Reference: Network Automation Tools
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Reference: Network Automation Tools
Guest speakers presenting in live course sessions described numerous interesting network automation tools. While the examples in this course usually use Ansible, don’t limit yourself to a single tool. After mastering it, start exploring the alternatives - they might be a better fit for your next challenge.
Tools covered in other modules |
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| Version control with GIT | ||
Git is the source-control tool of choice not only for most open source project, but also for extremely large teams like Facebook or Microsoft Windows development team. It seems a bit convoluted when you start, but you’ll quickly discover its benefits in this Getting started with Git tutorial by Scott Lowe. |
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| Continuous Integration with GitLab CI | ||
GitLab CI is one of the commonly-used networking-focused continuous integration tools due to its agent-based architecture. In this section Pete Lumbis explained how he uses GitLab CI to test his network automation scripts and device configurations. |
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| NetBox IPAM/CMDB | ||
This section describes how you can NetBox to provide the source of truth for IP address assignments, IP subnet allocation, VLAN numbering, and even shared secrets like RADIUS keys. |
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| Event-driven automation with Salt | ||
Salt is a highly-scalable automation tool used in very large environments like LinkedIn and CloudFlare. This presentation covers Salt architecture, terminology, configuration, operations, and using Salt for event-driven automation. |
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| ChatOps with Slack | ||
Jeremy Schulman described real-world use cases using Slack to create commands that drive network automation workflows. He discussed the features of Slack he'd used and covered what he'd learned so far in terms of pros-and-cons, including integration with Ansible Tower. |
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2:10:06 Network Automation with Chef |
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Chef is not a most commonly-used network automation tool, but you might still encounter it in environments where it's already used for system management. In this section you'll learn what Chef is, how to set it up, and how to configure Nexus OS switches using on-device Chef agent. |
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| Why Would You Use Chef or Puppet | 16:22 | 2018-04-04 |
| Chef Overview | 31:45 | 2018-04-04 |
| Puppet Overview | 10:27 | 2018-04-04 |
| Implementing Chef | 31:03 | 2018-04-04 |
| Chef for Nexus OS | 27:40 | 2018-04-04 |
| EVPN Use Case | 12:49 | 2018-04-04 |
Additional Information |
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| Slide Deck | 5.0M | 2018-04-04 |
| Installing Chef and Using Chef with Nexus 9000 | 601K | 2018-04-08 |
2:28:05 Python-Only Automation Solutions with Nornir |
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David Barroso introduced Nornir: a pluggable multi-threaded framework with inventory management that makes it easier to operate a collection of devices with tons of data than server-focused tools like Ansible. David started with simple code examples that require almost no Python proficiency, demonstrated Nornir inventory and host selection mechanisms, described a simple intent-based networking example, and concluded with a brief introduction of various integration options. |
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41:49 Nornir Basics |
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| Introduction | 8:15 | 2020-06-13 |
| Nornir Inventory Management | 11:35 | 2020-06-13 |
| Filtering Inventory Hosts | 12:32 | 2020-06-13 |
| Running Tasks | 9:27 | 2020-06-13 |
23:35 Simple Examples |
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| DIY Intent-Based Networking | 7:12 | 2020-06-13 |
| Integration with Other Systems | 16:23 | 2020-06-13 |
1:22:41 Nornir 3.0 Deep Dive |
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| Inventory Plugins | 14:54 | 2020-11-23 |
| Connection Plugins | 11:14 | 2020-11-23 |
| Processors | 14:21 | 2020-11-23 |
| Runners | 14:41 | 2020-11-23 |
| Functions | 7:24 | 2020-11-23 |
| Orchestrator | 20:07 | 2020-11-23 |
In December 2020, Daniel Teycheney published a deep dive into Nornir inventory filtering capabilities |
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More Information |
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| Slide Deck: Nornir Basics | 4.6M | 2020-05-26 |
| Slide Deck: Nornir 3 Deep Dive | 3.7M | 2020-06-11 |
| Automating the deployment of a BGP fabric with Nornir | ||
| Ansible versus Nornir: Speed Challenge | ||
| Nornir 3 Deep Dive Slides on GitHub | ||
2:12:09 Apstra AOS |
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JP Senior used Apstra AOS EVPN-with-VXLAN application to describe:
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| Intent Graph Modelling | 20:45 | 2018-11-29 |
| From Graphs to EVPN Configurations | 45:09 | 2018-11-29 |
| Implementation Gotchas | 27:10 | 2018-11-29 |
| Product Demo | 39:05 | 2018-11-29 |
| Slide deck | 18M | 2018-11-27 |
Other Resources |
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| Mastering Network Automation with Python | 5.6K | 2022-01-11 |
This document contains a list of third-party resources past attendees of this course found useful when they decided to master network automation with Python, be it as a standalone tool, or as a programming language needed to extend Ansible or Nornir. |
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| Other useful open-source automation tools | ||