Inventory File

The inventory file is the list of all devices that a task file could possibly run against. They are separated into groups which can then be specified in a task file to run against. An inventory file can be set in the task file itself, or on the command line using the -i flag. Using the cli flag is recommended.

• All devices must be in a group.

• The global group may contain settings that apply to all devices unless overridden by the device.

• The global group cannot contain devices.

• Device names cannot contain a space.

• Group names may contain numbers, letters, underscores, hyphens and spaces.

• If multiple groups are declared with the same name, the devices will be appended to a single group.

  • Example: The following will result in a single group named “group1” with devices device1, device2, device3, and device4:

    [group1]
    device1
    device2
    
    [group1]
    device3
    device4
    

• Devices may be in multiple groups. Any device settings must be declared on the first declaration.

• Settings are “key=value” pairs separated by a space on the same line as the device name. If a setting value contains a space, it must be enclosed in double quotes.

• Both devices and groups may have settings

• Order of setting precedence is Global -> Task -> Group -> Device

• Available settings:

  • remote_user - Defaults to “root”
  • remote_password - Defaults to “”
  • cisco_enable - Defaults to remote_password
  • protocol - Defaults to “ssh”
  • address - Defaults to device name

Example:

[global]
remote_user = user
remote_password = pass

[server room]
Server_Switch_1 address=10.0.0.1
Switch2.example.com

[building 1] remote_user="jarvis"
Building1_1 address=10.0.0.2 protocol=telnet
Builsing1_2 address=10.0.0.3 remote_password="chicken feet"

[all switches]
Server_Switch_1
Switch2.example.com
Building1_1
Building1_2

Multiple Inventory Files

Inventories can be separated into multiple files and then brought together at run time. There two ways to do this. The first is by including each file individually. The second is to use the output of an executable file and add it to the inventory. Both methods simply replace the include line in the parent file with the text from the included file itself or from the standard output of the executable. The purpose of includes is to provide a way to separate the different parts of a network/system and break them into manageable chunks.

Example using normal file includes

Example root inventory file:

[global]
remote_user = user
remote_password = pass

@devices/server_room_1.conf
@devices/server_room_2.conf

devices/server_room_1.conf:

[server room 1]
webserver1.example.com
webserver2.example.com

devices/server_room_2.conf:

[server room 2]
db1.example.com
db2.example.com

When compiled, it will turn into this:

[global]
remote_user = user
remote_password = pass

[server room 1]
webserver1.example.com
webserver2.example.com

[server room 2]
db1.example.com
db2.example.com

Example using script include

Say we have a directory that contains ”.conf” files containing our inventory. We can create a script that will dynamically concatenate the files together. This way we don’t need to specify each file by hand.

Example root inventory file:

@!devices/compile.sh

devices/compile.sh:

#!/bin/sh
for f in *.conf; do
    cat $f
done

When ran, it could generate something like the example file above. Again, this would make it so when a new ”.conf” file is created in the directory, it would be picked up automatically on the next run. This can be very helpful for dynamic environments.