Part 7 - Apstra Templates in Terraform

Corporate Logo

What is a template in Apstra?

A template is a depiction of a physical Data Center abstracted in Apstra for use in a Blueprint. We use templates as an abstraction to build Blueprints in Apstra. You could use a single template over and over to create multiple Blueprints if you were creating and managing multiple Data Centers in the same Apstra instance, which is why we call them templates. Templates contain a number of Racks and a number of Spines. You can think of a Template as a cookie-cutter object for Data Center creation.

Create template in Terraform.

Let’s now create the templates inside of Apstra’s design system. To do this we will use another Terraform file and our existing new Racks that we have created in the previous steps.

You may want to refer to the following page in the step by step GUI based lab guide for reference: Lab Guide 1 - Juniper

  1. Create a template.tf file in the working directory.

  2. Populate the file with the following text content.

    # Create a template using previously looked-up (data) spine info and previously
# created (resource) rack types.
resource "apstra_template_rack_based" "lab_guide" {
  name                     = "apstra_junos"
  asn_allocation_scheme    = "unique"
  overlay_control_protocol = "evpn"
  spine = {
    count             = 2
    logical_device_id = data.apstra_logical_device.lab_guide_switch.id
  }
  rack_infos = {
    (apstra_rack_type.lab_guide_esi.id)    = { count = 1 }
    (apstra_rack_type.lab_guide_single.id) = { count = 1 }
  }
}

  3. Now review what terraform wants to create with the terraform plan command, output follows. Note here that I am no longer using the terraform plan but the terraform apply command to review the creation and then executing with the input yes

    bwester@bwester-mbp playground % terraform apply

data.apstra_logical_device.lab_guide_switch: Reading...
data.apstra_logical_device.lab_guide_servers["single_homed"]: Reading...
data.apstra_logical_device.lab_guide_servers["dual_homed"]: Reading...
apstra_asn_pool.lab_guide: Refreshing state... [id=a93ff130-8aaf-4759-9dea-b71b62263df1]
apstra_ipv4_pool.lab_guide: Refreshing state... [id=29a85b6c-3879-4b8c-8911-85d2116489ae]
data.apstra_logical_device.lab_guide_servers["dual_homed"]: Read complete after 1s [id=AOS-2x10-1]
data.apstra_logical_device.lab_guide_switch: Read complete after 1s [id=virtual-7x10-1]
data.apstra_logical_device.lab_guide_servers["single_homed"]: Read complete after 1s [id=AOS-1x10-1]
apstra_rack_type.lab_guide_single: Refreshing state... [id=trhgpkk7tu27mbdvtklh9a]
apstra_rack_type.lab_guide_esi: Refreshing state... [id=h2-uvp1ftmuhr4cfsbkqrw]

Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource actions are indicated with
the following symbols:
  + create

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  # apstra_template_rack_based.lab_guide will be created
  + resource "apstra_template_rack_based" "lab_guide" {
      + asn_allocation_scheme    = "unique"
      + id                       = (known after apply)
      + name                     = "apstra_junos"
      + overlay_control_protocol = "evpn"
      + rack_infos               = {
          + "h2-uvp1ftmuhr4cfsbkqrw" = {
              + count     = 1
              + rack_type = (known after apply)
            },
          + "trhgpkk7tu27mbdvtklh9a" = {
              + count     = 1
              + rack_type = (known after apply)
            },
        }
      + spine                    = {
          + count             = 2
          + logical_device    = (known after apply)
          + logical_device_id = "virtual-7x10-1"
          + tags              = (known after apply)
        }
    }

Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

Do you want to perform these actions?
  Terraform will perform the actions described above.
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

  Enter a value: yes

apstra_template_rack_based.lab_guide: Creating...
apstra_template_rack_based.lab_guide: Creation complete after 3s [id=a33171d1-021c-47ac-b929-ab6b693c6a69]

Apply complete! Resources: 1 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.
bwester@bwester-mbp playground %

  4. Feel free to inspect the creation of the Template through the UI, you can navigate to Design → Templates.