Book Image

Practical Network Automation - Second Edition

By : Abhishek Ratan
Book Image

Practical Network Automation - Second Edition

By: Abhishek Ratan

Overview of this book

Network automation is the use of IT controls to supervise and carry out everyday network management functions. It plays a key role in network virtualization technologies and network functions. The book starts by providing an introduction to network automation, and its applications, which include integrating DevOps tools to automate the network efficiently. It then guides you through different network automation tasks and covers various data digging and performing tasks such as ensuring golden state configurations using templates, interface parsing. This book also focuses on Intelligent Operations using Artificial Intelligence and troubleshooting using chatbots and voice commands. The book then moves on to the use of Python and the management of SSH keys for machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, all followed by practical use cases. The book also covers the importance of Ansible for network automation, including best practices in automation; ways to test automated networks using tools such as Puppet, SaltStack, and Chef; and other important techniques. Through practical use-cases and examples, this book will acquaint you with the various aspects of network automation. It will give you the solid foundation you need to automate your own network without any hassle.
Table of Contents (9 chapters)

Fundamental Concepts of Network Automation

This chapter details some of the key concepts that need to be applied practically before we deep-dive into network-automation-specific examples. As detailed in the first edition, understanding the concepts and how to write a program for network automation is as important as giving out accurate results of a script.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

  • A readable script
  • Basic programs
  • Making a decision on which scripting language to use (Python or PowerShell)
  • Introduction to code check-in and its importance
  • Sample use cases