# How to develop an Ansible agent for another OS **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [October 24, 2018, 12:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-an-ansible-agent-for-another-os/28862 "2018-10-24T12:39:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![k3ck3c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@k3ck3c](https://forum.ansible.com/u/k3ck3c)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 12:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-an-ansible-agent-for-another-os/28862/1 "2018-10-24T12:39:10Z")
Hello I am looking for some docs explaining how to develop an agent for another Operating System I noticed in /usr/local/python2.7/dist-packages:ansible/modules-utils/facts/hardware some files like aix.py sunos.py netbsd.py linux.py hpux.py and so It seems ansible\_distribution may be the name of the OS, according to [https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.6/user\_guide/playbooks\_best\_practices.html?highlight=operating%20system](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.6/user_guide/playbooks_best_practices.html?highlight=operating%20system) Thanks for any hint ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 3:36pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-an-ansible-agent-for-another-os/28862/2 "2018-10-24T15:36:59Z")
Hi, Could you please explain what you are trying to achieve, so we can guide you? The existing code supports most common Operating Systems even if their isn’t a specific Python file for that Operating System. Kind regards, gundalow ---
**Author:** ![k3ck3c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@k3ck3c](https://forum.ansible.com/u/k3ck3c)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 4:02pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-an-ansible-agent-for-another-os/28862/3 "2018-10-24T16:02:07Z")
Hello I was trying to port Ansible to OpenVMS Itanium. Ansible is written in Python, and Python is available for OpenVMS I thought I had read some time ago some Ansible doc explaining how to deal with another OS, but I can’t find it in the docs. Regards ---
**Author:** ![gundalow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gundalow/32/99_2.png) [@gundalow](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gundalow)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-an-ansible-agent-for-another-os/28862/4 "2018-10-24T16:28:42Z")
Hi, Thanks for the detail. So, just to clarify some things: - ansible-playbook will still be run on a standard Linux machine, that’s the controller - Ansible doesn’t have an agent. It communicates over ssh, nothing to install on the remote-node - We are talking about supporting OpenVMS/Itanium as a **remote-node** Assuming you have an inventory file that defines openvms-01 1. If we start with the simplest task: ansible openvms-01 -m ping This ensure we have connectivity 1. Then look at ansible openvms-01 -m setup -a ‘gather\_subset=!min’ Which should return something like SUCCESS =\> { “ansible\_facts”: { “gather\_subset”: [ “!min” ], “module\_setup”: true }, “changed”: false You can play around with the various gather\_subset as defined on [https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/setup\_module.html](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/setup_module.html) 1. Then ansible openvms-01 -m setup -a ‘gather\_subset=min’ How do those commands seem? If any fail add -vv and rerun This should give us an indication of what works “out of the box”. You can see the code for the existing for facts in [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/tree/devel/lib/ansible/module\_utils/facts](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/tree/devel/lib/ansible/module_utils/facts) Kind regards, gundalow ---
**Author:** ![k3ck3c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@k3ck3c](https://forum.ansible.com/u/k3ck3c)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:54am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-an-ansible-agent-for-another-os/28862/5 "2018-10-25T09:54:36Z")
Hello Thanks for your valuable inputs after setting up SSH between the Linux and OpenVMS node, the ansible openvms-01 -m ping succesfully connects to the remote system (via ssh), then sends ‘/bin/sh -c ‘"’“‘echo ~SYSTEM && sleep 0’”’"‘’ but this is an illegal command on OpenVMS which has a specific shell named DCL. So, now, how to specifiy a correct command for the OpenVMS host and check the reply. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-an-ansible-agent-for-another-os/28862/6 "2018-10-26T19:32:14Z")
use the 'raw' module: ansible openvms-01 -m raw -a "command"