Relation between Ansible and SDN

Archives Ansible Project
1

Hello,

Please, could explain to me, that is the relation between Ansible and SDN, how it can work together? with what architecture?

thanks in advance

BR

2

That is a very generic question - can you be (a lot) more specific?

3

Hello,

Thanks Dick for your feedback.

my question is as follow :

I have confusion between the utilization of Ansible and SDN, As long as the SDN offers network automation, optimization and high flexibility, what is the role of Ansible in that network? are two different subjects and work totally separately?

Hope I was more clear

Many thanks in advance

4

Hi

To me this is still too generic.
I'll leave it to someone else to answer.

5

There is no relationship between Ansible and SDN.

Ansible is a general tool. There may be Ansible modules that allow you to manipulate particular SDNs.

I suggest you start by googling “Ansible SDN” and see where the journey takes you.

Regards, K.

6

Hullo Nabil.

7

Hello Karl,

Effectively, I google it, I understood for Ansible but not the relation between it and SDN. Apart Cisco who talked about this topic, no other person talking about this subject.

Many thanks for feedback, which very helpful for me.

best regards

8

There are a number of vendors that use Ansible for SDN automation.

Cisco as you mentioned for ACI & or traditional networking
Cumulus Networks also uses Ansible
If you wanted you could use it for NSX but vRa may help you there.

There are git repositories, just need to know where to look :slight_smile:

9

Hello Albert,

Thanks a lot for your feedback.

Please do know how it works (using Ansible for SDN automation)? if not, do you know where can I find this details?

Thanks in advance

BR

10

Nabil

As with everything Ansible it comes down to the modules- this is a link to the complete list: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/list_of_all_modules.html
Have a look through there for anything SDN related for the solution you’re looking for. There is no such generic ‘sdn’ module(s) so you need to look at vendor specific ones (if they exist)

Regards
Phil.

11

Nabil,

as Phil has mentioned, Ansible uses modules & depending which vendor’s SDN solution you decide to use, you use the appropriate module.

You can find quite a few Cisco ACI & MSO modules ofr Ansible 2.9 or like in Cumulus just 1 module.

The closest you can get to a ‘SDN’ generic module would likely be the ‘uri’, where you can use the typical POST,DELETE,QUERY functions for API.

I have built Ansible playbooks using both ACI/MSO modules & the ‘uri’ module where either MSO module did not exist (pre-2.9 version) or I created some very specific plays where no module was available & the ‘uri’ fitted the need.

Hope this helps