Network switch module questions

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1

I’ve been experimenting with the new-ish network switch modules.

We have a heterogenous network switch inventory.
Not all of our current switches are supported by existing Ansible network modules, most significantly the Force10/Dell S4810.

Is there any plan to support the F10 S4810 via an Ansible module?

A somewhat related question: For switches that do not have Ansible modules, how much effort does it take to create a new
network module? Where/how would I start on a project like that?

And what if the switch in question doesn’t support an API, (presumably similar to the Cisco IOS switches)?
For example, at home, I have several Netgear enterprise switches, but they don’t support anything but CLI access/control, AFAICT.

2

Hi Don,

Ansible 2.2 adds support for Dell OS6, OS9 (I believe this is the old Force10 stuff) and OS10. Please see the modules here: https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core/tree/devel/network/dellos9

Creating modules is not difficult. See here for details: http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/dev_guide/developing_modules.html

For non-API (ie CLI driven) devices, I would recommend that you use the ios/* modules as a guide for how you can implemented modules for those types of devices.

HTH,
Peter