IOS-XR Platform Options — Ansible Documentation

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# IOS-XR Platform Options

IOS-XR supports multiple connections. This page offers details on how each connection works in Ansible and how to use it.

Topic

- IOS-XR Platform Options
  - Connections Available
  - Using CLI in Ansible
    - Example CLI inventory `[iosxr:vars]`
    - Example CLI Task
  - Using NETCONF in Ansible
    - Enabling NETCONF
    - Example NETCONF inventory `[iosxr:vars]`
    - Example NETCONF Task

## Connections Available

For legacy playbooks, Ansible still supports `ansible_connection=local` on all IOS-XR modules. We recommend modernizing to use `ansible_connection=netconf` or `ansible_connection=network_cli` as soon as possible.

## Using CLI in Ansible

### Example CLI inventory `[iosxr:vars]`

    [iosxr:vars]
    ansible_connection=network_cli
    ansible_network_os=iosxr
    ansible_user=myuser
    ansible_password=!vault...
    ansible_ssh_common_args='-o ProxyCommand="ssh -W %h:%p -q bastion01"'

- If you are using SSH keys (including an ssh-agent) you can remove the `ansible_password` configuration.
- If you are accessing your host directly (not through a bastion/jump host) you can remove the `ansible_ssh_common_args` configuration.
- If you are accessing your host through a bastion/jump host, you cannot include your SSH password in the `ProxyCommand` directive. To prevent secrets from leaking out (for example in `ps` output), SSH does not support providing passwords via environment variables.

### Example CLI Task

    - name: Retrieve IOS-XR version
      iosxr_command:
        commands: show version
      when: ansible_network_os == 'iosxr'

## Using NETCONF in Ansible

### Enabling NETCONF

Before you can use NETCONF to connect to a switch, you must:

- install the `ncclient` python package on your control node(s) with `pip install ncclient`
- enable NETCONF on the Cisco IOS-XR device(s)

To enable NETCONF on a new switch via Ansible, use the `iosxr_netconf` module via the CLI connection. Set up your platform-level variables just like in the CLI example above, then run a playbook task like this:

    - name: Enable NETCONF
      connection: network_cli
      iosxr_netconf:
      when: ansible_network_os == 'iosxr'

Once NETCONF is enabled, change your variables to use the NETCONF connection.

### Example NETCONF inventory `[iosxr:vars]`

    [iosxr:vars]
    ansible_connection=netconf
    ansible_network_os=iosxr
    ansible_user=myuser
    ansible_password=!vault |
    ansible_ssh_common_args='-o ProxyCommand="ssh -W %h:%p -q bastion01"'

### Example NETCONF Task

    - name: Configure hostname and domain-name
      iosxr_system:
        hostname: iosxr01
        domain_name: test.example.com
        domain_search:
          - ansible.com
          - redhat.com
          - cisco.com

Warning

Never store passwords in plain text. We recommend using SSH keys to authenticate SSH connections. Ansible supports ssh-agent to manage your SSH keys. If you must use passwords to authenticate SSH connections, we recommend encrypting them with Ansible Vault.