Reqirements

You should already be familiar with creating assets in Ansible Tower and know how Infoblox IPAM works.

First, install the Infoblox-client on your Ansible Tower server. This will install the python libraries necessary for Ansible to communicate with Infoblox.

$ sudo pip install Infoblox-client

Next, we need to create credentials so Ansible Tower can connect to Infoblox. For simplicity, I have put my credentials in a ~/secrests/nios.yml file.
This file will be used during testing, but isn't necessary when using Ansible TOwer. In a production environment, you will probably want to create a custom credential for Infoblox within Ansible Tower.

We will create a few files for this lab, so I will use the standard of putting the file name to be created before the code as follows:

Do not put the file name in the file.

~/secrets/nios.yml

---
nios_provider:
  host: 192.168.1.20
  username: admin
  password: Infoblox

Adding an ipv4 network

To start our playbook, we'll assign some default values for testing. These can be overridden later in Tower with a Survey.

Create a new file called nios_add_ipv4_network.yml

nios_add_ipv4_network.yml

---
- name: add ipv4 network to nios
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local

  vars:
    cidr: 24
    parent_container: 10.0.0.0/16
    start_dhcp_range: 100
    end_dhcp_range: 254
    region: North America
    country: USA
    state: CA

---

The first thing we need to do is query Infoblox for the next available subnet within our parent container. Add the following lines to your playbook. This will return the next available /24 (our cidr variable above) in the format 10.0.12.0/24 and assign it to the networkaddr variable.

tasks:
        
    - name: RETURN NEXT AVAILABLE NETWORK
      set_fact:
        networkaddr: "{{ lookup('nios_next_network', parent_container, cidr=cidr, provider=nios_provider) }}"

---

You can create the network with the nios_network module, but at this time the module does not support assigning the network to a grid member. For that, we need to use the Infoblox API and the Ansible uri module to make the change.

We will use a jinja2 template to create the json file necessary for our change.

templates/net_network.j2

{
    "network": "{{ networkaddr[0] }}",
    "members": [
       {
          "_struct": "dhcpmember",
          "ipv4addr" : "{{ nios_provider.host }}"
       }
    ]
 }

Add the following to your playbook to create the network.

- name: CREATE JSON FILE FOR NEW NETWORK
      template:
        src: templates/new_network.j2
        dest: new_network.json
      
- name: CREATE NETWORK OBJECT AND ASSIGN GRID MEMBER
    uri:
      url: https://{{ nios_provider.host }}/wapi/v{{ nios_provider.wapi_version }}/network
      method: POST
      user: "{{ nios_provider.username }}" 
      password: "{{ nios_provider.password }}"
      body: "{{ lookup('file','new_network.json') }}"
      body_format: json
      status_code: 201
      validate_certs: false

The output from our template will create a json file that will look like this

{
    "network": "10.0.12.0/24",
    "members": [
       {
          "_struct": "dhcpmember",
          "ipv4addr" : "192.168.1.20"
       }
    ]
 }

---

Now that we have a network created, let's create a DHCP range. We can use the Infoblox API for this task as well.

First, create the template file.

templates/new_lan_range.j2

{
     "start_addr": "{{ networkaddr[0] | ipaddr(start_dhcp_range) | ipaddr('address') }}",
     "end_addr": "{{ networkaddr[0] | ipaddr(end_dhcp_range) | ipaddr('address') }}",
     "server_association_type": "MEMBER" ,
     "member": 
        {
           "_struct": "dhcpmember",
           "ipv4addr" : "{{ nios_provider.host }}"
        }
     
  }

Then add the following to your playbook.

- name: CREATE JSON FILE FOR NEW DCHP RANGE
      template:
        src: templates/new_lan_range.j2
        dest: new_lan_range.json

- name: CREATE DHCP RANGE FOR NEW NETWORK
    uri:
      url: https://{{ nios_provider.host }}/wapi/v{{ nios_provider.wapi_version }}/range
      method: POST
      user: "{{ nios_provider.username }}" 
      password: "{{ nios_provider.password }}"
      body: "{{ lookup('file','new_lan_range.json') }}"
      body_format: json
      status_code: 201
      validate_certs: false

Our json file will look like the following.

{
     "start_addr": "10.0.12.100",
     "end_addr": "10.0.12.254",
     "server_association_type": "MEMBER" ,
     "member": 
        {
           "_struct": "dhcpmember",
           "ipv4addr" : "192.168.1.20"
        }
     
  }

---

Now that we have our new network created and have assigned a DHCP range, we can add in some details with the nios_network module. Here is where you can configure DHCP options and update your extensible attributes.

- name: UPDATE NEW NETWORK
  nios_network:
    network: "{{ item }}"
    comment: Added from Ansible
    extattrs:
      Region: "{{ region }}"
      Country: "{{ country }}"
      State: "{{ state }}"
    options:
      - name: domain-name
        value: example.com
      - name: routers
        value: "{{ item | ipaddr('1') | ipaddr('address') }}"
    state: present
    provider: "{{ nios_provider }}"
  loop: "{{ networkaddr }}"

---

We should tell Infoblox to restart the DHCP service since there was a change. The section grid/b25lLmNsdXN0ZXIkMA may differ for your installation. Please refer to the Infoblox documentation on how to determine this value.

 - name: RESTART DHCP SERVICE
      uri:
        url: https://{{ nios_provider.host }}/wapi/v{{ nios_provider.wapi_version }}/grid/b25lLmNsdXN0ZXIkMA:Infoblox?_function=restartservices
        method: POST
        user: "{{ nios_provider.username }}" 
        password: "{{ nios_provider.password }}"
        body: "{{ lookup('file','restart_dhcp_service.json') }}"
        body_format: json
        status_code: 200
        validate_certs: false

Create the json file restart_dhcp_service.json

$ vi restart_dhcp_service.json 

{
    "member_order" : "SIMULTANEOUSLY",
    "service_option": "DHCP"
}

---

Once the file is complete, you can push it to your source code repository and start testing. If you want to run the playbook from the command line:

$ ansible-playbook nios_add_ipv4_network.yml -e @~/secrets/nios.yml

In Ansible Tower, we will create a Job Template and Survey so anyone can create a new network in Infoblox.

You will also need to create a new Project that points to your source control. For the inventory, we can the Demo Inventory that includes localhost.

Create a job template for your new playbook. For a lab environment, include the contents of the nios.yml file in the extra variables section.

---

Add a survey so the user can choose where they need the new subnet created and customize any extensible attributes. A feature enhancement to the playbook would be to add logic that restricts where subnets can be created based on state, region, or other criteria. An example survey is below.

---

Before we launch our Job Template, let's take a look at Infoblox NIOS and see what existing networks we have.

You can see that 10.0.12.0/24 is the next available network.

---

Back in Ansible Tower, set the verbosity of your Job to 1 and launch.

---

You can see the next available network in the output

---

In Infoblox, examine the network and verify the changes have been made.

---

Next Steps

From here, you should be able to add additional tasks that can create host records or update existing networks. Add tests to make sure the parent container is valid based on some criteria, such as state or region. Try to write a playbook that updates the extensible attributes of an existing network.

Any automation journey should start with small wins. With the help of Ansible and Infoblox, you can automate a few small tasks today, and tomorrow you will have a fully automated IPAM solution.

References

Github Repo

Infoblox API Documentaion

Ansible Infoblox Guide

Ansible NIOS Modules

ipaddr jinja2 filter