Install Cisco VIRL on packet.net

This project was borne out of a need to quickly spin up and tear down a Cisco VIRL server for study purposes.

The deploy-virl-packet-server playbook will:

• Provision a Cisco VIRL server on https://packet.net/
• Install the latest version of Cisco VIRL

The teardown-virl-packet-server playbook will:

• Destroy the Cisco VIRL server on https://packet.net/

NOTES

• This project will NOT install a licensed VIRL; you still have to register this instance with Cisco.
• You will also have to download the VMaestro client in order to run your topologies.

Packet.net setup requirements

Visit https://packet.net/:

• Create an account and add a form of payment
• Create a project called cisco_virl
• Add a personal or project api key
  • create an ssh key pair and upload the public key to Packet.net

On your ansible control machine

Install packet-python

pip install packet-python

Update ansible.cfg to point to your vault password file*

[defaults]
inventory      = inventory
host_key_checking = False
vault_password_file = </path/to/your/vault/password/file>
retry_files_enabled = False
[persistent_connection]
command_timeout = 100

*or remove the 'vault_password_file' line if you prefer to supply the password some other way

Update roles/virl-packet-net-provision/vars/vault.yml with your api key

---
# roles/packet-net-provision/vars/vault.yml
vaulted_api_token: <your_api_key>

Update roles/virl-packet-net-teardown/vars/vault.yml with your api key

---
# roles/packet-net-provision/vars/vault.yml
vaulted_api_token: <your_api_key>

#### Vault your api key
```ansible-vault encrypt roles/packet-net-provision/vars/vault.yml```

Run it

Provision instance and install Cisco VIRL

ansible-playbook deploy-virl-packet-server.yml

Tear down Cisco VIRL instance

ansible-playbook teardown-virl-packet-server.yml