Playbooks

Playbooks can be run with the fp-NGFW-SMC-ansible package installed on a remote client machine, or directly from the Management Server.

When the ansible client is running the package locally (remotely from the SMC), set up the inventory or use the localhost designation for the connection:

- name: Retrieve all firewalls
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: no
  tasks:
  - name: get metadata for existing firewalls
    engine_facts:
      element: fw_clusters

If you want to run the playbooks remotely from the SMC but have the execution happen remotely, you will first need to ensure that the smc-python dependency library has been installed.

API logging of playbook run

You can enable logging of smc-python API calls to a file for a playbook run by adding the smc_logging parameter to a playbook. The logging level is a valid integer value per the standard python logging module:

- name: Get group to analyze members
  register: result
  network_element_facts:
    smc_logging:
      level: 10
      path: ansible-smc.log
    element: group
    filter: mygroup
    exact_match: yes
    expand:
      - group

This will provide additional visibility if an error occurs in communication between the smc-python library and the SMC.