Ansible Integration

netmodel’s --structure ansible option outputs directly to Ansible’s expected directory structure.

Ansible Structure

netmodel export @all -i inventory.yaml -o ./network-model/ --structure ansible

Add --dedup to extract common config to group_vars/ automatically. See Deduplication for details.

Output:

network-model/
├── group_vars/
│   ├── all.yaml          # Common to all devices (with --dedup)
│   ├── spine.yaml        # Spine group common (with --dedup)
│   └── leaf.yaml         # Leaf group common (with --dedup)
└── host_vars/
    ├── spine1/
    │   ├── metadata.yaml
    │   ├── interfaces.yaml
    │   ├── bgp.yaml
    │   ├── ospf.yaml
    │   ├── system.yaml
    │   └── routing_policy.yaml
    ├── spine2/
    │   └── ...
    └── leaf1/
        └── ...

Using Variables

Ansible automatically loads variables from host_vars/<hostname>/:

# playbook.yaml
- hosts: network
  tasks:
    - name: Show device hostname
      debug:
        msg: "{{ system.hostname }}"

    - name: List interfaces
      debug:
        msg: "{{ interfaces | dict2items | map(attribute='key') | list }}"

Example: Interface Configuration

# playbook.yaml
- hosts: arista
  tasks:
    - name: Configure interfaces
      arista.eos.eos_l3_interfaces:
        config: "{{ interfaces | dict2items | selectattr('value.ipv4', 'defined') | map(attribute='value') | list }}"
        state: merged

Example: BGP Configuration

- hosts: arista
  tasks:
    - name: Configure BGP
      arista.eos.eos_bgp_global:
        config:
          as_number: "{{ bgp.global.as }}"
          router_id: "{{ bgp.global.router_id }}"

Workflow

1. Export current state:

   netmodel export @all -i inventory.yaml -o ./host_vars/ --structure ansible

2. Review and modify the YAML as needed

3. Apply with Ansible:

   ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini deploy.yaml

4. Validate with netsert:

   netsert run assertions.yaml -i inventory.yaml

Directory Layout

A typical project structure:

network-automation/
├── inventory.ini          # Ansible inventory
├── inventory.yaml         # netsert/netmodel inventory
├── group_vars/
│   └── all.yaml
├── host_vars/
│   ├── spine1/
│   │   └── ...
│   └── spine2/
│       └── ...
├── playbooks/
│   ├── deploy.yaml
│   └── backup.yaml
└── assertions/
    ├── baseline.yaml
    └── post-change.yaml

Tips

• Keep netmodel’s metadata.yaml for tracking when configs were exported
• Use --dedup to extract shared config to group_vars/ automatically
• Run netmodel periodically to detect drift
• Pair with netsert for validation after Ansible runs