The catalystenter-ansible project provides an Ansible collection for managing and automating your Cisco CATALYST Center environment. It consists of a set of modules and roles for performing tasks related to CATALYST Center.
This collection has been tested and supports Cisco CATALYST Center 2.3.7.6.
Other versions of this collection have support for previous Cisco CATALYST Center versions. The recommended versions are listed below on the Compatibility matrix.
The following table shows the supported versions.
| Cisco CATALYST Center version | Ansible "cisco.catalystcenter" version | Python "catalystcentersdk" version |
|---|---|---|
| 2.3.7.6 | 1.0.0 | 2.3.7.6.2 |
| 2.3.7.7 | ^2.1.2 | ^2.3.7.9.4 |
| 2.3.7.9 | ^2.1.3 | ^2.3.7.9.4 |
If your Ansible collection is older please consider updating it first.
Notes:
- The "Python 'catalystcentersdk' version" column has the minimum recommended version used when testing the Ansible collection. This means you could use later versions of the Python "catalystcentersdk" than those listed.
- The "Cisco CATALYST Center version" column has the value of the
versionyou should use for the Ansible collection.
For example, for Cisco CATALYST Center 2.3.7.6, it is recommended to use Ansible "cisco.catalystcenter" v2.3.7.6 and Python "catalystcentersdk" v2.3.7.6.
To get the Python CATALYST Center SDK v2.3.7.9 in a fresh development environment:
sudo pip install catalystcentersdk==2.3.7.9
To get the Ansible collection v1.0.0 in a fresh development environment:
ansible-galaxy collection install cisco.catalystcenter:1.0.0
- Ansible >= 2.15
- Python CATALYST Center SDK v1.0.0 or newer
- Python >= 3.9, as the CATALYST Center SDK doesn't support Python version 2.x
Ansible must be installed (Install guide)
sudo pip install ansible
Python CATALYST Center SDK must be installed
sudo pip install catalystcentersdk
Install the collection (Galaxy link)
ansible-galaxy collection install cisco.catalystcenter
There are three ways to use it:
First, export the environment variables where you specify your CATALYST Center credentials as ansible variables:
export CATALYST_HOST=<A.B.C.D>
export CATALYST_PORT=443 # optional, defaults to 443
export CATALYST_USERNAME=<username>
export CATALYST_PASSWORD=<password>
export CATALYST_VERSION=2.3.7.6 # optional, defaults to 2.3.7.6. See the Compatibility matrix
export CATALYST_VERIFY=False # optional, defaults to True
export CATALYST_DEBUG=False # optional, defaults to False
Create a hosts (example) file that uses [catalystcenter_servers] with your Cisco CATALYST Center Settings:
[catalystcenter_servers]
catalystcenter_server
Then, create a playbook myplaybook.yml (example) referencing the variables in your credentials.yml file and specifying the full namespace path to the module, plugin and/or role:
- hosts: catalystcenter_servers
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- name: Create tag with name "MyNewTag"
cisco.catalystcenter.tag:
state: present
description: My Tag
name: MyNewTag
register: result
Execute the playbook:
ansible-playbook -i hosts myplaybook.yml
First, define a credentials.yml (example) file where you specify your CATALYST Center credentials as Ansible variables:
---
_host: <A.B.C.D>
_api_port: 443 # optional, defaults to 443
_username: <username>
_password: <password>
_version: 2.3.7.6 # optional, defaults to 2.3.7.6. See the Compatibility matrix
_verify: False # optional, defaults to True
_debug: False # optional, defaults to False
Create a hosts (example) file that uses [catalystcenter_servers] with your Cisco CATALYST Center Settings:
[catalystcenter_servers]
catalystcenter_server
Then, create a playbook myplaybook.yml (example) referencing the variables in your credentials.yml file and specifying the full namespace path to the module, plugin and/or role:
- hosts: catalystcenter_servers
vars_files:
- credentials.yml
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- name: Create tag with name "MyNewTag"
cisco.catalystcenter.tag:
_host: "{{_host}}"
_username: "{{ _username }}"
_password: "{{ _password }}"
_verify: "{{ _verify }}"
state: present
description: My Tag
name: MyNewTag
register: result
Execute the playbook:
ansible-playbook -i hosts myplaybook.yml
In the playbooks directory you can find more examples and use cases.
Getting the latest/nightly collection build
Clone the catalystcenter-ansible repository.
git clone https://github.com/cisco-en-programmability/catalystcenter-ansible.git
Go to the catalystcenter-ansible directory
cd catalystcenter-ansible
Pull the latest master from the repo
git pull origin master
Build and install a collection from source
ansible-galaxy collection build --force
ansible-galaxy collection install cisco-catalystcenter-* --force
- Ansible Using collections for more details.
If you're using macOS you may receive this error when running your playbook:
objc[34120]: +[__NSCFConstantString initialize] may have been in progress in another thread when fork() was called.
objc[34120]: +[__NSCFConstantString initialize] may have been in progress in another thread when fork() was called. We cannot safely call it or ignore it in the fork() child process. Crashing instead. Set a breakpoint on objc_initializeAfterForkError to debug.
ERROR! A worker was found in a dead state
If that's the case try setting this environment variable:
export OBJC_DISABLE_INITIALIZE_FORK_SAFETY=YES
Ongoing development efforts and contributions to this collection are tracked as issues in this repository.
We welcome community contributions to this collection. If you find problems, need an enhancement or need a new module, please open an issue or create a PR against the Cisco CATALYST Center Ansible collection repository.
This collection follows the Ansible project's Code of Conduct. Please read and familiarize yourself with this document.
This collection follows Semantic Versioning. More details on versioning can be found in the Ansible docs.
New minor and major releases as well as deprecations will follow new releases and deprecations of the Cisco CATALYST Center product, its REST API and the corresponding Python SDK, which this project relies on.