Improve visibility and automation – Infoblox DDI now integrates with Ansible 2.5 [ Edited ]

[#1]

We are excited to announce that Infoblox has integrated with Ansible 2.5 to help customers easily manage new devices, VMs, and hosts that join and leave the network. The key benefit of this integration is the automation across hybrid deployments, thus reducing time to deployment.

In today’s environment new devices, VMs and hosts join and leave the network all the time. Additionally, the hybrid deployment model (combination of on-premises, virtual, and/or cloud), inhibits visibility across the network. If administrators and DevOps could see all the devices in one place and automate the cumbersome process of assigning and retracting IP addresses to devices that enter and leave the network, it would significantly reduce time to deployment and ongoing maintenance. That’s where Infoblox comes into the picture. Infoblox, the market leader in DNS, DHCP and IPAM (DDI), acts as a “single source of truth” for network and devices and hence, Infoblox-Ansible integration lets DevOps team to collaborate with network teams and automate cumbersome and slow manual processes, thus reducing time to deployment.

Figure shows the brief overview of the Infoblox DDI integration with Ansible.

 

When a VM or host joins the network, Ansible receives the next available IP address from Infoblox DDI and assigns that address. When a VM or host is removed from the network, the IP address goes back into the pool of available IP addresses. For network professionals, their networking Ansible Playbook integrates with the Infoblox for IP Address Management (IPAM), for tracking IP address inventory, and much more.

The benefits of the Infoblox-Ansible integration include:   

1. Implementing Ansible throughout the datacenter leverages a common framework.
2. Breaks silos and builds bridges between logical IT services (servers, networks, storage).
3. Automates manual processes across hybrid deployments (on-premises, virtual and/or cloud), thus reducing time to deployment.
4. Supports Infoblox as the “source of truth”.
5. Enables dynamic inventory source for Ansible.
6. Extends to Ansible Tower, allowing RBAC for Infoblox functions by specific users, at specific intervals.

Infoblox Ansible integration works with NIOS 7.X or higher. Infoblox and Ansible will work together to ensure stability and performance as the integration and NIOS evolve. Since Ansible is an open-source project, customers will only need an Infoblox DDI license to implement this integration. The integration with Ansible 2.5 is a “Community Module,” supported by the open source community. Ansible plans to move the integration to what they call a “Core Module” with full support.

To learn more about Infoblox Ansible integration, please visit https://www.ansible.com/blog/infoblox-integration-in-ansible-2.5 

About Ansible:

Ansible is an open source IT configuration management, configuration and orchestration tool. It supports disparate server platforms, but it’s unique because it is not proprietary and uses Secure Shell (“SSH”) for communication, and that is usually installed on all managed systems. In additional to automating manual tasks, Ansible leverages human readable YAML “Playbooks” to define and execute tasks, uses platform-specific “modules” to abstract low-level complexity. It has low-cost adoption curve because it is open source and does not require expensive training and that’s why it is used by thousands of enterprises.

[#2]

Will there be a NetMRI counterpart for the dynamic inventory?

[#3]

No at the moment

But we do have a python API library you can use now and also we have some stuff on GitHub

https://github.com/infobloxopen/infoblox-netmri

Also, what do you mean Dynamic Inventory?

[#4]

I was refering to benifit #5 from the article: Enables dynamic inventory source for Ansible

That matches with the Ansible documentation

[#5]

was there any answer to this?