Add nodes and interfaces with Ansible into Orion

Hello,

I was wondering if its yet possible to use Ansible to add nodes into Orion? I have a set of playbooks for configuring switches and routers and would like to do the same with adding devices into Orion ideally with relevant information such as location, groups etc. I would then also like the option to select interfaces that would also like to be monitoring via Ansible playbook.

Is this feature available yet and or coming soon?

Thanks

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christopher.t.jones123

@johnmcavoy1, are you looking for an Ansible module specifically for SW? To the best of my knowledge that doesn't exist, BUT Ansible is so flexible you could facilitate this in other ways like having Ansible execute a PS script against SolarWinds to add the node(s) in question as part of the playbook. If you're using Tower or AWX you could even use a workflow so that it's just a job within the workflow. Does that help?

jm_sysadmin

I agree, there are example of using the API here on Thwack, and take a look at the links below for some resources with samples.

Powershell SDK: GitHub - solarwinds/OrionSDK: SDK for the SolarWinds Orion platform, including tools, documentation, and samples in PowerShell, C#, Go, Perl, and Java.

Python SDK GitHub - solarwinds/orionsdk-python: Python client for interacting with the SolarWinds Orion API

Look at the API from Rest calls

Swagger UI (solarwinds.github.io)

johnmcavoy1

Thank you for the responses. I have tried the python modules and they work well.

Python is not my strongest area though but I have had some degree of success with Ansible in automation tasks particularly looping with variable data. If I can call the python scripts and inject my variable data into that as I do my playbooks then I should be good. I just need to now work out how.

Thanks

John

christopher.t.jones123

@johnmcavoy1, so I'm not an Ansible expert by any means, but below is a workflow example that i had set up for AWX. The first playbook is requesting an IP from IPAM, then creating a VM with that IP, and then finally adding it as a node in SolarWinds. I know its not directly related to your request but should demonstrate how to take a inject variable data and output variables for later use in the workflows. any values encapsulates within a {{}} is a variable field that is either prompted for or obtained through the workflow.

Get IP from IPAM

- hosts: Solarwinds
  tasks:
   - name: Obtain first available IP
     win_shell: |
      Import-Module SwisPowerShell
      $swis= Connect-swis -hostname 'localhost' -username 'username' -password 'password'
      $firstavailableIP= Invoke-SwisVerb $swis IPAM.SubnetManagement GetFirstAvailableIP @("{{ SUBNET }}", "24")
      $setIPStatus= Invoke-SwisVerb $swis IPAM.SubnetManagement ChangeIPStatus @("$($firstavailableip.'#text')", "Blocked")
      Write-Output "$($firstavailableIP.'#text')"
     register: IP_VAR
   - debug:
       var: IP_VAR.stdout_lines[0]
   - name: "Artifact IP for use in Workflow"
     set_stats:
      data:
        IP: "{{ IP_VAR.stdout_lines[0] }}"

Deploy VM

---
- hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  gather_facts: no
  tasks:
  - name: Clone the template
    become: yes
    vmware_guest:
     hostname: vcenter.local
     username: username
     password: password
     validate_certs: False
     name: "{{ NodeAddName }}"
     template: 'Win2k19'
     datacenter: 'DC1'
     folder: VM
     state: poweredon
     networks:
      - name: VMNetwork
        ip: "{{ IP }}"
        netmask: 255.255.255.0
        gateway: 192.168.10.1
        start_connected: yes
     wait_for_ip_address: yes

Add to SW

---
#Add External Node via Powershell Through Ansible
- hosts: Solarwinds
  tasks:
   - name: Add a Node via Powershell
     win_shell: |
       import-Module SwisPowerShell
       # Connect to SWIS
       $hostname = "localhost"
       $swis = Connect-Swis -host $hostname -Certificate
       #Import New Nodes
       # Set Properties for New External Node
       $newNodeProps = @{
          IPAddress = "{{ IP }}"
          EngineID = 1
          ObjectSubType = "ICMP"
          External = "true"
          Community = "external"
          DNS = "{{ NodeAddName }}"
          SysName = "{{ NodeAddName }}"
          Caption = "{{ NodeAddName }}"
        }
        New-SwisObject $swis -EntityType "Orion.Nodes" -Properties $newNodeProps

bobmarley

Definitely doable, we use powershell and python for our add/delete scripts.