IP Address Filter

IP Address Filter#

Filters in Ansible are powerful tools that let you manipulate data in various ways. A useful filter for network configuration is ipaddr. It allows you to work with IP addresses using the netaddr Python package. You can check if data are valid IP addresses and extract specific information. First, install the netaddr package:

$ python3 -m pip install netaddr

Handling Network and IP Addresses#

Here’s a simple playbook demonstrating some capabilities of the ipaddr filter:

---

- name: Handling network and IP addresses
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  vars:
    ip_list:
      - "10.0.0.72/24"
      - "10.0.300.12"
      - "192.168.15.15"
      - "192.168.32.0/24"
  tasks:
    - name: Show information for network and IP
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg:
          - "Check this Addr...........: {{ item }}"
          - "A valid IP?...............: {{ item | ipaddr }}"
          - "Just the IP...............: {{ item | ipaddr('address') }}"
          - "Is this a network?........: {{ item | ipaddr('network') }}"
      loop: "{{ ip_list }}"

Output#

When you run this playbook, you get detailed information about each IP address in the list:

(.venv) [zolo@localhost ansible-cbt-lab]$ ansible-playbook ip_filter.yml

PLAY [Handling IP addresses] ***********************************************************

TASK [Show information for network and IP] *********************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item=10.0.0.72/24) => {
    "msg": [
        "Check this Addr...........: 10.0.0.72/24",
        "A valid IP?...............: 10.0.0.72/24",
        "Just the IP...............: 10.0.0.72",
        "Is this a network?........: 10.0.0.0"
    ]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=10.0.300.12) => {
    "msg": [
        "Check this Addr...........: 10.0.300.12",
        "A valid IP?...............: False",
        "Just the IP...............: False",
        "Is this a network?........: False"
    ]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=192.168.15.15) => {
    "msg": [
        "Check this Addr...........: 192.168.15.15",
        "A valid IP?...............: 192.168.15.15",
        "Just the IP...............: 192.168.15.15",
        "Is this a network?........: 192.168.15.15"
    ]
}
ok: [localhost] => (item=192.168.32.0/24) => {
    "msg": [
        "Check this Addr...........: 192.168.32.0/24",
        "A valid IP?...............: 192.168.32.0/24",
        "Just the IP...............: ",
        "Is this a network?........: 192.168.32.0"
    ]
}

PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0

In simple terms, this playbook checks each IP address in the list to see if it’s valid, extracts just the IP part, and checks if it’s a network address. This helps you manage and debug network configurations more effectively.

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