NetScaler Ansible Collection version2 - netscaler.adc

⚠️ Note: The earlier citrix.adc ansible collection is replaced with the new netscaler.adc ansible collection.

The citrix.adc ansible collection is backed up by a separate branch citrix.adc

Vision

The vision of the netscaler.adc collection is to provide a complete declarative interface to configure and manage NetScaler ADC.

If you need any feature or flexibility that is not available in the collection at the moment, please raise issues/enhancement-requests/recommendations at https://github.com/netscaler/ansible-collection-netscaleradc/issues

✉️ For any immediate issues or help , reach out to us at NetScaler-AutomationToolkit@cloud.com !

About version1 and version2 of the collection

We refer the earlier citrix.adc ansible collection as version1 and the new netscaler.adc as version2.

This is the version2 of the NetScaler Ansible Collection. It is a complete rewrite of the collection. The collection is not backward compatible with the version1 of the collection.

citrix.adc collection will be deprecated soon and will not be maintained further. It is recommended to migrate to the netscaler.adc collection.

About the netscaler.adc collection (version2)

The collection provides Ansible modules to configure and manage NetScaler ADC appliances. The modules are written using the NITRO API. The modules are idempotent and can be used to configure the NetScaler ADC appliances in declarative manner.

Installation

ansible-galaxy

ansible-galaxy collection install netscaler.adc

via github (to have the latest updated which are yet to be released in ansible-galaxy)

ansible-galaxy collection install "git+https://github.com/netscaler/ansible-collection-netscaleradc.git" [--force]

--force option is required if you have already installed the collection via ansible-galaxy. This will overwrite the existing collection with the latest collection from github.

Verify the installation

ansible-galaxy collection list netscaler.adc

The above command should display the following output:

# /Users/netscaleruser/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection    Version
------------- -------
netscaler.adc 2.0.x

Collection Modules Documentation

https://netscaler.github.io/ansible-collection-netscaleradc/

You can also click on the desired module name in the supported_modules_matrix.md file to go to the specific module documentation

Examples

Refer to the examples directory for the sample playbooks.

Also refer playbook_anatomy.md for the anatomy of a playbook.

🔑 Authentication

Authenticate to NetScaler via username and password

Every module in the collection requires the user to authenticate to the NetScaler ADC appliance. The authentication can be done using the nitro_user and nitro_pass parameters. These parameters can also be passed as environment variables NETSCALER_NITRO_USER and NETSCALER_NITRO_PASS.

Refer to the playbook_anatomy.md and examples directory for the sample playbooks.

Authenticate to NetScaler

Password based authentication

Every task in the collection requires the user to authenticate to the NetScaler ADC appliance. The authentication can be done using the nsip, nitro_user and nitro_pass parameters. These parameters can also be passed as environment variables NETSCALER_NSIP, NETSCALER_NITRO_USER and NETSCALER_NITRO_PASS.

Using netscaler.adc.module_defaults group

To avoid having to specify common parameters for all the modules in every task, you can use the netscaler.adc.module_defaults module defaults group:

Refer examples/module_default_args_action_group.yaml for an example playbook.

Passwordless via nitro_auth_token parameter (SESSIONID based authentication)

The collection also supports authentication to NetScaler ADC appliance via token. The token can be generated using the login module. The token can be passed to other modules using the nitro_auth_token parameter. The nitro_token parameter can also be passed as environment variable NETSCALER_NITRO_AUTH_TOKEN.

Refer to the playbook_anatomy.md and sessionid_based_authentication_via_login_logout.yaml example playbook.

login module requres username and password parameters to be passed. If you do not wish to pass the username and password, refer below.

You can use the below curl command to generate the token. The token can be passed to other modules using the nitro_auth_token parameter. The nitro_auth_token parameter can also be passed as environment variable NETSCALER_NITRO_AUTH_TOKEN. The token is valid for 60 minutes.

The below command also uses jq to parse the JSON output and store the sessionid in the NETSCALER_NITRO_AUTH_TOKEN environment variable, so that it can be used by other modules.

change the NETSCALER_NSIP, NETSCALER_NITRO_USER and NETSCALER_NITRO_PASS

Install jq util if not already installed.

export NETSCALER_NITRO_AUTH_TOKEN=$(curl -X POST -H "Content-Type:application/json" --insecure --silent https://NETSCALER_NSIP/nitro/v1/config/login -d '{"login":{"username":"NETSCALER_NITRO_USER", "password":"NETSCALER_NITRO_PASS"}}' | jq .sessionid)
echo $NETSCALER_NITRO_AUTH_TOKEN

NetScaler Console (ADM) as a Proxy Server

Refer to the NetScaler ADM as an API proxy server for more details.

The collection supports configuring NetScaler Console as a proxy server. This is useful when you have multiple NetScaler ADC appliances and you want to manage them using a single NetScaler Console.

An example can be found in examples/netscaler_console_as_proxy_server.yaml

Also, refer to the playbook_anatomy.md for more details.

Steps to configure NetScaler Console as a proxy server

1. Login to NetScaler Console and get the session ID
2. Use the session ID in the subsequent tasks to configure the managed NetScalers via the NetScaler Console as a proxy server
3. Logout from the NetScaler Console (optional)

Supported Ansible Versions

This collection is tested for Ansible version 2.14 and above.

Please raise issues at https://github.com/netscaler/ansible-collection-netscaleradc/issues if you face any issues with the collection.

Features of netscaler.adc collection

Refer to the features_v2.md file for the features of the netscaler.adc collection.

Migrating from citrix.adc collection to netscaler.adc collection

Both citrix.adc and netscaler.adc can be used in the same Ansible playbook. However, it is recommended to migrate to netscaler.adc collection.

Refer to the migrating_from_v1_v2.md file for the migration steps.

Supported Modules in netscaler.adc collection

Refer to the supported_modules_matrix.md file for the list of supported modules in netscaler.adc collection.

Todo list for the netscaler.adc collection

• Support for nitro_auth_token parameter in all modules.
• Update supported matrix to have documentation links
• Add appropriate license to the collection.
• Upload the collection to Ansible Galaxy.
• Support configuring ADC with ADM as proxy. Refer to NetScaler ADM as an API proxy server for more details.
• Implement SSH connection module
• Support for generic modules similar to citrix.adc.nitro_request and citrix.adc.nitro_resource?
• migration tool to convert citrix.adc playbooks (including generic citrix.adc.nitro_request and citrix.adc.nitro_resource modules) to netscaler.adc modules
• Add more examples
• Write a python script which converts examples/playbook.yaml to module's EXAMPLE documentation
• Test modules against all NetScaler ADC versions.
• Test modules againsts ansible versions 2.9+
• Configure GitHub Actions to automate the collection build and release process.
• Configure GitHub Actions to automate the collection testing process.
• Configure GitHub Actions to automate the collection linting process.
• Collect NetScaler info (version, etc) and store it in the facts dictionary