Ansible Modules for NetBox

Description

The NetBox Ansible project provides an Ansible collection for interacting with NetBox, the leading solution for modeling and documenting modern networks. By combining the traditional disciplines of IP address management (IPAM) and datacenter infrastructure management (DCIM) with powerful APIs and extensions, NetBox provides the ideal "source of truth" to power network automation.

This Ansible collection consists of a set of modules to define the intended network state in NetBox, along with plugins to drive automation of the network using data from NetBox.

Requirements

You must be running one of the two most recent releases of NetBox
A NetBox write-enabled API token when using modules or a read-only token for the nb_lookup and nb_inventory plugins.
Python 3.10+
Python modules:
- pytz
- pynetbox
Ansible 2.15+

Installation

Python Modules and Ansible

pip install pytz
pip install pynetbox
pip install ansible

NetBox Ansible Collection

Before using this collection, you need to install it with the Ansible Galaxy command-line tool:

ansible-galaxy collection install netbox.netbox

You can also include it in a requirements.yml file and install it with ansible-galaxy collection install -r requirements.yml, using the format:

collections:
  - name: netbox.netbox

To upgrade the collection to the latest available version, run the following command:

ansible-galaxy collection install netbox.netbox --upgrade

You can also install a specific version of the collection, for example, if you need to downgrade when something is broken in the latest version (please report an issue in this repository). Use the following syntax to install version 3.19.1:

ansible-galaxy collection install netbox.netbox:==3.19.1

See using Ansible collections for more details.

Other Installation Options

Build From Source

Follow these steps to install from source:

git clone git@github.com:netbox-community/ansible_modules.git
cd ansible_modules
ansible-galaxy collection build .
ansible-galaxy collection install netbox-netbox*.tar.gz

Build From Source (Pull Request)

This is useful to test code within PRs.

git clone git@github.com:netbox-community/ansible_modules.git
cd ansible_modules
git fetch origin pull/<pr #>/head:<whatever-name-you-want>
git checkout <whatever-name-you-want>
ansible-galaxy collection build .
ansible-galaxy collection install netbox-netbox*.tar.gz

Note: This GitHub link provides detailed information on checking out pull requests locally.

Use Cases

Use Case 1 - Define Intended Network State in NetBox

Define the intended state of your network in NetBox, by interacting with the NetBox database to define objects and their associated state in the following ways:

Make sure objects exit
Update objects if they do exist
Remove objects if they do not not exist

For example, to make sure a new aggregate network prefix exists:

tasks:
    - name: Create aggregate within NetBox with only required information
      netbox.netbox.netbox_aggregate:
        netbox_url: http://netbox.local
        netbox_token: thisIsMyToken
        data:
          prefix: 192.168.0.0/16
          rir: Test RIR
        state: present

Use Case 2 - NetBox as a Dynamic Inventory Source for Ansible

Use the Inventory Plugin to dynamically generate Ansible inventory from device data in NetBox. Use query filters, groups and mappings to tailor the generated inventory to your specific needs.

The following example builds an Ansible inventory that groups devices by role, and filters for only devices that have the network-edge-router role, have a primary IP address and belong to the internal tenant:

# netbox_inventory.yml file in YAML format
# Example command line: ansible-inventory -v --list -i netbox_inventory.yml

plugin: netbox.netbox.nb_inventory
api_endpoint: http://localhost:8000
validate_certs: True
config_context: False
group_by:
  - device_roles
query_filters:
  - role: network-edge-router
device_query_filters:
  - has_primary_ip: 'true'
  - tenant__n: internal

Use Case 3 - Query and Return Elements from NetBox

Use the Lookup plugin to query NetBox and return data to drive network automation, such as lists of devices, device configurations, prefixes and IP addresses etc.

The following example returns a list of devices and their manufacturers, using an API filter to only return devices with the management role and the NetBox tag of Dell:

tasks:
  # query a list of devices
  - name: Obtain list of devices from NetBox
    debug:
      msg: >
        "Device {{ item.value.display_name }} (ID: {{ item.key }}) was
         manufactured by {{ item.value.device_type.manufacturer.name }}"
    loop: "{{ query('netbox.netbox.nb_lookup', 'devices',
                    api_endpoint='http://localhost/',
                    api_filter='role=management tag=Dell'),
                    token='<redacted>') }}"

Testing

Tested with Ansible Core v2.15+ Ansible Core versions prior to 2.15 are not supported.

Contributing

If you would to contribute to the project then you can find out how to get started here.

Support

There are various options to get support for the collection:

Search through previous GitHub Discussions or start a new one.
Raise a GitHub Issue
Read the module documentation
Join the discussion on the dedicated #ansible Slack Channel on netdev-community.slack.com

Customers of NetBox Labs and Ansible using the officially certified version of the collection can get support via the usual Ansible channels. Escalation to the NetBox Labs support team will be provided as needed.

Release Notes

The collection release notes and changelog can be found here.

Related Information

Some extra resources you might find useful for both the Ansible collection and for NetBox itself:

NetBox Zero to Hero - free 12 part course that takes you from an empty NetBox through to a fully deployed branch site, using the Ansible collection extensively along the way.
Network Configuration Assurance with NetBox and Ansible - blog post featuring the Inventory plugin being used in a simple network automation use case to compare actual network state Vs intended state as defined in NetBox.
Official NetBox documentation.

License Information

GNU General Public License v3.0 or later.

See LICENSE for the full text of the license.

Link to the license that the collection is published under.

License

lanefu/netbox-ansible_modules

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