ansible.netcommon.grpc connection – Provides a persistent connection using the gRPC protocol

Note

This connection plugin is part of the ansible.netcommon collection (version 7.1.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.netcommon. You need further requirements to be able to use this connection plugin, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: ansible.netcommon.grpc.

New in ansible.netcommon 3.1.0

Synopsis

  • This connection plugin provides a connection to remote devices over gRPC and is typically used with devices for sending and receiving RPC calls over gRPC framework.

  • Note this connection plugin requires the grpcio python library to be installed on the local Ansible controller.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the local controller node that executes this connection.

  • grpcio

  • protobuf

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

certificate_chain_file

string

The PEM encoded certificate chain file used to create a SSL-enabled channel. If the value is None, no certificate chain is used.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [grpc_connection]
certificate_chain_file = VALUE

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_CERTIFICATE_CHAIN_FILE

  • Variable: ansible_certificate_chain_file

grpc_type

string

This option indicates the grpc type and it can be used in place of network_os. (example cisco.iosxr.iosxr)

Default: false

Configuration:

host

string

Specifies the remote device FQDN or IP address to establish the gRPC connection to.

Default: "inventory_hostname"

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_host

import_modules

boolean

Reduce CPU usage and network module execution time by enabling direct execution. Instead of the module being packaged and executed by the shell, it will be directly executed by the Ansible control node using the same python interpreter as the Ansible process. Note- Incompatible with asynchronous mode. Note- Python 3 and Ansible 2.9.16 or greater required. Note- With Ansible 2.9.x fully qualified modules names are required in tasks.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

Configuration:

network_os

string

Configures the device platform network operating system. This value is used to load a device specific grpc plugin to communicate with the remote device.

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_network_os

password

string

Configures the user password used to authenticate to the remote device when first establishing the gRPC connection.

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_password

  • Variable: ansible_ssh_pass

persistent_command_timeout

integer

Configures, in seconds, the amount of time to wait for a command to return from the remote device. If this timer is exceeded before the command returns, the connection plugin will raise an exception and close.

Default: 30

Configuration:

persistent_connect_timeout

integer

Configures, in seconds, the amount of time to wait when trying to initially establish a persistent connection. If this value expires before the connection to the remote device is completed, the connection will fail.

Default: 30

Configuration:

persistent_log_messages

boolean

This flag will enable logging the command executed and response received from target device in the ansible log file. For this option to work ‘log_path’ ansible configuration option is required to be set to a file path with write access.

Be sure to fully understand the security implications of enabling this option as it could create a security vulnerability by logging sensitive information in log file.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

Configuration:

port

integer

Specifies the port on the remote device that listens for connections when establishing the gRPC connection. If None only the host part will be used.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [defaults]
remote_port = VALUE

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_REMOTE_PORT

  • Variable: ansible_port

private_key_file

string

The PEM encoded private key file used to authenticate to the remote device when first establishing the grpc connection.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [grpc_connection]
private_key_file = VALUE

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE

  • Variable: ansible_private_key_file

remote_user

string

The username used to authenticate to the remote device when the gRPC connection is first established. If the remote_user is not specified, the connection will use the username of the logged in user.

Can be configured from the CLI via the --user or -u options.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [defaults]
remote_user = VALUE

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_REMOTE_USER

  • Variable: ansible_user

root_certificates_file

string

The PEM encoded root certificate file used to create a SSL-enabled channel, if the value is None it reads the root certificates from a default location chosen by gRPC at runtime.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [grpc_connection]
root_certificates_file = VALUE

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_ROOT_CERTIFICATES_FILE

  • Variable: ansible_root_certificates_file

ssl_target_name_override

string

The option overrides SSL target name used for SSL host name checking. The name used for SSL host name checking will be the target parameter (assuming that the secure channel is an SSL channel). If this parameter is specified and the underlying is not an SSL channel, it will just be ignored.

Configuration:

Authors

  • Ansible Networking Team (@ansible-network)

Hint

Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up.