Install and Upgrade Junos Software Packages Using Ansible

In a previous post, I talked about how you can use Ansible to automate Cisco IOS device upgrades. In this post I will show you how easily you can do the same thing on Junos. 

With Cisco IOS, I had to use several modules in my playbook to be able to automate the upgrade process because there was not a single module available that could handle all the tasks.  

As I was trying to expand my Ansible knowledge, I began looking at the available Ansible networking modules that run on Juniper devices. It turns out junos_package is a core module (comes installed with Ansible) and can take care of the entire process: copy the package to the device flash, install the package, commit, and reboot.

My Setup:

– Python 2.7.6 and Ansible 2.2 running on Ubuntu 14.4.5 LTS (codename: Trusty)

– Juniper vSRX running version 12.1X47-D10.4

Requirements:

– You need to have Ansible and Junos PyEZ installed. Junos PyEZ is a Python library to manage remotely and automate Junos devices.

– Netconf and SSH enabled on the Junos device. 

 The following playbook consists of few tasks: Ansible collects first device facts. Then the junos_package module compares the running version on the Junos device with the version defined in the “package” variable and upgrades the device if there is a mismatch. Once the device reboots with the new package, Ansible will wait until that device becomes reachable via Netconf and then attempts to ping a root DNS from the device to check internet connectivity. If the destination is not reachable, Ansible will generate a “ping failed” error.

You can of course expand this playbook to include tasks to verify that routing protocols have come up after the reboot. 

 


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1 Comment

  1. Eric

    Hi Anas,

    Thanks for the post. I am also exploring the possibility of upgrading SRXs with Ansible playbook. I am talking about over 300 SRXs in my company, some are in chassis cluster and some are in standalone.

    It will be great if you can show the output of the playbook.

    Thanks,
    Eric.

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