The cli_rm_builder is an Ansible Collection that helps developers scaffold and maintain Ansible Network Resource Modules.

Capabilities

• Use a pre-defined docstring (in YAML) to scaffold a resource module directory layout and initial class files in an Ansible Collection.
• Maintain the module DOCUMENTATION as the source of truth for the module argspec and use the builder to update the source files as needed.
• Generates working sample modules for both <network_os>_<resource> and <network_os>_facts

pip install ansible-base
ansible-galaxy collection install git+https://github.com/ansible-network/cli_rm_builder.git

run.yml
---
- hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: yes
  roles:
    - ansible_network.cli_rm_builder.run

ansible-playbook -e rm_dest=<destination for modules and module utils> \
                 -e collection_org=<collection_org> \
                 -e collection_name=<collection_name> \
                 -e docstring=</path/to/docstring> \
		 -e examples=</path/to/example>\
                 -e resource=<resource>
                 run.yml

ansible-playbook -e rm_dest=<destination for modules and module utils> \
                 -e collection_org=<collection_org> \
                 -e collection_name=<collection_name> \
                 -e resource=<resource> \
                 run.yml

• rm_dest: The directory in which the files and directories for the resource module and facts modules should be placed
• collection_org: The organization of the collection
• collection_name: The name of the collection
• resource: The network resource targeted by the module
• docstring: The path to the file that contains docstring (in YAML)
• examples: The path to the file that contains examples (in txt)
• network_os: The value of network_os (defaults to collection_name)

See the docstrings directory for an example.

Note: Within the scaffolded module file, the keys in the RETURN string have type: dict by default. These should be updated to type: dict if config key in module argspec is a list of dictionaries.

Collection directory layout

• network_os: myos
• resource: interfaces

├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── docs
├── meta
├── plugins
│   ├── action
│   │   └── __init__.py
│   ├── filter
│   │   └── __init__.py
│   ├── inventory
│   │   └── __init__.py
│   ├── module_utils
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── network
│   │       ├── __init__.py
│   │       └── myos
│   │           ├── __init__.py
│   │           ├── argspec
│   │           │   ├── __init__.py
│   │           │   ├── facts
│   │           │   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │           │   │   └── facts.py
│   │           │   └── interfaces
│   │           │       ├── __init__.py
│   │           │       └── interfaces.py
│   │           ├── config
│   │           │   ├── __init__.py
│   │           │   └── interfaces
│   │           │       ├── __init__.py
│   │           │       └── interfaces.py
│   │           ├── facts
│   │           │   ├── __init__.py
│   │           │   ├── facts.py
│   │           │   └── interfaces
│   │           │       ├── __init__.py
│   │           │       └── interfaces.py
│   │           ├── rm_templates
│   │           │   ├── __init__.py
│   │           │   └── interfaces.py
│   │           └── utils
│   │               ├── __init__.py
│   │               └── utils.py
│   └── modules
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── myos_facts.py
│       └── myos_interfaces.py
└── tests

Please refer to using collections in a playbook guide for detailed information.

Module

plugins/modules/<ansible_network_os>_<resource>.py

• Import module_utils resource package and calls execute_module API

def main():
    result = <resource_package>(module).execute_module()

Module Argspec

module_utils/network/<ansible_network_os>/argspec/<resource>/

• Argspec for the resource.
• The recommended way of updating the argspec is by updating the module docstring first and then running the Resource Module Builder to update the argspec. This ensures that both the artifacts are always in sync.

Facts

module_utils/network/<ansible_network_os>/facts/<resource>/

• Populate facts for the resource.
• Entry in module_utils/network/<ansible_network_os>/facts/facts.py for get_facts API to keep <ansible_network_os>_facts module and facts gathered for the resource module in sync for every subset.
• Entry under the imports to register the Module's fact class- from ansible_collections.<ansible_network_org>.<ansible_network_os>.plugins.module_utils.network. <ansible_network_os>.facts.<resource>.<resource> import (<Resource>Facts,)
• An entry in the global variable FACT_RESOURCE_SUBSETS is required in order to add it to the resource subsets as <resource>=<Resource>Facts.

Parser Templates

module_utils/network/<ansible_network_os>/rm_templates/<resource>

• Define a list of parser templates that the NetworkTemplate parent class in ansible.netcommon uses to converts native configuration to Ansible structured data and vice versa.

• Example parser template:

    {  
        "name": "auto_cost",
        "getval": re.compile(
            r"""
            \s+auto-cost\sreference-bandwidth\s
            (?P<acrb>\d+)\s(?P<unit>\S+)$""",
            re.VERBOSE,
        ),
        "setval": (
            "auto-cost reference-bandwidth"
            " {{ auto_cost.reference_bandwidth }}"
            " {{ auto_cost.unit }}"
        ),
        "result": {
            "vrfs": {
                '{{ "vrf_" + vrf|d() }}': {
                    "auto_cost": {
                        "reference_bandwidth": "{{ acrb }}",
                        "unit": "{{ unit }}",
                    }
                }
            }
        },
    }

Resource Config Package in module_utils

module_utils/network/<ansible_network_os>/<config>/<resource>/

• Implement execute_module API that uses the existing device configuration (have), the task input (want), and the compare functionality provided by the parent class ResourceModule in ansible.netcommon to render and push configuration commands to the target device.

• The task run result contains the following keys:

  • before: state of the <resource> in target device before module execution (as structured data)
  • after: state of the <resource> in target device after module execution (as structured data)
  • commands: list of commands sent to the target device
  • changed: True or False depending on whether the task run was idempotent
  • gathered: state of the <resource> in target device (as structured data) [only when state: gathered]
  • parsed: configuration passed through the running_config option as structured data [only when state: parsed]
  • rendered: provided configuration in the task as device native config lines [only when state: rendered]

• By default, the empty_fact_val is set to dict ({}). This needs to be updated to be list ([]) if config is a list of dictionaries.

  Note: Please refer to Network resource module states for more information.

Utils

module_utils/<ansible_network_os>/utils.

• Utilities for the <ansible_network_os> platform.

The tests rely on a collection generated by the cli_rm_builder. After changes to the builder, this test collection should be regenerated and the tests modified and run as needed. To generate the collection after changes:

rm -rf tests/rmb_tests/collections/ansible_collections/myorg/myos
ansible-playbook -e docstring=docs/examples/docstrings/myos_interfaces.yaml \
                 -e rm_dest=tests/rmb_tests/collections/ansible_collections/myorg/myos \
                 -e resource=interfaces \
                 -e collection_org=myorg \
                 -e collection_name=myos \
                 run.yml