Getting Started with Ansible

Ansible is an open-source automation framework that was created by Ansible and now maintained by RedHat. Ansible is an orchestration tool that automates provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment.

In 2019, Aruba became an official Ansible partner, and currently supports Ansible for both the AOS-Switch and AOS-CX operating systems.

How Ansible Works

Please watch the video below, which discusses the basics of how Ansible works, the installation of Ansible on an Ubuntu 18.04 machine.

❗️

Installing Aruba Ansible Content

The method of installing the Aruba Ansible modules depicted in the video no longer applies to the installation of AOS-CX or AOS-Switch modules. Installation of the AOS-CX modules is covered in the sections Using the AOS-CX Ansible Role and Using the AOS-CX Ansible Collection. Installation of AOS-Switch modules can be found through Ansible Galaxy.

For the most recent Aruba Ansible content visit Ansible Galaxy.

Video rundown

Ansible is an agentless automation tool architected on Python.

Ansible requires a "control machine," a Linux (or MacOS!) workstation on which Ansible Engine is installed. Ansible Engine, the core of Ansible, provides a command-line interface through which Ansible commands are executed and on which the execution results are displayed, along with other relevant output. Ansible Engine also contains the Ansible modules and plugins, Python code used to connect to and configure target systems.

Ansible modules typically connect to target devices via SSH. Our AOS-CX and AOS-Switch modules leverage the REST APIs on those respective operating systems to communicate.

Already Using Ansible?

If you are familiar with Ansible and have already deployed it in your environment, skip ahead to the sections that cover installing and using the AOS-CX Ansible Role and installing and using the AOS-CX Ansible Collection.