NXOS Platform Options

Cisco NXOS supports multiple connections. This page offers details on how each connection works in Ansible and how to use it.

Connections Available

CLINX-API
ProtocolSSHHTTP(S)
Credentialsuses SSH keys / SSH-agent if presentaccepts -u myuser -k if using passworduses HTTPS certificates ifpresent
Indirect Accessvia a bastion (jump host)via a web proxy
Connection Settingsansible_connection: network_cliansible_connection: httpapiORansible_connection: localwith transport: nxapiin the provider dictionary
Enable Mode (Privilege Escalation) supported as of 2.5.3supported: use ansible_become: yeswith ansible_become_method: enableand ansible_become_password:not supported by NX-API
Returned Data Formatstdout[0].stdout[0].messages[0].

For legacy playbooks, NXOS still supports ansible_connection: local. We recommend modernizing to use ansible_connection: network_cli or ansible_connection: httpapi as soon as possible.

Using CLI in Ansible

Example CLI group_vars/nxos.yml

  1. ansible_connection: network_cli
  2. ansible_network_os: nxos
  3. ansible_user: myuser
  4. ansible_password: !vault...
  5. ansible_become: yes
  6. ansible_become_method: enable
  7. ansible_become_password: !vault...
  8. ansible_ssh_common_args: '-o ProxyCommand="ssh -W %h:%p -q bastion01"'
  • If you are using SSH keys (including an ssh-agent) you can remove the ansible_password configuration.
  • If you are accessing your host directly (not through a bastion/jump host) you can remove the ansible_ssh_common_args configuration.
  • If you are accessing your host through a bastion/jump host, you cannot include your SSH password in the ProxyCommand directive. To prevent secrets from leaking out (for example in ps output), SSH does not support providing passwords via environment variables.

Example CLI Task

  1. - name: Backup current switch config (nxos)
  2. nxos_config:
  3. backup: yes
  4. register: backup_nxos_location
  5. when: ansible_network_os == 'nxos'

Using NX-API in Ansible

Enabling NX-API

Before you can use NX-API to connect to a switch, you must enable NX-API. To enable NX-API on a new switch via Ansible, use the nxos_nxapi module via the CLI connection. Set up group_vars/nxos.yml just like in the CLI example above, then run a playbook task like this:

  1. - name: Enable NX-API
  2. nxos_nxapi:
  3. enable_http: yes
  4. enable_https: yes
  5. when: ansible_network_os == 'nxos'

To find out more about the options for enabling HTTP/HTTPS and local http see the nxos_nxapi module documentation.

Once NX-API is enabled, change your group_vars/nxos.yml to use the NX-API connection.

Example NX-API group_vars/nxos.yml

  1. ansible_connection: httpapi
  2. ansible_network_os: nxos
  3. ansible_user: myuser
  4. ansible_password: !vault...
  5. proxy_env:
  6. http_proxy: http://proxy.example.com:8080
  • If you are accessing your host directly (not through a web proxy) you can remove the proxy_env configuration.
  • If you are accessing your host through a web proxy using https, change http_proxy to https_proxy.

Example NX-API Task

  1. - name: Backup current switch config (nxos)
  2. nxos_config:
  3. backup: yes
  4. register: backup_nxos_location
  5. environment: "{{ proxy_env }}"
  6. when: ansible_network_os == 'nxos'

In this example the proxy_env variable defined in group_vars gets passed to the environment option of the module used in the task.

Warning

Never store passwords in plain text. We recommend using SSH keys to authenticate SSH connections. Ansible supports ssh-agent to manage your SSH keys. If you must use passwords to authenticate SSH connections, we recommend encrypting them with Ansible Vault.

Cisco Nexus Platform Support Matrix

The following platforms and software versions have been certified by Cisco to work with this version of Ansible.

Platform / Software Minimum Requirements
Supported PlatformsMinimum NX-OS Version
Cisco Nexus N3k7.0(3)I2(5) and later
Cisco Nexus N9k7.0(3)I2(5) and later
Cisco Nexus N5k7.3(0)N1(1) and later
Cisco Nexus N6k7.3(0)N1(1) and later
Cisco Nexus N7k7.3(0)D1(1) and later
Platform Models
PlatformDescription
N3kSupport includes N30xx, N31xx and N35xx models
N5kSupport includes all N5xxx models
N6kSupport includes all N6xxx models
N7kSupport includes all N7xxx models
N9kSupport includes all N9xxx models