EXOS Platform Options

Extreme EXOS is part of the community.network collection and supports multiple connections. This page offers details on how each connection works in Ansible and how to use it.

Connections available

CLI EXOS-API
Protocol SSH HTTP(S)
Credentials

uses SSH keys / SSH-agent if present

accepts -u myuser -k if using password

 uses HTTPS certificates if present
Indirect Access via a bastion (jump host) via a web proxy
Connection Settings
ansible_connection:
ansible.netcommon.network_cli
ansible_connection:
ansible.netcommon.httpapi
Enable Mode
(Privilege Escalation)		 not supported by EXOS not supported by EXOS
Returned Data Format stdout[0]. stdout[0].messages[0].

EXOS does not support ansible_connection: local. You must use ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli or ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.httpapi.

Using CLI in Ansible

Example CLI group_vars/exos.yml

ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli
ansible_network_os: community.network.exos
ansible_user: myuser
ansible_password: !vault...
ansible_ssh_common_args: '-o ProxyCommand="ssh -W %h:%p -q bastion01"'
  • If you are using SSH keys (including an ssh-agent) you can remove the ansible_password configuration.
  • If you are accessing your host directly (not through a bastion/jump host) you can remove the ansible_ssh_common_args configuration.
  • If you are accessing your host through a bastion/jump host, you cannot include your SSH password in the ProxyCommand directive. To prevent secrets from leaking out (for example in ps output), SSH does not support providing passwords via environment variables.

Example CLI task

- name: Retrieve EXOS OS version
  community.network.exos_command:
    commands: show version
  when: ansible_network_os == 'community.network.exos'

Using EXOS-API in Ansible

Example EXOS-API group_vars/exos.yml

ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.httpapi
ansible_network_os: community.network.exos
ansible_user: myuser
ansible_password: !vault...
proxy_env:
  http_proxy: http://proxy.example.com:8080
  • If you are accessing your host directly (not through a web proxy) you can remove the proxy_env configuration.
  • If you are accessing your host through a web proxy using https, change http_proxy to https_proxy.

Example EXOS-API task

- name: Retrieve EXOS OS version
  community.network.exos_command:
    commands: show version
  when: ansible_network_os == 'community.network.exos'

In this example the proxy_env variable defined in group_vars gets passed to the environment option of the module used in the task.

Warning

Never store passwords in plain text. We recommend using SSH keys to authenticate SSH connections. Ansible supports ssh-agent to manage your SSH keys. If you must use passwords to authenticate SSH connections, we recommend encrypting them with Ansible Vault.

See also

Setting timeout options