Cloud Managed Networks

I'm wondering if someone knows about a syntax guide for templates in Aruba Central. 
We are managing a bunch of CX switch stacks. I have configured them using templates. My apoach is that I configure all ports as a standard colorless client port. We do however, have a couple of exceptions where a port needs a different config. We are using variables to define those ports.

See the following code example:

%if special_ports_999%
  interface %special_ports_999%
    no shutdown
    vlan access 999
    no aaa authentication port-access dot1x authenticator
    no aaa authentication port-access mac-auth
%endif%

The intention is that, if the variable is empty, the above piece of code is ignored. Our initial deployment included those variables, with an empty value. Everything committed fine, and the template was synced succesfully. 

However, now I changed my template a bit, (not in this part!) and all my switches that have empty variables refuse to sync  until I remove the variable. I would like to figure out how to proceed, but I cannot find a clear guide on how the syntax for these templates exactly works. For instance, can I use something like: 

%if special_ports_999 != "NONE"%

 I would prefer something like this because the value of variables can be edited trought the central GUI, but to remove a variable you'll have to export a json file, edit that and import it, which is a bit cumbersome.


------------------------------
Jelmer Hartman
------------------------------

Hi Jelmer,

I believe you can do it like this:

%if special_port_config=1%
  <use this config>
%endif%

%if special_port_config=0%
  <use this config>
%endif%
Original Message:
Sent: Jun 21, 2022 10:26 AM
From: Jelmer Hartman
Subject: Using empty variables in templates

I'm wondering if someone knows about a syntax guide for templates in Aruba Central. 
We are managing a bunch of CX switch stacks. I have configured them using templates. My apoach is that I configure all ports as a standard colorless client port. We do however, have a couple of exceptions where a port needs a different config. We are using variables to define those ports.

See the following code example:

%if special_ports_999%
  interface %special_ports_999%
    no shutdown
    vlan access 999
    no aaa authentication port-access dot1x authenticator
    no aaa authentication port-access mac-auth
%endif%

The intention is that, if the variable is empty, the above piece of code is ignored. Our initial deployment included those variables, with an empty value. Everything committed fine, and the template was synced succesfully. 

However, now I changed my template a bit, (not in this part!) and all my switches that have empty variables refuse to sync  until I remove the variable. I would like to figure out how to proceed, but I cannot find a clear guide on how the syntax for these templates exactly works. For instance, can I use something like: 

%if special_ports_999 != "NONE"%

 I would prefer something like this because the value of variables can be edited trought the central GUI, but to remove a variable you'll have to export a json file, edit that and import it, which is a bit cumbersome.


------------------------------
Jelmer Hartman
------------------------------