As networks grow in scale and complexity, network teams increasingly find themselves struggling just to keep the lights on.  With cloud, DevOps, SD-WAN, and other strategic IT initiatives driving a massive increase in traffic, network teams are trying to keep up with the sheer volume of service requests.

Most network teams are turning to automation so they can keep their heads above water.  Entire networks are now deployed using automated tools and pre-built playbooks.  From provisioning IP addresses to applying options, configuring firewalls to setting zones, automation can set up an entire end-to-end system in a fraction of the time it would take through a manual process.  Even better, automation ensures system integrity by reducing the number of errors and “fat finger” mistakes which could creep in at every stage of the network creation process.

DNS is a prime candidate for any automation effort.  Managing DNS with manual processes is time-consuming, error-prone, and ultimately unsustainable in the long term.  Given the fact that its tentacles reach into just about every network element, automating the integration of DNS into the rest of the enterprise should be a key priority of every IT manager.

Introducing the BlueCat Ansible module

BlueCat is deeply invested in DNS automation.  Over the past several years we’ve been building out an entire ecosystem designed to make the deployment, management, and integration of DNS as simple as possible.  Our newest addition to that ecosystem:  the BlueCat Ansible Module.

With the BlueCat Ansible module, network teams can extend Ansible automation playbooks to include critical components like DNS.  By adding the module in any playbook that automates provisioning of resources, DNS, DHCP, and IPAM (DDI) actions are automatically written into BlueCat Address Manager.  Using this module means that resources are never without DNS.  The moment they are built, they have access to the entire supporting infrastructure without the need to log service tickets.

Unlike other DDI companies, BlueCat’s automation strategy provides maximum flexibility to end users.  We don’t just provide a “black box” integration and call it a day.  With BlueCat’s Adaptive Plug-Ins like the Ansible module, users can create their own playbooks, adding data to Address Manager across any number of applications and use cases.

Customers can also leverage pre-built and custom Ansible playbooks by including them in their master playbook.  This is important because it enhances visibility into the full spectrum of Ansible actions, in particularly spinning compute up or down.  It also removes the manual work of determining which IP addresses are free and provisioning them accordingly.

Available Ansible playbooks

Here’s the list of playbooks we’re providing as part of the BlueCat Ansible module:

Create and configure an IPv4 network

Create Alias

Return the next available IP address for a network

Query BlueCat DNS using a python library

Query BlueCat objects

List of inventory hosts matching a host pattern

Create DNS Zone

Reserve IP Address

Create external Host

Delete external Host

Add configuration

Add host

Delete host

Get block

Get blocks

Get configurations

Get host

Get network

Get networks

Get zone

Get zones

Update host

Ready to get started with your DNS automation project?  If you have BlueCat Gateway Support, the BlueCat Ansible module comes as part of the package.  Ask your BlueCat CSM today, and we’ll get you provisioning IP addresses with Ansible before you know it.