README.md

Exercise 1.7: Using the bigip_config module

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Table of Contents

• Objective
• Guide
• Playbook Output
• Solution

Objective

Demonstrate use of the BIG-IP config module to save the running configuration to disk

Guide

Step 1:

Using VSCode create a new file called bigip-config.yml by clicking the new file icon in the left pane.

Step 2:

Ansible playbooks are YAML files. YAML is a structured encoding format that is also extremely human readable (unlike it's subset - the JSON format).

Enter the following play definition into bigip-config.yml:

---
- name: BIG-IP SETUP
  hosts: lb
  connection: local
  gather_facts: false

• The --- at the top of the file indicates that this is a YAML file.
• The hosts: f5, indicates the play is run only on the F5 BIG-IP device
• connection: local tells the Playbook to run locally (rather than SSHing to itself)
• gather_facts: false disables facts gathering. We are not using any fact variables for this playbook.

Step 3

Next, add the task. This task will use the bigip-config to save the running configuration to disk

{% raw %}

  tasks:
    - name: SAVE RUNNING CONFIG ON BIG-IP
      f5networks.f5_modules.bigip_config:
        provider:
          server: "{{private_ip}}"
          user: "{{ansible_user}}"
          password: "{{ansible_password}}"
          server_port: 8443
          validate_certs: false
        save: true

{% endraw %}

A play is a list of tasks. Tasks and modules have a 1:1 correlation. Ansible modules are reusable, standalone scripts that can be used by the Ansible API, or by the ansible or ansible-playbook programs. They return information to ansible by printing a JSON string to stdout before exiting.

• name: SAVE RUNNING CONFIG ON BIG-IP is a user defined description that will display in the terminal output.
• bigip_config: tells the task which module to use.
• The server: "{{private_ip}}" parameter tells the module to connect to the F5 BIG-IP IP address, which is stored as a variable private_ip in inventory
• The provider: parameter is a group of connection details for the BIG-IP.
• The user: "{{ansible_user}}" parameter tells the module the username to login to the F5 BIG-IP device with
• The password: "{{ansible_password}}" parameter tells the module the password to login to the F5 BIG-IP device with
• The server_port: 8443 parameter tells the module the port to connect to the F5 BIG-IP device with
• The save: "yes"" parameter tells the module to save the running-config to startup-config. This operation is performed after any changes are made to the current running config. If no changes are made, the configuration is
  still saved to the startup config. This option will always cause the module to return changed
• The validate_certs: "no" parameter tells the module to not validate SSL certificates. This is just used for demonstration purposes since this is a lab.

Save File.

Step 4

Run the playbook - Go back to the Terminal on VS Code server and execute the following:

[student1@ansible ~]$ ansible-navigator run bigip-config.yml --mode stdout

Playbook Output

[student1@ansible]$ ansible-navigator run bigip-config.yml --mode stdout

PLAY [BIG-IP SETUP] *******************************************************************************

TASK [SAVE RUNNING CONFIG ON BIG-IP] *******************************************************************************
changed: [f5]

PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************
f5                         : ok=1    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0

Solution

The finished Ansible Playbook is provided here for an Answer key. Click here: bigip-config.yml.

You have finished this exercise. Click here to return to the lab guide