# napalm – Provides persistent connection using NAPALM

New in version 2.8.

- Synopsis
- Requirements
- Parameters
- Status

## Synopsis

- This connection plugin provides connectivity to network devices using the NAPALM network device abstraction library. This library requires certain features to be enabled on network devices depending on the destination device operating system. The connection plugin requires `napalm` to be installed locally on the Ansible controller.

## Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the local master node that executes this connection.

- napalm

## Parameters

Parameter | Choices/Defaults | Configuration | Comments
--- | --- | --- | ---
host - | Default: "inventory_hostname" | var: ansible_host | Specifies the remote device FQDN or IP address to establish the SSH connection to.

host_key_auto_add
boolean

Default:
"no"

ini entries:

[paramiko_connection]
host_key_auto_add = no

env:ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_AUTO_ADD

By default, Ansible will prompt the user before adding SSH keys to the known hosts file. By enabling this option, unknown host keys will automatically be added to the known hosts file.
Be sure to fully understand the security implications of enabling this option on production systems as it could create a security vulnerability.

network_os - |  | var: ansible_network_os | Configures the device platform network operating system. This value is used to load a napalm device abstraction.
password - |  | var: ansible_password var: ansible_ssh_pass var: ansible_ssh_password | Configures the user password used to authenticate to the remote device when first establishing the SSH connection.
persistent_command_timeout integer | Default: 30 | ini entries: [persistent_connection] command_timeout = 30 env:ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_COMMAND_TIMEOUT var: ansible_command_timeout | Configures, in seconds, the amount of time to wait for a command to return from the remote device. If this timer is exceeded before the command returns, the connection plugin will raise an exception and close.
persistent_connect_timeout integer | Default: 30 | ini entries: [persistent_connection] connect_timeout = 30 env:ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT var: ansible_connect_timeout | Configures, in seconds, the amount of time to wait when trying to initially establish a persistent connection. If this value expires before the connection to the remote device is completed, the connection will fail.
port integer | Default: 22 | ini entries: [defaults] remote_port = 22 env:ANSIBLE_REMOTE_PORT var: ansible_port | Specifies the port on the remote device that listens for connections when establishing the SSH connection.
private_key_file - |  | ini entries: [defaults] private_key_file = VALUE env:ANSIBLE_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE var: ansible_private_key_file | The private SSH key or certificate file used to authenticate to the remote device when first establishing the SSH connection.
remote_user - |  | ini entries: [defaults] remote_user = VALUE env:ANSIBLE_REMOTE_USER var: ansible_user | The username used to authenticate to the remote device when the SSH connection is first established. If the remote_user is not specified, the connection will use the username of the logged in user. Can be configured from the CLI via the `--user` or `-u` options.
timeout integer | Default: 120 |  | Sets the connection time, in seconds, for communicating with the remote device. This timeout is used as the default timeout value for commands when issuing a command to the network CLI. If the command does not return in timeout seconds, an error is generated.

## Status

- This connection is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
- This connection is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

### Authors

- Ansible Networking Team

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Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up.