I tend to assess automation tools in four different contexts which is, in fact, a very general networking and automation workflow: Discovery How easy is it to find out about the network, document its configuration (the configuration of a device itself) and state (show commands “snapshotting” its state)? Configuration Creation How easy is it to READ MORE
Nornir – A New Network Automation Framework
nornir (formerly brigade) – A new network automation framework Before getting started, let me say that I’m big fan of Ansible. It is one of my go-to automation frameworks. Having said that, there have been use cases where I’ve run into some of the limitations of Ansible and to be fair some of those limitations may READ MORE
Pandas for Network Engineers (Who doesn’t love Pandas? )
The module not the mammal! My original title for this article was going to be *Decomposing Pandas* as a follow on to *Decomposing Data Structures* but I was advised against that name. Go figure. One of the things I love most about Python is that its always waiting for me to get just a little READ MORE
What language for Network Automation?
I’m often asked variants of “What language would you recommend when getting started with Network Automation and how would you get started? As with most things in IT, the answer requires context. In general, right now I would still pick Python. Go is getting popular but still can’t compete with the huge body for work and READ MORE
Using Docker as an Ansible and Python platform for Network Engineers
A quick start guide for using the purpose built Docker images for Ansible and Python Built for Network Engineers by a Network Engineer Over the last few years I’ve built up a repository of Docker images to help me learn Ansible. If you are new to Ansible you may not know that while Ansible can READ MORE
The Hunt for a Cisco ACI Lab
As an independent consultant one of the things I have to provide for myself are labs. It’s a wonderful time for labs! Virtual capabilities and offerings make testing and modeling a clients network easier than ever. Cisco DevNet offers “Always On” Sandbox devices that are always there if you need to test a “unit of READ MORE
The Struggle with Structure – Network Automation, Design, and Data Models
Preface Modern enterprise networking is going to require a level of structure and consistency that the majority of its networking community may find unfamiliar and perhaps uncomfortable. As a community, we’ve never had to present our designs and configuration data in any kind of globally consistent or even industry standard format. I’m fascinated by all READ MORE
Building a Production-ish Ready WebEx Teams ChatBot
Introduction Is your interrupt-driven day no longer supportable? Is there a particular Project Manager that asks you the same question every morning? Do you often have to take some technical data and simplify it for semi- or non-technical consumption? Would you like to pull out relevant sections of technical data for a sibling team? Today READ MORE
Decomposing Data Structures
Whether you are trying to find all the tenants in an ACI fabric, or all the interface IPs and descriptions on a network device, or trying to determine if the Earth is in imminent danger from an asteroid hurtling towards it, understanding complex data structures is a critical skill for anyone working with modern IT READ MORE
Building a Custom TextFSM Template
If you have seen any of the TextFSM posts on this site you know how useful the Network To Code TextFSM Template repository can be. Rarely do I not find what I need there! I recently had to parse route summary information from JUNOS Looking Glass routers. I always check the very rich set of READ MORE