Telnet to network devices

[Ashish Sagar]

Folks,

I am aware that native ansible doesn't  support telnet. Do we have any alternate to test playbooks while telnet to network devices  in lab environment ?

Thanks

Ashish

[Claudia de Luna]

Hi Ashish,

Have you tried the Telnet module?

The docs actually include IOS examples:

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/telnet_module.html

Sample Playbook:

root@f23399314267:/ansible_local/cisco_ios# cat telnet.yml

---

- name: Telnet Example

  hosts: local_lab

  gather_facts: false

  connection: local

  ignore_errors: yes

  tasks:

    - name: run show commands

      telnet:

        user: cisco

        password: cisco

        login_prompt: "Username: "

        prompts:

          - "[>#]"

        command:

          - show ip int br

      register: output

    - name: Display output

      debug:

        var: output

Sample Output:

root@f23399314267:/ansible_local/cisco_ios# ansible-playbook -i hosts telnet.yml

PLAY [Telnet Example] *************************************************************************************************************

TASK [run show commands] **********************************************************************************************************

changed: [10.1.10.101]

TASK [Display output] *************************************************************************************************************

ok: [10.1.10.101] => {

    "output": {

        "changed": true,

        "failed": false,

        "output": [

            "show ip int br\r\nInterface                  IP-Address      OK? Method Status                Protocol\r\nEthernet0                  10.1.10.101     YES NVRAM  up                    up      \r\nLoopback0                  10.1.0.99       YES NVRAM  up                    up      \r\nSerial0                    unassigned      YES NVRAM  administratively down down    \r\nSerial1                    unassigned      YES NVRAM  administratively down down    \r\nTS-2509>"

        ]

    }

}

PLAY RECAP ************************************************************************************************************************

10.1.10.101                : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

root@f23399314267:/ansible_local/cisco_ios#