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# nxos_command – Run arbitrary command on Cisco NXOS devices

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

## Synopsis

- Sends an arbitrary command to an NXOS node and returns the results read from the device. This module includes an argument that will cause the module to wait for a specific condition before returning or timing out if the condition is not met.

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Comments
--- | --- | ---
commands - / required |  | The commands to send to the remote NXOS device. The resulting output from the command is returned. If the wait_for argument is provided, the module is not returned until the condition is satisfied or the number of retires as expired. The commands argument also accepts an alternative form that allows for complex values that specify the command to run and the output format to return. This can be done on a command by command basis. The complex argument supports the keywords `command` and `output` where `command` is the command to run and `output` is one of 'text' or 'json'.
interval - | Default: 1 | Configures the interval in seconds to wait between retries of the command. If the command does not pass the specified conditional, the interval indicates how to long to wait before trying the command again.
match - | Default: "all" | The match argument is used in conjunction with the wait_for argument to specify the match policy. Valid values are `all` or `any`. If the value is set to `all` then all conditionals in the wait_for must be satisfied. If the value is set to `any` then only one of the values must be satisfied.
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.
retries - | Default: 10 | Specifies the number of retries a command should by tried before it is considered failed. The command is run on the target device every retry and evaluated against the wait_for conditionals.
wait_for - |  | Specifies what to evaluate from the output of the command and what conditionals to apply. This argument will cause the task to wait for a particular conditional to be true before moving forward. If the conditional is not true by the configured retries, the task fails. See examples. aliases: waitfor

## Notes

Note

- 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: run show version on remote devices
      nxos_command:
        commands: show version

    - name: run show version and check to see if output contains Cisco
      nxos_command:
        commands: show version
        wait_for: result[0] contains Cisco

    - name: run multiple commands on remote nodes
      nxos_command:
        commands:
          - show version
          - show interfaces

    - name: run multiple commands and evaluate the output
      nxos_command:
        commands:
          - show version
          - show interfaces
        wait_for:
          - result[0] contains Cisco
          - result[1] contains loopback0

    - name: run commands and specify the output format
      nxos_command:
        commands:
          - command: show version
            output: json

    - name: run commands that require answering a prompt
      nxos_command:
        commands:
          - configure terminal
          - command: 'no feature npv'
            prompt: 'Do you want to continue'
            answer: 'y'

## Return Values

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

Key | Returned | Description
--- | --- | ---
failed_conditions list | failed | The list of conditionals that have failed Sample: ['...', '...']
stdout list | always apart from low level errors (such as action plugin) | The set of responses from the commands Sample: ['...', '...']
stdout_lines list | always apart from low level errors (such as action plugin) | The value of stdout split into a list Sample: [['...', '...'], ['...'], ['...']]

## 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)

Hint

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