3.1. Lab Topology¶

3.1.1. Install Ansible¶

• On dCloud once logged into RDP, open Putty and go to server ‘Tools’ (root/C1sco12345). Run the following commands to install Ansible
  • pip install --upgrade pip
  • yum install openssl-devel
  • yum install python-devel
  • yum install gcc
  • pip install cryptography
  • pip install ansible
• Once ansible is installed successfully, run following command from /root directory
  • export ANSIBLE_LIBRARY=/root/library

3.1.2. Environment setup¶

• Download ansible_automation_files.tar from https://tinyurl.com/y9zvj6nl to desktop

• Open WinSCP, click on with windows startup button and then click WinSCP

  

• On WinSCP

  • Hostname: tools.dcloud.cisco.com

  • Port: 22

  • Click on the EDIT button to change username and password

    • Username: root
    • Password: C1sco12345

  • Click Save

  • Click login

  • In the right hand pane click on the /home/user01/Scripts tab, change it to /root

    

  • Click OK

  • Similarly change the left hand pane from C:\Scripts to C:\Users\demouser\Desktop

  • Copy the download tar file from the desktop to the root directory on the ansible host

• SSH to the ‘Tools’ host using Putty

  • Username: root

  • Password: C1sco12345

  • Untar the ansible_automation_files.tar file using command:

    tar xvf ansible_automation_files.tar

3.1.3. Directory structure¶

All the files and folders are under /root directory itself. Let’s take a look at the files and directories. This is for reading and familiarizing yourself with the playbooks and files we are going to use. No task to be performed in this section

• File ansible.cfg

  • Ansible configuration file where you can set ansible environment variables, for more information refer to link http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/intro_configuration.html

• File host_file

  • This file is the ansible inventory file, which stored information about the host(s) that we want to run the playbook against, and variable information pertaining to those hosts. For more information about the inventory file refer to link http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/intro_inventory.html#inventory

  • The host file is specific to your environment

  • Sample host_file for the dCloud environment

    [iworkflow]
    198.18.128.135
    
    [iworkflow:vars]
    username=admin
    password=C1sco12345
    
    [apic]
    198.18.133.200
    
    [apic:vars]
    username=admin
    password=C1sco12345
    

• Directory playbooks – This directory contains

  • All the playbooks we are going to run in this lab

    • iworkflow_setup.yaml – Configure setting on iWorkflow
    • aci_tenant_setup.yaml – Create a tenant and related parameters on APIC
    • logical_device_cluster.yaml – Create a logical device cluster on APIC (this enabled communication of APIC with BIG-IP)
    • service_insertion.yaml - Configure service insertion on APIC
    • aci_delete_service.yaml – Clean up of the configuration done on APIC

  • The variable file which we are going to edit to customize it to our needs

    • This is a sample input to the variable file, you can modify it to fit your environment

      bigip_ip	198.18.128.130
      bigip_username	admin
      bigip_password	C1sco12345
      bigip_hostname	bigip1.dcloud.cisco.com
      iworkflow_ip	198.18.128.135
      iworkflow_username	admin
      iworkflow_password	C1sco12345
      tenant_name	Demo
      context_name	{{tenant_name}}_ctx1
      app_profile_name	App_profile
      provider_bd_name	{{tenant_name}}_BDApp
      provider_ip	192.168.10.220
      provider_mask	24
      provider_epg_name	prov_EPG_app
      consumer_bd_name	{{tenant_name}}_BDWeb
      consumer_ip	10.10.10.220
      consumer_mask	24
      consumer_epg_name	cons_EPG_web
      contract_name	web2app-demo-contract
      filter_name	{{contract_name}}_filter
      subject_name1	http
      subject_name2	https
      iworkflow_servicetemplate_name	SimpleHTTP
      devicePackage_name	dCloudConnector
      downloaded_devicePackage_name	F5DevicePackageSimple
      logicalDeviceCluster_name	StandaloneBIGIP
      SGtemplate_name	SimpleHTTP_ServiceGraphTemplate
      external_selfip	10.10.10.120
      external_netmask	255.255.255.0
      internal_selfip	192.168.10.120
      internal_netmask	255.255.255.0
      vip_ip	10.10.10.100
      vip_port	80
      poolMember_ip	192.168.10.140
      lb_method	round-robin

• Directory aci_posts

  • This directory has all the aci posts we are going to execute on the APIC
  • Each post is a j2 (jinja2) template file. This template file contains variables which are going to be substituted at run time from information present in the variable file. The XML file then created after the substitution will be then run on the APIC

• JSON blob for creating a service template on iWorkflow

• Directory library

  • This contains the python files which are responsible for running code for modules. For this lab we have the one aci module aci_rest.py which will be used to run the posts on the APIC