explore-inventory.md

Exploring the Inventory

Inventory Sources

The inventory source in ansible.cfg is defined as ./inventory. This directory contains files that define the Ansible Inventory for this repository. There are two main sources of inventory information: network.yml and cml.yml. network.yml defines the nodes in the topology, their relationship (hierarchy), and attributes (e.g. tags). You can see this topology by running ansible-inventory:

$ ansible-inventory --graph
SSL Verification disabled
@all:
  |--@network:
  |  |--@routers:
  |  |  |--@hq_routers:
  |  |  |  |--hq-rtr1
  |  |  |  |--hq-rtr2
  |  |  |--@internet_routers:
  |  |  |  |--internet-rtr1
  |  |  |--@site_routers:
  |  |  |  |--site1-rtr1
  |  |  |  |--site2-rtr1
  |  |--@switches:
  |  |  |--hq-sw1
  |  |  |--hq-sw2
  |  |  |--site1-sw1
  |  |  |--site2-sw1
  |--@nso:
  |  |--nso1
  |--@org:
  |  |--@region1:
  |  |  |--@hq:
  |  |  |  |--hq-rtr1
  |  |  |  |--hq-rtr2
  |  |  |  |--hq-sw1
  |  |  |  |--hq-sw2
  |  |  |--@site1:
  |  |  |  |--site1-rtr1
  |  |  |  |--site1-sw1
  |  |--@region2:
  |  |  |--@site2:
  |  |  |  |--site2-rtr1
  |  |  |  |--site2-sw1
  |--@system:
  |  |--@client:
  |  |  |--hq-host1
  |  |  |--site1-host1
  |  |  |--site2-host1
  |  |--@server:
  |  |  |--nso1
  |--@ungrouped:

This command will work whether you've deployed the topology in CML or not since it comes directly from the Ansible inventory files. If you do have the topology deployed, however, this inventory is augmented with the inventory in CML via the cml.yml file. We can see what inventory is added by running ansible-inventory after the topology is started:

$ ansible-inventory --graph
SSL Verification disabled
@all:

  |--@cml_hosts:
  |  |--hq-host1
  |  |--hq-mgmt-bridge
  |  |--hq-mgmt-switch
  |  |--hq-rtr1
  |  |--hq-rtr2
  |  |--hq-sw1
  |  |--hq-sw2
  |  |--internet-mgmt
  |  |--internet-out
  |  |--internet-rtr1
  |  |--nso1
  |  |--site1-host1
  |  |--site1-mgmt-bridge
  |  |--site1-mgmt-switch
  |  |--site1-rtr1
  |  |--site1-sw1
  |  |--site2-host1
  |  |--site2-mgmt-bridge
  |  |--site2-mgmt-switch
  |  |--site2-rtr1
  |  |--site2-sw1
[...]

Notice that the group cml_hosts is added to the output for the device that are available in CML. This group can be used in playbooks to limit to device that are both in your inventory and currently in CML. In addition to the group cml_hosts, hosts are also placed in groups as determined by their tags in CML. The tags can be specified in cml.yml with the group_tags option.

When the topology is up and running in CML, we can get the inventory including an IP address assocated with that instance.

$ ansible-playbook cisco.cml.inventory
SSL Verification disabled
[WARNING]: running playbook inside collection cisco.cml

PLAY [cml_hosts] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [debug] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [internet-rtr1] => {
    "msg": "Node: internet-rtr1(cat8000v), State: BOOTED, Address: 192.168.178.230"
}
ok: [hq-sw1] => {
    "msg": "Node: hq-sw1(iosvl2), State: BOOTED, Address: 192.168.178.227"
}
ok: [hq-sw2] => {
    "msg": "Node: hq-sw2(iosvl2), State: BOOTED, Address: 192.168.178.226"
}
ok: [site1-sw1] => {
    "msg": "Node: site1-sw1(iosvl2), State: BOOTED, Address: 192.168.178.229"
}
ok: [hq-rtr1] => {
    "msg": "Node: hq-rtr1(cat8000v), State: BOOTED, Address: 192.168.178.228"
}
ok: [hq-rtr2] => {
    "msg": "Node: hq-rtr2(cat8000v), State: BOOTED, Address: 192.168.178.222"
}
ok: [site1-rtr1] => {
    "msg": "Node: site1-rtr1(cat8000v), State: BOOTED, Address: 192.168.178.212"
}
ok: [site1-host1] => {
    "msg": "Node: site1-host1(ubuntu), State: BOOTED, Address: site1-host1"
}
ok: [hq-host1] => {
    "msg": "Node: hq-host1(ubuntu), State: BOOTED, Address: hq-host1"
}
ok: [internet-mgmt] => {
    "msg": "Node: internet-mgmt(external_connector), State: BOOTED, Address: internet-mgmt"
}
ok: [site2-rtr1] => {
    "msg": "Node: site2-rtr1(cat8000v), State: BOOTED, Address: 192.168.178.213"
}
ok: [site2-sw1] => {
    "msg": "Node: site2-sw1(iosvl2), State: BOOTED, Address: 192.168.178.231"
}
ok: [site2-host1] => {
    "msg": "Node: site2-host1(ubuntu), State: BOOTED, Address: site2-host1"
}
ok: [hq-mgmt-bridge] => {
    "msg": "Node: hq-mgmt-bridge(external_connector), State: BOOTED, Address: hq-mgmt-bridge"
}
ok: [hq-mgmt-switch] => {
    "msg": "Node: hq-mgmt-switch(unmanaged_switch), State: BOOTED, Address: hq-mgmt-switch"
}
ok: [site1-mgmt-switch] => {
    "msg": "Node: site1-mgmt-switch(unmanaged_switch), State: BOOTED, Address: site1-mgmt-switch"
}
ok: [site1-mgmt-bridge] => {
    "msg": "Node: site1-mgmt-bridge(external_connector), State: BOOTED, Address: site1-mgmt-bridge"
}
ok: [site2-mgmt-switch] => {
    "msg": "Node: site2-mgmt-switch(unmanaged_switch), State: BOOTED, Address: site2-mgmt-switch"
}
ok: [site2-mgmt-bridge] => {
    "msg": "Node: site2-mgmt-bridge(external_connector), State: BOOTED, Address: site2-mgmt-bridge"
}
ok: [nso1] => {
    "msg": "Node: nso1(ubuntu), State: BOOTED, Address: 192.168.178.221"
}
ok: [internet-out] => {
    "msg": "Node: internet-out(external_connector), State: BOOTED, Address: internet-out"
}

PLAY RECAP *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
hq-host1                   : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
hq-mgmt-bridge             : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
hq-mgmt-switch             : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
hq-rtr1                    : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
hq-rtr2                    : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
hq-sw1                     : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
hq-sw2                     : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
internet-mgmt              : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
internet-out               : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
internet-rtr1              : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
nso1                       : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
site1-host1                : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
site1-mgmt-bridge          : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
site1-mgmt-switch          : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
site1-rtr1                 : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
site1-sw1                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
site2-host1                : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
site2-mgmt-bridge          : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
site2-mgmt-switch          : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
site2-rtr1                 : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
site2-sw1                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   

Keep in mind that this is just the Ansible inventory and does not include the MDD Data. For that, please refer to the exercise Exploring the Data.