demo

Environment

• CentOS: CentOS Linux release 7.9.2009 (Core)
• Python: 3.7.4
• Ansible: 2.10.4

Getting started

Install CentOS

During demo, the CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-2009.iso was used. It can be downloaded from here or other mirros.

Install Python-3.7.4

1. Install dependent packages

yum install gcc make zlib  zlib-devel openssl openssl-devel libffi-devel bzip2-devel ncurses-devel gdbm-devel readline-devel xz-devel sqlite-devel tk-devel -y

2. Download the compressed package

Download Python-3.7.4

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.7.4/Python-3.7.4.tgz

3. Unzip and install

tar -zxvf Python-3.7.4.tgz
cd Python-3.7.4/
./configure prefix=/usr/local/python3
make && make install

4. Create soft links

Test the Python3 path:

/usr/local/python3/bin/python3 --version

The command

find / -name python3

can be used to find the path to Python 3.

Create soft links:

ln -s /usr/local/python3/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python3
ln -s /usr/local/python3/bin/pip3 /usr/bin/pip3

Install Ansible

1. Installation

pip3 install markupsafe
pip3 install ansible==2.10.4

2. Check

After installation, run the below command

ansible --version

to check if Ansible can be executed directly. Otherwise, create a soft link to Ansible.

ln -s /usr/local/python3/bin/ansible /usr/bin/ansible

The installation path to ansible varies. The below command can help to find out the real path.

find / -name ansible

Library installation

1. Download the library

Download the hpe-cw7-ansible library.

wget https://github.com/HPENetworking/hpe-cw7-ansible/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

2. Install dependencies

Some dependent packages are not self-contained by the library. They should be installed manually. The dependencies and corresponding versions are:

ncclient==0.6.9
scp==0.13.3
textfsm==1.1.0
ipaddr==2.2.0

Install the dependencies by pip3.

pip3 install ncclient==0.6.9
pip3 install scp==0.13.3
pip3 install textfsm==1.1.0
pip3 install ipaddr==2.2.0

3. Decompress the library file

unzip main.zip

4. Replace files of ncclient

cd hpe-cw7-ansible-main/
cp ./for-ncclient/rpc.py /usr/local/python3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ncclient/operations/rpc.py
cp ./for-ncclient/manager.py /usr/local/python3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ncclient/manager.py

Note: The paths of the two files 'rpc.py' and 'manager.py' vary with installation.

5. Install the library

cd hpe-cw7-ansible-main/
chmod 777 setup.py
python3 setup.py install

Switch configuration

local-user hpe
 password simple hpe
 authorization-attribute user-role network-admin
 service-type ssh

netconf ssh server enable
 line vty 0 15
 authentication-mode scheme
 user-role network-admin

ssh server enable
ssh user hpe service-type all authentication-type password
scp server enable

Add switch dns name into etc/host file

etc/host file

Add the dns mapping into etc/host file, i.e.

172.17.8.10 hpe1
172.17.8.12 hpe2
172.17.8.11 hpe3

Test reachability

Use Ping to test the reachability, i.e.

[admin@demo]# ping hpe1
PING hpe1 (172.17.8.10) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from hpe1 (172.17.8.10): icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.585 ms
64 bytes from hpe1 (172.17.8.10): icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.455 ms
^C
--- hpe1 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1001ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.455/0.520/0.585/0.065 ms

Test connection to switch

[root@demo]# python3
Python 3.7.4 (default, Jan  6 2022, 14:21:40) 
[GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-44)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from pyhpecw7.comware import HPCOM7
>>> args = dict(host='hpe1', username='hpe', password='hpe', port=830)
>>> device = HPCOM7(**args)
>>> device.open()
<ncclient.manager.Manager object at 0x7f3ed5953150>

Ansible configuration

ansible.conf file

Add the path of Ansible library, in order to execute playbooks at anywhere.

1. Create the ansible config file, if it does not exist.

vim /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

2. Fill the config file with the library path.

[defaults]
library = /root/hpe-cw7-ansible-main/library

Playbook execution

1. Prepare host file

[all:vars]
username=hpe
password=hpe
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3
[switches]
hpe1
hpe2
hpe3

2. Prepare playbook

Take the hp-vlans.yml for example:

---

  - name: VLAN Automation with Ansible on HP Com7 Devices
    hosts: hpe1 hpe2
    gather_facts: no
    connection: local

    tasks:

      - name: ensure VLAN 10 exists
        comware_vlan: vlanid=10 name=VLAN10_WEB descr=LOCALSEGMENT username={{ username }} password={{ password }} hostname={{ inventory_hostname }}

      - name: ensure VLAN 20 exists
        comware_vlan: vlanid=20 name=VLAN20 state=present username={{ username }} password={{ password }} hostname={{ inventory_hostname }}

      - name: ensure VLAN 10 does not exist
        comware_vlan: vlanid=10 state=absent username={{ username }} password={{ password }} hostname={{ inventory_hostname }}

3. Execute the playbooks

Run the ansible-playbook command to test the scripts, i.e.

ansible-playbook -i hosts hp-vlans.yml 

Note:

• Error - ansible-playbook: command not found
  The command below can help to find the correct path. After the path is located, run the command in the directory or create a soft link to the file.

find / -name ansible-playbook

• Make sure the hosts file and playbook files in the correct directory.

The result is similar to below.

[admin@demo]#ansible-playbook -i hosts hp-vlans.yml 

PLAY [VLAN Automation with Ansible on HP Com7 Devices] *****************************************************************************

TASK [ensure VLAN 10 exists] *******************************************************************************************************
[WARNING]: Module did not set no_log for password
changed: [hpe1]
changed: [hpe2]

TASK [ensure VLAN 20 exists] *******************************************************************************************************
changed: [hpe1]
changed: [hpe2]

TASK [ensure VLAN 10 does not exist] ***********************************************************************************************
changed: [hpe1]
changed: [hpe2]

PLAY RECAP *************************************************************************************************************************
hpe1                       : ok=3    changed=3    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
hpe2                       : ok=3    changed=3    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0 

Demo log

The log of the demo can be found in the file demo-log.