Run a network backup automation job

Learning to run a job in automation controller

Challenge 2 - Running the backup automation job

This challenge will walk you through using Automation controller to execute the backup job you created on the 1st challenge.

Ansible Collections

Ansible provides automation content in the form of collections. An Ansible Collection contains modules, plugins and roles that a network engineer can use to build and customize their automation.

If you need a quick primer on what an Ansible Collection is, please refer to this YouTube Video here.

The Cisco IOS collection

For this demonstration we are going to automate against a Cisco IOS-XE router. We need to use the Cisco IOS collection.

The FQCN (or fully qualified collection name) to use a module is: namespace.collection.module

So for our example it is: cisco.ios.<module name>

The task is this simple:
```
- name: backup cisco ios configuration
  cisco.ios.config:
    backup: true
  register: config_output
```

Lets get started

That is the end of of your lab briefing!

For this exercise we are going to run the automation job on Automation controller

Login to automation controller

To login to automation controller select the Automation controller WebUI tab at the top of your screen.

Login with the following credentials:

username

admin

password

ansible123!

Step 1 - Execute Network Automation - Backup Job Template

In the left navigation menu, expand Automation Execution and then click on Templates.
To execute the Network Automation - Backup Job Template click the rocket button which incidates the launch job button:

Step 2 - Optional - Verify Backup

In the Visual Studio Code tab you can open the backup configuration. Open the /backup directory with Visual Studio Code and navigate to the most recent timestamp. If you have executed the job more than one time you will have multiple options. Open the cisco.txt file to reveal the Cisco IOS-XE running configuration.

Step 3 - Verify

Click the Next button below to verify the job executed.