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Ichnafi's avatar
Ichnafi
Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
Feb 08, 2023

Modify vCMP-Guest with ansible not possible?

Hello fellow F5ers,

I try to build an ansible playbook that performs the following:

  1. Get Names of trunk from vCMP-Host ->  got it by using module bigip_device_info
  2. Create a new VLAN and add it to the trunk from 1. -> got it by using moule bigip_vlan
  3. Add the newly created VLAN to a vCMP-Guest -> nope...
    1. use module  bigip_vcmp_guest? Nope, only for creating new guests
    2. create vlan also on the guest using anisble? Nope, will not make VLAN usable in guest

So, is there no other way of modifying the available VLANs fpr a vCMP-Guest, than using the TMSH command to modify the guest and run it with ansible's bigip_command module? What about idempotency?

 

modify vcmp guest <guest-name> vlans add { <vlan-name> }

 

 

 

 

application delivery
devops
  • Ichnafi's avatar
    Ichnafi
    Feb 17, 2023

    Hello Matt_Mabis ,

    thank you for your answer.
    I can confirm, that one can add VLANs to a vcmp-guest like this, but:

    You have to list all the existing vlans next to the new one as well. You can't just add a new one. The module replaces all VLANs of the guest with the ones listed in the "vlans" section of the module.
    I find this rather awkward. To add a VLAN to a guest, without knowing or careing what VLANs were configured previosly you had to:

    1. Use module bigip_device_info to query information about all vCMP-guest on a vCMP-Host
    2. Filter the output by the name of the vCMP-Guest you like to update and get the list of currently configured vlans
    3. append the new vlan to the list
    4. apply the extended list to the guest

     

    vars:
  guest_to_modify: "Guest1"
  vlan_tobe_added: "/Common/fancy-new-vlan"

tasks:
  - name: Get vCMP-Guest Info
    bigip_device_info:
      gather_subset:
        - vcmp-guests
      provider: "{{ bigip_provider }}"
    register: device_info
    delegate_to: localhost

  - name: Filter for specific guest and build a list with new vlan
    set_fact:
      list_current_vlans: "{{ device_info.vcmp_guests|selectattr('full_path', 'match', guest_to_modify) | map(attribute='vlans') }}"
      list_with_added_vlan: "{{ list_current_vlans[0] + [vlan_tobe_added] }}"

  - name: Add VLAN to vCMP-Guest
    bigip_vcmp_guest:
      name: "{{ guest }}"
      vlans: "{{ list_with_added_vlan }}"          
      provider: "{{ bigip_provider }}"
    delegate_to: localhost

     

     Anyway. I tested it and it worked for me. the abillity to just add a new vlan would be better i guess, but I'll take it.

    Thank you very much!

  • Matt_Mabis's avatar
    Matt_Mabis
    Icon for Employee rankEmployee
    Feb 16, 2023

    Hey there Ichnafi!

     

    I Tested code out for myself and got it working with bigip_vcmp_guest, here is the code i used you can see the first and second tasks creates 2 VCMP Guest Instances and the 3rd task of code modifies the existing created VCMP Guest, no ping loss no packet drops from my testing.

     

    ---
- hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  gather_facts: false
  vars_files:
    - /git/vars/lab/vault.yml
  tasks:

  - name: Create a vCMP guest with specific VLANs
    bigip_vcmp_guest:
      name: foo
      mgmt_network: bridged
      mgmt_address: 192.168.1.60/24
      mgmt_route: 192.168.1.1
      vlans:
        - VLAN5
      initial_image: "BIGIP-15.1.0.4-0.0.6.iso"
      provider:
        password: "{{ f5_password }}"
        server: 192.168.1.50
        user: "{{ f5_username }}"
        validate_certs: false
    delegate_to: localhost

  - name: Create a vCMP guest with specific VLANs
    bigip_vcmp_guest:
      name: Testbip
      mgmt_network: bridged
      mgmt_address: 192.168.1.61/24
      mgmt_route: 192.168.1.1
      initial_image: "BIGIP-15.1.0.4-0.0.6.iso"
      vlans:
        - VLAN2101
      state: configured
      provider:
        password: "{{ f5_password }}"
        server: 192.168.1.50
        user: "{{ f5_username }}"
        validate_certs: false
    delegate_to: localhost

  - name: Modify a vCMP guest with specific VLANs
    bigip_vcmp_guest:
      name: foo
      vlans:
        - VLAN5
        - VLAN2101
      provider:
        password: "{{ f5_password }}"
        server: 192.168.1.50
        user: "{{ f5_username }}"
        validate_certs: false
    delegate_to: localhost

     

    Output from Code Run

    Ansible Playbook Version - 2.14.1

    Ansible Galaxy Collection - 1.21.0

    • Ichnafi's avatar
      Ichnafi
      Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
      Feb 17, 2023

      Hello Matt_Mabis ,

      thank you for your answer.
      I can confirm, that one can add VLANs to a vcmp-guest like this, but:

      You have to list all the existing vlans next to the new one as well. You can't just add a new one. The module replaces all VLANs of the guest with the ones listed in the "vlans" section of the module.
      I find this rather awkward. To add a VLAN to a guest, without knowing or careing what VLANs were configured previosly you had to:

      1. Use module bigip_device_info to query information about all vCMP-guest on a vCMP-Host
      2. Filter the output by the name of the vCMP-Guest you like to update and get the list of currently configured vlans
      3. append the new vlan to the list
      4. apply the extended list to the guest

       

      vars:
  guest_to_modify: "Guest1"
  vlan_tobe_added: "/Common/fancy-new-vlan"

tasks:
  - name: Get vCMP-Guest Info
    bigip_device_info:
      gather_subset:
        - vcmp-guests
      provider: "{{ bigip_provider }}"
    register: device_info
    delegate_to: localhost

  - name: Filter for specific guest and build a list with new vlan
    set_fact:
      list_current_vlans: "{{ device_info.vcmp_guests|selectattr('full_path', 'match', guest_to_modify) | map(attribute='vlans') }}"
      list_with_added_vlan: "{{ list_current_vlans[0] + [vlan_tobe_added] }}"

  - name: Add VLAN to vCMP-Guest
    bigip_vcmp_guest:
      name: "{{ guest }}"
      vlans: "{{ list_with_added_vlan }}"          
      provider: "{{ bigip_provider }}"
    delegate_to: localhost

       

       Anyway. I tested it and it worked for me. the abillity to just add a new vlan would be better i guess, but I'll take it.

      Thank you very much!

      • Matt_Mabis's avatar
        Matt_Mabis
        Icon for Employee rankEmployee
        Feb 17, 2023

        Totally understand where you are coming from, I think they would have had to create a different module for that scenario.   The removal of a vlan would have created complications against bigip_vcmp_guests module as a "absent" status trying to remove a vlan would probably tell the system to remove the entire guest not just a vlan.. 

        Glad you were able to figure out a solution. 

  • Leslie_Hubertus's avatar
    Leslie_Hubertus
    Ret. Employee
    Feb 14, 2023

    Hi Ichnafi  - I see that nobody has answered your question yet, so I'm featuring it in today's Community Highlights article as an unanswered question, and sharing this with a colleague for some help.