Ansible - Setup on Windows WSL ( +cisco devices )

Enable Windows Features for WSL (Windows Subsistem for Linux - aka Linux on Windows)

Run on powershell

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

 

Download and Install WSL2 Patch

https://wslstorestorage.blob.core.windows.net/wslblob/wsl_update_x64.msi

Set Default Version to Version 2

Run on powershell

wsl --set-default-version 2

Ubuntu WSL Download - Without Using Windows Store - Online Method

Open windows CMD and run:

wsl --list --online
The following is a list of valid distributions that can be installed.
Install using 'wsl --install -d <Distro>'.

NAME FRIENDLY NAME
Ubuntu Ubuntu
Debian Debian GNU/Linux
kali-linux Kali Linux Rolling
openSUSE-42 openSUSE Leap 42
SLES-12 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v12
Ubuntu-16.04 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Ubuntu-18.04 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu-20.04 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

wsl --install --distribution Ubuntu

Ubuntu WSL Download - Without Using Windows Store - Offline Method

Open windows powershell and run:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://aka.ms/wslubuntu2004 -OutFile Ubuntu.appx

Add-AppxPackage .\Ubuntu.appx

First Run and Installation

Win+r Ubuntu

Set WSL DNS to Google DNS (default is a Windows generated, which doesn't always work)

Change the DNS to Google's DNS

sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

# This file was automatically generated by WSL. To stop automatic generation of this file, add the following entry to /etc/wsl.conf:
# [network]
# generateResolvConf = false
nameserver 8.8.8.8

Avoid windows from changing the DNS server again:

sudo nano /etc/wsl.conf 

[network]
generateResolvConf = false

Ansible Installation

On the ubuntu shell run:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

 

# PYTHON

sudo apt-get install python3

sudo apt install python3-pip

 

# ANSIBLE

sudo apt install -y software-properties-common

sudo apt install -y ansible

 

# ANSIBLE COMMON MODULES / LIBRARIES (OPTIONAL)

ansible-galaxy collection install cisco.ios

sudo apt-get install python3-dnspython

sudo pip install ansible-pylibssh

sudo pip install pexpect

sudo pip install paramiko

sudo apt-get install sshpass

SSH Host Key Checking

If you want to avoid issues on connecting via SSH because the the keys are not added, go to:  

sudo nano /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

and uncoment the "host_key_checking" line:

[defaults]
host_key_checking = False

Extra - Convert Install Machines to WSL2

If you already had WSL installed and some distros and want to convert then, first check your distros and versions:

wsl --list -v
NAME STATE VERSION
* Ubuntu Running 1

then change it to version two and windows will start the conversion:

wsl --set-version Ubuntu 2

Verification

WSL

Win+r ubuntu

 

PYTHON

python3

 

ANSIBLE

ansible-playbook --version