Step 1 - Create Ansible Inventory File for Staging Topology

Now we need to configure the Ansible inventory file to tell Ansible how to reach the NDFC controller for the Staging topology.

---

---

Apply the following command in your Visual Studio Code Terminal to create and modify the file.

touch /home/cisco/CiscoLive/DEVWKS-3928/hosts.stage.yml
cat << EOF > /home/cisco/CiscoLive/DEVWKS-3928/hosts.stage.yml
---
# Connection Information For Staging Fabric
#
# This file defines how Ansible will connect to the NDFC controller
ndfc:
    children:
      stage:
        hosts:
          10.15.0.98:
            ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.httpapi
            ansible_httpapi_use_ssl: true
            ansible_httpapi_validate_certs: false
            ansible_python_interpreter: auto_silent
            ansible_network_os: cisco.dcnm.dcnm
            ansible_user: admin
            ansible_password: "{{ ndfc_password }}"
            device_spine: 10.15.30.11
            device_leaf1: 10.15.30.12
            device_leaf2: 10.15.30.13
EOF

The variables above provide important information that tells Ansible how to connect and authenticate with the NDFC controller. It also includes connection information for the devices in the fabric that it manages. Notice that the ndfc_password is passed in as a variable. In our lab, we are using Ansible vault to encyrpt the password.