-entry "@reboot"
 action 0.0 info type routername
 action 0.1 set status "none"
 action 1.0 cli command "enable"
 action 2.0 cli command "show ip ssh | include ^SSH"
 action 2.1 regexp "([ED][^ ]+)" "$_cli_result" result status
 action 3.0 if $status eq Disabled
 action 3.1  cli command "configure terminal"
 action 3.2  cli command "crypto key generate rsa mod 2048 label $_info_routername"
 action 3.3  cli command "end"
 action 3.4 end

Source: https://community.cisco.com/t5/network-management/create-rsa-keys-if-they-do-not-exist/td-p/2614667.

Archive download-sw Options

# archive download-sw ?
  /allow-feature-upgrade  Allow installation of image with different feature sets
  /directory              Specify a directory for images
  /force-reload           Unconditionally reload system after successful sw upgrade
  /force-ucode-reload     Upgrade UCODE after successful sw upgrade and before
                          an unconditional reload
  /imageonly              Load only the IOS image(s)
  /leave-old-sw           Leave old sw installed after successful sw upgrade
  /no-set-boot            Don't set BOOT -- leave existing boot config alone
  /no-version-check       skip version check that prevents incompatible image install
  /overwrite              OK to overwrite an existing image
  /reload                 Reload system (if no unsaved config changes) after
                          successful sw upgrade
  /safe                   Always load before deleting old version
  /upgrade-ucode          Upgrade UCODE after successful sw upgrade (no reload)

Formatting Ansible Playbook Outputs

Output generated by ansible-playbook can be formatted using callback plugins included in Ansible distribution. The selective callback is particularly useful, as it allows you to control what is displayed with the tags: [ print_action ] attribute. Unfortunately, it outputs additional codes for formatting and colorizing the output.

I ended up working around this by copying selective.py to the directory callback_plugins in the playbook directory, editing it, and changing return msg to:

    if DONT_COLORIZE:
        return msg.encode('utf-8')

The environment variable ANSIBLE_SELECTIVE_DONT_COLORIZE can now be used to toggle the formatting of output messages, greatly enhancing the readability of the Ansible output in a web browser. I am now playing with outputting HTML text where each output category (‘changed’, ‘failed’, ‘skipped’, etc.) is mapped to its own CSS div class.

Ansible playbook output

Ansible playbook output

This article is an account of how to get started with network automation, and some common use cases. You can reach Anne via LinkedIn.

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