Intentionet has created this Ansible role to allow users to embed Batfish or Batfish Enterprise pre-deployment validation into any Ansible playbook. This role is hosted on Ansible Galaxy as batfish.base. The role includes a set of Ansible modules that analyze configuration files for an entire (or subset of a) network, allowing users to extract configuration data and perform network-wide validation tests in a completely vendor agnostic manner.

Some of the modules included in the role are:

• bf_session - Setup the connection to the server running Batfish or Batfish Enterprise

• bf_init_snapshot - Initialize a network snapshot

• bf_extract_facts - Retrieve configuration facts for devices in the snapshot

• bf_validate_facts - Validate configuration facts for devices in the snapshot

• bf_assert - Validate network behavior

See docs for a complete list of modules and documentation.

The example playbook below outlines how to use the batfish.base role to extract the list of interfaces for all devices in the network.

---
- name: Extract network device facts using Batfish and Ansible
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  gather_facts: no
  roles:
    - batfish.base

  tasks:

  - name: Setup connection to Batfish service
    bf_session:
      host: localhost
      name: local_batfish
  
  - name: Initialize the example network
    bf_init_snapshot:
      network: example_network
      snapshot: example_snapshot
      snapshot_data: ../networks/example
      overwrite: true

  - name: Retrieve Batfish Facts
    bf_extract_facts:
      output_directory: data/bf_facts
    register: bf_facts
    
  - name: Display configuration for all interfaces on all nodes
    debug: msg=" {{item.value.Interfaces}} "
    with_dict: "{{bf_facts.result.nodes}}"
    loop_control:
      label: " {{item.key}}.Interfaces "
    when: bf_facts.failed|bool == false

Note: to connect to a Batfish Enterprise service, just add session_type: bfe under parameters: in the setup task, e.g.:

  - name: Setup connection to Batfish Enterprise service
    bf_session:
      host: localhost
      name: local_batfish
      parameters:
        session_type: bfe

Check out the tutorials for additional examples.

This module requires the following packages to be installed on the Ansible control machine:

• Python 3

• Ansible 2.7 or later

• Batfish module requirements listed in requirements.txt

  • To install these requirements, run:

    python3 -m pip install -r https://raw.githubusercontent.com/batfish/ansible/master/requirements.txt
    

• Batfish service and client

  • For open-source users: to install Batfish and Pybatfish, you may use the batfish setup playbook or run the following commands to update and run Batfish:

    python3 -m pip install --upgrade pybatfish
    docker pull batfish/allinone
    docker run -v batfish-data:/data -p 8888:8888 -p 9997:9997 -p 9996:9996 batfish/allinone
    

  • For enterprise users: follow the instructions delivered with Batfish Enterprise

Ensure that the dependencies above are met, and then get the latest version of the role from Ansible galaxy.

ansible-galaxy install --force batfish.base

Apache 2.0

For bug reports and feature requests, you may:

• Open a Github issue
• Join our Slack Group and post a question

Intentionet is contributing to and maintaining this repository.