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# ios_facts – Collect facts from remote devices running Cisco IOS

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

## Synopsis

- Collects a base set of device facts from a remote device that is running IOS. This module prepends all of the base network fact keys with `ansible_net_<fact>`. The facts module will always collect a base set of facts from the device and can enable or disable collection of additional facts.

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments
--- | --- | ---
auth_pass string |  | Deprecated Starting with Ansible 2.5 we recommend using `connection: network_cli` and `become: yes` with `become_pass`. For more information please see the IOS Platform Options guide. 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 | Choices: no ← yes | Deprecated Starting with Ansible 2.5 we recommend using `connection: network_cli` and `become: yes`. For more information please see the IOS Platform Options guide. 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.
gather_network_resources - added in 2.9 |  | When supplied, this argument will restrict the facts collected to a given subset. Possible values for this argument include all and the resources like interfaces, vlans etc. Can specify a list of values to include a larger subset. Values can also be used with an initial `!` to specify that a specific subset should not be collected. Valid subsets are 'all', 'interfaces', 'l2_interfaces', 'vlans', 'lag_interfaces', 'lacp', 'lacp_interfaces', 'lldp_global', 'lldp_interfaces', 'l3_interfaces'.
gather_subset - | Default: "!config" | When supplied, this argument restricts the facts collected to a given subset. Possible values for this argument include `all`, `min`, `hardware`, `config`, and `interfaces`. Specify a list of values to include a larger subset. Use a value with an initial `!` to collect all facts except that subset.
provider dictionary |  | Deprecated Starting with Ansible 2.5 we recommend using `connection: network_cli`. For more information please see the IOS Platform Options guide. A dict object containing connection details.
| auth_pass string |  | 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 | 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 value is used to authenticate the SSH session. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `ANSIBLE_NET_PASSWORD` will be used instead.
| port integer | Default: 22 | Specifies the port to use when building the connection to the remote device.
| ssh_keyfile path |  | Specifies the SSH key to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This value is the path to the key used to authenticate the SSH session. 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.
| username string |  | Configures the username to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This value is used to authenticate the SSH session. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable `ANSIBLE_NET_USERNAME` will be used instead.

## Notes

Note

- Tested against IOS 15.6
- 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: Gather all legacy facts
      ios_facts:
        gather_subset: all

    - name: Gather only the config and default facts
      ios_facts:
        gather_subset:
          - config

    - name: Do not gather hardware facts
      ios_facts:
        gather_subset:
          - "!hardware"

    - name: Gather legacy and resource facts
      ios_facts:
        gather_subset: all
        gather_network_resources: all

    - name: Gather only the interfaces resource facts and no legacy facts
      ios_facts:
        gather_subset:
          - '!all'
          - '!min'
        gather_network_resources:
          - interfaces

    - name: Gather interfaces resource and minimal legacy facts
      ios_facts:
        gather_subset: min
        gather_network_resources: interfaces

    - name: Gather L2 interfaces resource and minimal legacy facts
      ios_facts:
        gather_subset: min
        gather_network_resources: l2_interfaces

    - name: Gather L3 interfaces resource and minimal legacy facts
      ios_facts:
        gather_subset: min
        gather_network_resources: l3_interfaces

## Return Values

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

Key | Returned | Description
--- | --- | ---
ansible_net_all_ipv4_addresses list | when interfaces is configured | All IPv4 addresses configured on the device
ansible_net_all_ipv6_addresses list | when interfaces is configured | All IPv6 addresses configured on the device
ansible_net_api string | always | The name of the transport
ansible_net_config string | when config is configured | The current active config from the device
ansible_net_filesystems list | when hardware is configured | All file system names available on the device
ansible_net_filesystems_info dictionary | when hardware is configured | A hash of all file systems containing info about each file system (e.g. free and total space)
ansible_net_gather_network_resources list | when the resource is configured | The list of fact for network resource subsets collected from the device
ansible_net_gather_subset list | always | The list of fact subsets collected from the device
ansible_net_hostname string | always | The configured hostname of the device
ansible_net_image string | always | The image file the device is running
ansible_net_interfaces dictionary | when interfaces is configured | A hash of all interfaces running on the system
ansible_net_iostype string | always | The operating system type (IOS or IOS-XE) running on the remote device
ansible_net_memfree_mb integer | when hardware is configured | The available free memory on the remote device in Mb
ansible_net_memtotal_mb integer | when hardware is configured | The total memory on the remote device in Mb
ansible_net_model string | always | The model name returned from the device
ansible_net_neighbors dictionary | when interfaces is configured | The list of CDP and LLDP neighbors from the remote device. If both, CDP and LLDP neighbor data is present on one port, CDP is preferred.
ansible_net_python_version string | always | The Python version Ansible controller is using
ansible_net_serialnum string | always | The serial number of the remote device
ansible_net_stacked_models list | when multiple devices are configured in a stack | The model names of each device in the stack
ansible_net_stacked_serialnums list | when multiple devices are configured in a stack | The serial numbers of each device in the stack
ansible_net_version string | always | The operating system version running on the remote device

## 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)
- Sumit Jaiswal (@justjais)

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