Documentation

nxos_snapshot - Manage snapshots of the running states of selected features.

New in version 2.2.

Synopsis

  • Create snapshots of the running states of selected features, add new show commands for snapshot creation, delete and compare existing snapshots.

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
action
required
    Choices:
  • add
  • compare
  • create
  • delete
  • delete_all
Define what snapshot action the module would perform.
compare_option
    Choices:
  • summary
  • ipv4routes
  • ipv6routes
Snapshot options to be used when action=compare.
comparison_results_file
Name of the file where snapshots comparison will be stored when action=compare.
description
Snapshot description to be used when action=create.
element_key1
Specify the tags used to distinguish among row entries, to be used when action=add.
element_key2
Specify the tags used to distinguish among row entries, to be used when action=add.
path Default:
./
Specify the path of the file where new created snapshot or snapshots comparison will be stored, to be used when action=create and save_snapshot_locally=true or action=compare.
provider
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.
username
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.
authorize
bool

(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.
ssh_keyfile
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.
use_proxy
bool

(added in 2.5)
    Choices:
  • no
  • yes ←
If no, the environment variables http_proxy and https_proxy will be ignored.
auth_pass
(added in 2.5.3)
Default:
none
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.
host
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.
timeout
(added in 2.3)
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).
use_ssl
bool
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Configures the transport to use SSL if set to true only when the transport=nxapi, otherwise this value is ignored.
password
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.
validate_certs
bool
    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.
port 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).
transport
required
Default:
cli
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.
row_id
Specifies the tag of each row entry of the show command's XML output, to be used when action=add.
save_snapshot_locally
bool
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Specify to locally store a new created snapshot, to be used when action=create.
section
Used to name the show command output, to be used when action=add.
show_command
Specify a new show command, to be used when action=add.
snapshot1
First snapshot to be used when action=compare.
snapshot2
Second snapshot to be used when action=compare.
snapshot_name
Snapshot name, to be used when action=create or action=delete.

Notes

Note

  • Tested against NXOSv 7.3.(0)D1(1) on VIRL
  • transport=cli may cause timeout errors.
  • The element_key1 and element_key2 parameter specify the tags used to distinguish among row entries. In most cases, only the element_key1 parameter needs to specified to be able to distinguish among row entries.
  • action=compare will always store a comparison report on a local file.
  • 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

# Create a snapshot and store it locally
- nxos_snapshot:
    action: create
    snapshot_name: test_snapshot
    description: Done with Ansible
    save_snapshot_locally: true
    path: /home/user/snapshots/

# Delete a snapshot
- nxos_snapshot:
    action: delete
    snapshot_name: test_snapshot

# Delete all existing snapshots
- nxos_snapshot:
    action: delete_all

# Add a show command for snapshots creation
- nxos_snapshot:
    section: myshow
    show_command: show ip interface brief
    row_id: ROW_intf
    element_key1: intf-name

# Compare two snapshots
- nxos_snapshot:
    action: compare
    snapshot1: pre_snapshot
    snapshot2: post_snapshot
    comparison_results_file: compare_snapshots.txt
    compare_option: summary
    path: '../snapshot_reports/'

Return Values

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

Key Returned Description
commands
list
verbose mode
commands sent to the device

Sample:
['snapshot create post_snapshot Post-snapshot']


Status

This module is flagged as preview which means that it is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface.

Support

For more information about Red Hat’s support of this module, please refer to this Knowledge Base article

Author

  • Gabriele Gerbino (@GGabriele)

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