This role enables users to configure network on target machines. The role can be used to configure:
- Ethernet interfaces
- Bridge interfaces
- Bonded interfaces
- VLAN interfaces
- MacVLAN interfaces
- Infiniband interfaces
- IP configuration
The role supports two providers: nm
and initscripts
. The provider can be
configured per host via the network_provider
variable. In
absence of explicit configuration, it is autodetected based on the
distribution. The nm
provider is used by default on RHEL7 and initscripts
on RHEL6. However, note that the provider is not tied to a certain
distribution, given that the required API is available. For nm
this means
that at least version 1.2 of NetworkManager's API is available. For
initscripts
, it requires the legacy network service as commonly available on
Fedora/RHEL.
For each host a list of networking profiles can be configured via the
network_connections
variable.
-
For initscripts, profiles correspond to ifcfg files in
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*
. -
For NetworkManager, profiles correspond to connection profiles as handled by NetworkManager. Fedora and RHEL use the
rh-plugin
for NetworkManager which also writes configuration files to/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*
for compatibility.
Note that the role primarily operates on networking profiles (connections) and
not on devices but it defaults to use the profile name as the interface name.
But it is also possible to create generic profiles, by creating for example a
profile with a certain IP configuration without activating the profile. To
apply the configuration to the actual networking interface, a command like
nmcli
needs to be used on the target system.
The role updates or creates all connection profiles on the target system as
specified in the network_connections
variable. Therefore, the role will
remove settings from the specified profiles if the settings are only present on
the system but not in the network_connections
variable. The following
exceptions apply:
-
For profiles that only contain a
state
setting, the role will only activate or deactivate the connection without changing its configuration. -
The
route_append_only
setting allows to only add new routes to the existing routes on the system. -
The
rule_append_only
setting allows to preserve the current routing rules. There is no support to specify routing rules at the moment.
See also Limitations.
The role is configured via variables with a network_
name prefix.
The connection profiles are configured as network_connections
, which
is a list of dictionaries that have a name
.
The name
identifies the connection profile. It is not the name of the
networking interface for which the profile applies, though it makes
sense to restrict the profile to an interface and give them the same name.
Note also that you can have multiple profiles for the same device, but of
course only one profile can be active on the device at each time. Note that
for NetworkManager, a connection can only be active at one device at a time.
-
For NetworkManager, the
name
translates toconnection.id
. Altough NetworkManager supports multiple connections with the sameconnection.id
, this role cannot handle a duplicatename
. Specifying aname
multiple times refers to the same connection profile. -
For initscripts, the name determines the ifcfg file name
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-$NAME
. Note that here too the name doesn't specify theDEVICE
but a filename. As a consequence'/'
is not a valid character for the name.
Each connection profile can have a runtime state, represented by the state
setting and a persistent state, represtented by the persistent_state
setting.
The optional state
setting supports the following values:
up
down
It defines whether the profile is activated (up
) or deactivated (down
). If
it is unset, the profile's runtime state will not be changed.
The persistent_state
setting is either present
(default) or absent
. If
the persistent_state
setting is present
and the connection profile contains
a type
setting, the profile will be created or updated. If the profile is
incomplete (lacks the type
setting) and persistent_state
is present
,
the behavior is undefined. The value absent
makes the role ensure
that the profile is not present on the target host.
network_connections:
- name: eth0
persistent_state: absent
Above example ensures the absence of a connection profile. If a profile with name
eth0
exists, it will be deleted.
-
For NetworkManager this deletes all connection profiles with the matching
connection.id
. Deleting a profile usually does not change the current networking configuration, unless the profile was currently activated on a device. In that case deleting the currently active connection profile disconnects the device. That makes the device eligible to autoconnect another connection (see also rh#1401515). -
For initscripts it results in the deletion of the ifcfg file. Usually that has no side-effect, unless some component is watching the sysconfig directory.
network_connections:
- name: eth0
#persistent_state: present # default
type: ethernet
autoconnect: yes
mac: 00:00:5e:00:53:5d
ip:
dhcp4: yes
Above example creates a new connection profile or ensures that it is present
with the given configuration. It implies the persistent_state
setting to be
present
.
Valid values for type
are:
bond
bridge
ethernet
infiniband
macvlan
team
vlan
The value present
for the persistent_state
setting does not directly
result in a change in the network configuration. That is, without state
set to up
, the profile is only created or modified, not activated.
- For NetworkManager, note the new connection profile is created with
autoconnect
turned on by default. Thus, NetworkManager may very well decide right away to activate the new profile on a currently disconnected device. (rh#1401515).
By default, profiles are created with autoconnect enabled.
-
For NetworkManager, this translates to the
connection.autoconnect
property. -
For initscripts, this corresponds to the
ONBOOT
property.
The mac
address is optional and restricts the profile to be usable only on
devices with the given MAC address. mac
is only allowed for type
ethernet
or type
infiniband
to match a non-virtual device with the
profile.
-
For NetworkManager
mac
is the permanent MAC addressethernet.mac-address
. -
For initscripts, this means the currently configured MAC address of the device (
HWADDR
).
For the types ethernet
and infiniband
, this option restricts the profile to
the given interface by name. This argument is optional and by default the
profile name is used unless a mac address is specified using the mac
key.
Specifying an empty string (""
) allows to specify that the profile is not
restricted to a network interface.
Note: With persistent interface naming,
the interface is predictable based on the hardware configuration.
Otherwise, the mac
address might be an option.
For virtual interface types like bridges, this argument is the name of the created
interface. In case of a missing interface_name
, the profile name name
is used.
Note: The profile name name
and the device name interface_name
may be
different or the profile may not be tied to an interface at all.
Sets the firewalld zone for the interface.
Slaves to bridge/bond/team devices cannot specify a zone.
network_connections:
- name: eth0
state: up
The above example requires an existing profile to activate.
-
For NetworkManager this results in
nmcli connection id {{name}} up
. -
For initscripts it is the same as
ifup {{name}}
.
State up
also supports an optional integer setting wait
. wait: 0
will
only initiate the activation but not wait until the device is fully connected.
Connection will complete in the background, for example after a DHCP lease was
received. wait: <SECONDS>
is a timeout for how long we give the device to
activate. The default is using a suitable timeout. Note that this setting is
only supported by NetworkManager.
TODO wait
different from zero is not yet implemented.
Note that state up
always re-activates the profile and possibly changes the
networking configuration, even if the profile was already active before. As
such, it always changes the system.
network_connections:
- name: eth0
state: down
Another state
is down
.
-
For NetworkManager it is like calling
nmcli connection id {{name}} down
. -
For initscripts this means to call
ifdown {{name}}
.
This is the opposite of the up
state. It also will always issue the command
to deactivate the profile, even it if seemingly is currently not active. As
such, down
always changes the system.
For NetworkManager, a wait
argument is supported like for up
state.
network_connections:
- name: Wired0
type: ethernet
interface_name: eth0
ip:
dhcp4: yes
- name: Wired0
state: up
As said, the name
identifies a unique profile. However, you can refer to the
same profile multiple times. Therefore it is possible to create a profile and
activate it separately.
The IP configuration supports the following options:
network_connections:
- name: eth0
type: ethernet
ip:
route_metric4: 100
dhcp4: no
#dhcp4_send_hostname: no
gateway4: 192.0.2.1
dns:
- 192.0.2.2
- 198.51.100.5
dns_search:
- example.com
- subdomain.example.com
route_metric6: -1
auto6: no
gateway6: 2001:db8::1
address:
- 192.0.2.3/24
- 198.51.100.3/26
- 2001:db8::80/7
route:
- network: 198.51.100.128
prefix: 26
gateway: 198.51.100.1
metric: 2
- network: 198.51.100.64
prefix: 26
gateway: 198.51.100.6
metric: 4
route_append_only: no
rule_append_only: yes
Manual addressing can be specified via a list of addresses and prefixes address
.
Also, manual addressing can be combined with either dhcp4
and auto6
for DHCPv4
and SLAAC. The dhcp4
and auto6
keys can be omitted and the default depends on the
presence of manual addresses.
If dhcp4
is enabled, it can be configured whether
the DHCPv4 request includes the hostname via dhcp4_send_hostname
.
Note that dhcp4_send_hostname
is only supported by the nm
provider and translates
to ipv4.dhcp-send-hostname
property.
Manual DNS configuration can be specified via a list of addresses
given in the dns
option and a list of domains to search given in the
dns_search
option.
- For NetworkManager,
route_metric4
androute_metric6
corresponds to theipv4.route-metric
andipv6.route-metric
properties, respectively. If specified, it determines the route metric for DHCP assigned routes and the default route, and thus the priority for multiple interfaces.
Static route configuration can be specified via a list of routes given in the route
option. The default value is an empty list. Each route is a dictionary with the following
entries: network
, prefix
, gateway
and metric
. network
and prefix
together specify
the destination network. CIDR notation or network mask notation are not supported yet. If the
boolean option route_append_only
is yes
, the specified routes are appended to the
existing routes, if it is no
(default), the current routes are replaced. Setting this
option to yes
without setting route
has the effect of preserving the current static routes. The
boolean option rule_append_only
works in a similar way for routing rules. Note that there is
no further support for routing rules at the moment, so this option serves merely the purpose
of preserving the current routing rules. Note also that when
route_append_only
/rule_append_only
is not specified, the current routes/routing rules will
be deleted by the role.
Slaves to bridge/bond/team devices cannot specify ip
settings.
Ethernet-specific options can be set using the connection profile variable ethernet
. This
variable should be specified as a dictionary with the following items (options): autoneg
, speed
and duplex
,
which correspond to the settings of the ethtool
utility with the same name. speed
is an
integer giving the speed in Mb/s, the valid values of duplex
are half
and full
, and
autoneg
accepts a boolean value (default is yes
) to configure autonegotiation. The speed
and duplex
settings are required when autonegotiation is disabled.
network_connections:
- name: eth0
type: ethernet
ethernet:
autoneg: no
speed: 1000
duplex: full
Device types like bridge
, bond
, team
work similar:
network_connections:
- name: br0
type: bridge
#interface_name: br0 # defaults to the connection name
Note that team
is not supported on RHEL6 kernels.
For slaves of these virtual types, the special properites slave_type
and
master
must be set. Also note that slaves cannot have ip
settings.
network_connections:
- name: internal-br0
interface_name: br0
type: bridge
ip:
dhcp4: no
auto6: no
- name: br0-bond0
type: bond
interface_name: bond0
master: internal-br0
slave_type: bridge
- name: br0-bond0-eth1
type: ethernet
interface_name: eth1
master: br0-bond0
slave_type: bond
Note that the master
refers to the name
of a profile in the ansible
playbook. That is, it is neither an interface-name, nor a connection-id of
NetworkManager.
-
For NetworkManager,
master
will be converted to theconnection.uuid
of the corresponding profile. -
For initscripts, the master is looked up as the
DEVICE
from the corresponding ifcfg file.
As master
refers to other profiles of the same or another play,
the order of the connections
list matters. Also, --check
ignores
the value of the master
and assumes it will be present during a real
run. That means, in presence of an invalid master
, --check
may
signal success but the actual play run fails.
VLANs work too:
network_connections:
- name: eth1-profile
autoconnet: no
type: ethernet
interface_name: eth1
ip:
dhcp4: no
auto6: no
- name: eth1.6
autoconnect: no
type: vlan
parent: eth1-profile
vlan:
id: 6
ip:
address:
- 192.0.2.5/24
auto6: no
Like for master
, the parent
references the connection profile in the ansible
role.
MACVLANs also work:
network_connections:
- name: eth0-profile
type: ethernet
interface_name: eth0
ip:
address:
- 192.168.0.1/24
- name: veth0
type: macvlan
parent: eth0-profile
macvlan:
mode: bridge
promiscuous: yes
tap: no
ip:
address:
- 192.168.1.1/24
Like for master
and vlan
, the parent
references the connection profile in the ansible
role.
When Network Manager is running on the target system, the role will use the
nm
provider and initscripts
otherwise. The variable network_provider
allows to specify a specific provider. Setting it to
network_provider_os_default
will choose the provider depening on the
operating system. This is usually nm
except for RHEL 6 or CentOS 6 systems.
network_provider: nm
network_connections:
- name: eth0
#...
Ansible usually works via the network, for example via SSH. This role doesn't answer how to bootstrap networking configuration. One option may be ansible-pull. Another to initially auto-configure the host during installation (ISO based, kickstart, etc.), so that the host is connected to a management LAN or VLAN. It strongly depends on your environment.
-
For initscripts provider, deploying a profile merely means to create the ifcfg files. Nothing happening automatically until the play issues
ifup
orifdown
via theup
ordown
states -- unless of course, there are other components that watch the ifcfg files and react on changes. -
The initscripts provider requires the different profiles to be in the right order when they depend on each other, for example the bonding master device needs to be specified before the slave devices.
-
When removing a profile for NetworkManager it will also take the connection down and possibly remove virtual interfaces. With the initscripts provider removing a profile does not change its current runtime state (this is going to be the case for NetworkManager in the future, too.).
-
For NetworkManager, modifying a connection with autoconnect enabled may result in the activation of the new profile on a previously disconnected interface. Also, deleting a NetworkManager connection that is currently active will tear down the interface. Therefore, the order of the steps may matter and or careful handling of autoconnect property may be necessary. This should be improved in NetworkManager RFE rh#1401515.
-
It seems difficult to change networking of the target host in a way that breaks the current SSH connection of ansible. If you want to do that, ansible-pull might be a solution. Alternatively, a combination of
async
/poll
with changing theansible_host
midway of the play. TODO The current role doesn't yet support to easily split the play in a pre-configure step, and a second step to activate the new configuration.
In general, to successfully run the play, one must understand which configuration is active in the first place and then carefully configure a sequence of steps to change to the new configuration. Don't cut off the branch on which you are sitting. The actual solution depends strongly on your environment.
When something goes wrong while configuring the networking remotely, you might need to get phyisical access to the machine to recover.
- TODO NetworkManager supports a checkpoint/rollback feature. At the beginning of the play we could create a checkpoint and if we lose connectivity due to an error, NetworkManager would automatically rollback after timeout. The limitations is that this would only work with NetworkManager, and it's not clear that rollback will result in a working configuration either.
The role will reject invalid configurations, so it is a good idea to test the role
with --check
first. There is no protection against wrong (but valid) configuration.
Double-check your configuration before applying it.
The role supports the same configuration scheme for both providers. That means, you can
use the same playbook with NetworkManager and initscripts. Note however, that not every
option is handled exactly the same by every provider. Do a test run first with --check
.
It is also not supported to create a configuration for one provider, and expect another
provider to handle them. For example, creating proviles with initscripts
provider
and later enabling NetworkManager is not guaranteed to work automatically. Possibly
you have to adjust the configuration so that it can be used by another provider.
For example what will work is to configure a RHEL6 host with initscripts and upgrade to RHEL7 while continuing to use initscripts on RHEL7. What is not guaranteed to work it to upgrade to RHEL7, disable initscripts and expect NetworkManager to take over the configuration automatically.
Depending on NetworkManager's configuration, connections may be stored as ifcfg files as well, but again it is not guaranteed that plain initscripts can handle these ifcfg files after disabling the NetworkManager service.