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# nxos_config – Manage Cisco NXOS configuration sections

- Synopsis
- Parameters
- Notes
- Examples
- Return Values
- Status

## Synopsis

- Cisco NXOS configurations use a simple block indent file syntax for segmenting configuration into sections. This module provides an implementation for working with NXOS configuration sections in a deterministic way. This module works with either CLI or NXAPI transports.

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments
--- | --- | ---
after - |  | The ordered set of commands to append to the end of the command stack if a change needs to be made. Just like with before this allows the playbook designer to append a set of commands to be executed after the command set.
backup boolean | Choices: no ← yes | This argument will cause the module to create a full backup of the current `running-config` from the remote device before any changes are made. If the `backup_options` value is not given, the backup file is written to the `backup` folder in the playbook root directory or role root directory, if playbook is part of an ansible role. If the directory does not exist, it is created.
backup_options dictionary added in 2.8 |  | This is a dict object containing configurable options related to backup file path. The value of this option is read only when `backup` is set to True, if `backup` is set to false this option will be silently ignored.
| dir_path path |  | This option provides the path ending with directory name in which the backup configuration file will be stored. If the directory does not exist it will be created and the filename is either the value of `filename` or default filename as described in `filename` options description. If the path value is not given in that case a backup directory will be created in the current working directory and backup configuration will be copied in `filename` within backup directory.
| filename - |  | The filename to be used to store the backup configuration. If the the filename is not given it will be generated based on the hostname, current time and date in format defined by <hostname>_config.<current-date>@<current-time>
before - |  | The ordered set of commands to push on to the command stack if a change needs to be made. This allows the playbook designer the opportunity to perform configuration commands prior to pushing any changes without affecting how the set of commands are matched against the system.
defaults boolean | Choices: no ← yes | The defaults argument will influence how the running-config is collected from the device. When the value is set to true, the command used to collect the running-config is append with the all keyword. When the value is set to false, the command is issued without the all keyword
diff_against - added in 2.4 | Choices: startup ← intended running | When using the `ansible-playbook --diff` command line argument the module can generate diffs against different sources. When this option is configure as startup, the module will return the diff of the running-config against the startup-config. When this option is configured as intended, the module will return the diff of the running-config against the configuration provided in the `intended_config` argument. When this option is configured as running, the module will return the before and after diff of the running-config with respect to any changes made to the device configuration.
diff_ignore_lines - added in 2.4 |  | Use this argument to specify one or more lines that should be ignored during the diff. This is used for lines in the configuration that are automatically updated by the system. This argument takes a list of regular expressions or exact line matches.
intended_config - added in 2.4 |  | The `intended_config` provides the master configuration that the node should conform to and is used to check the final running-config against. This argument will not modify any settings on the remote device and is strictly used to check the compliance of the current device's configuration against. When specifying this argument, the task should also modify the `diff_against` value and set it to intended.
lines - |  | The ordered set of commands that should be configured in the section. The commands must be the exact same commands as found in the device running-config. Be sure to note the configuration command syntax as some commands are automatically modified by the device config parser. aliases: commands
match - | Choices: line ← strict exact none | Instructs the module on the way to perform the matching of the set of commands against the current device config. If match is set to line, commands are matched line by line. If match is set to strict, command lines are matched with respect to position. If match is set to exact, command lines must be an equal match. Finally, if match is set to none, the module will not attempt to compare the source configuration with the running configuration on the remote device.
parents - |  | The ordered set of parents that uniquely identify the section or hierarchy the commands should be checked against. If the parents argument is omitted, the commands are checked against the set of top level or global commands.
provider dictionary |  | Deprecated Starting with Ansible 2.5 we recommend using `connection: network_cli`. This option is only required if you are using NX-API. For more information please see the NXOS Platform Options guide. A dict object containing connection details.
| auth_pass string added in 2.5.3 |  | Specifies the password to use if required to enter privileged mode on the remote device. If authorize is false, then this argument does nothing. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `ANSIBLE_NET_AUTH_PASS` will be used instead.
| authorize boolean added in 2.5.3 | Choices: no ← yes | Instructs the module to enter privileged mode on the remote device before sending any commands. If not specified, the device will attempt to execute all commands in non-privileged mode. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `ANSIBLE_NET_AUTHORIZE` will be used instead.
| host string / required |  | Specifies the DNS host name or address for connecting to the remote device over the specified transport. The value of host is used as the destination address for the transport.
| password string |  | Specifies the password to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This is a common argument used for either cli or nxapi transports. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `ANSIBLE_NET_PASSWORD` will be used instead.
| port integer | Default: "0 (use common port)" | Specifies the port to use when building the connection to the remote device. This value applies to either cli or nxapi. The port value will default to the appropriate transport common port if none is provided in the task. (cli=22, http=80, https=443).
| ssh_keyfile string |  | Specifies the SSH key to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This argument is only used for the cli transport. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `ANSIBLE_NET_SSH_KEYFILE` will be used instead.
| timeout integer | Default: 10 | Specifies the timeout in seconds for communicating with the network device for either connecting or sending commands. If the timeout is exceeded before the operation is completed, the module will error. NX-API can be slow to return on long-running commands (sh mac, sh bgp, etc).
| transport string / required | Choices: cli ← nxapi | Configures the transport connection to use when connecting to the remote device. The transport argument supports connectivity to the device over cli (ssh) or nxapi.
| use_proxy boolean added in 2.5 | Choices: no yes ← | If `no`, the environment variables `http_proxy` and `https_proxy` will be ignored.
| use_ssl boolean | Choices: no ← yes | Configures the transport to use SSL if set to `yes` only when the `transport=nxapi`, otherwise this value is ignored.
| username string |  | Configures the username to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This value is used to authenticate either the CLI login or the nxapi authentication depending on which transport is used. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `ANSIBLE_NET_USERNAME` will be used instead.
| validate_certs boolean | Choices: no yes ← | If `no`, SSL certificates will not be validated. This should only be used on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates. If the transport argument is not nxapi, this value is ignored.
replace - | Choices: line ← block config | Instructs the module on the way to perform the configuration on the device. If the replace argument is set to line then the modified lines are pushed to the device in configuration mode. If the replace argument is set to block then the entire command block is pushed to the device in configuration mode if any line is not correct. replace config is supported only on Nexus 9K device.
replace_src - added in 2.5 |  | The replace_src argument provides path to the configuration file to load into the remote system. This argument is used to replace the entire config with a flat-file. This is used with argument replace with value config. This is mutually exclusive with the lines and src arguments. This argument is supported on Nexus 9K device. Use nxos_file_copy module to copy the flat file to remote device and then use the path with this argument.
running_config - added in 2.4 |  | The module, by default, will connect to the remote device and retrieve the current running-config to use as a base for comparing against the contents of source. There are times when it is not desirable to have the task get the current running-config for every task in a playbook. The running_config argument allows the implementer to pass in the configuration to use as the base config for comparison. aliases: config
save_when - added in 2.4 | Choices: always never ← modified changed | When changes are made to the device running-configuration, the changes are not copied to non-volatile storage by default. Using this argument will change that before. If the argument is set to always, then the running-config will always be copied to the startup-config and the modified flag will always be set to True. If the argument is set to modified, then the running-config will only be copied to the startup-config if it has changed since the last save to startup-config. If the argument is set to never, the running-config will never be copied to the startup-config. If the argument is set to changed, then the running-config will only be copied to the startup-config if the task has made a change. changed was added in Ansible 2.6.
src - |  | The src argument provides a path to the configuration file to load into the remote system. The path can either be a full system path to the configuration file if the value starts with / or relative to the root of the implemented role or playbook. This argument is mutually exclusive with the lines and parents arguments.

## Notes

Note

- Abbreviated commands are NOT idempotent, see Network FAQ.
- For information on using CLI and NX-API see the NXOS Platform Options guide
- For more information on using Ansible to manage network devices see the Ansible Network Guide
- For more information on using Ansible to manage Cisco devices see the Cisco integration page.

## Examples

    ---
    - name: configure top level configuration and save it
      nxos_config:
        lines: hostname {{ inventory_hostname }}
        save_when: modified

    - name: diff the running-config against a provided config
      nxos_config:
        diff_against: intended
        intended_config: "{{ lookup('file', 'master.cfg') }}"

    - nxos_config:
        lines:
          - 10 permit ip 192.0.2.1/32 any log
          - 20 permit ip 192.0.2.2/32 any log
          - 30 permit ip 192.0.2.3/32 any log
          - 40 permit ip 192.0.2.4/32 any log
          - 50 permit ip 192.0.2.5/32 any log
        parents: ip access-list test
        before: no ip access-list test
        match: exact

    - nxos_config:
        lines:
          - 10 permit ip 192.0.2.1/32 any log
          - 20 permit ip 192.0.2.2/32 any log
          - 30 permit ip 192.0.2.3/32 any log
          - 40 permit ip 192.0.2.4/32 any log
        parents: ip access-list test
        before: no ip access-list test
        replace: block

    - name: replace config with flat file
      nxos_config:
        replace_src: config.txt
        replace: config

    - name: for idempotency, use full-form commands
      nxos_config:
        lines:
          # - shut
          - shutdown
        # parents: int eth1/1
        parents: interface Ethernet1/1

    - name: configurable backup path
      nxos_config:
        backup: yes
        backup_options:
          filename: backup.cfg
          dir_path: /home/user

## Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key | Returned | Description
--- | --- | ---
backup_path string | when backup is yes | The full path to the backup file Sample: /playbooks/ansible/backup/nxos_config.2016-07-16@22:28:34
commands list | always | The set of commands that will be pushed to the remote device Sample: ['hostname foo', 'vlan 1', 'name default']
date string | when backup is yes | The date extracted from the backup file name Sample: 2016-07-16
filename string | when backup is yes and filename is not specified in backup options | The name of the backup file Sample: nxos_config.2016-07-16@22:28:34
shortname string | when backup is yes and filename is not specified in backup options | The full path to the backup file excluding the timestamp Sample: /playbooks/ansible/backup/nxos_config
time string | when backup is yes | The time extracted from the backup file name Sample: 22:28:34
updates list | always | The set of commands that will be pushed to the remote device Sample: ['hostname foo', 'vlan 1', 'name default']

## Status

- This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Network Team. [network]

### Red Hat Support

More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.

### Authors

- Peter Sprygada (@privateip)

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