Sign In Start Free Trial

Book Overview & Buying
Table Of Contents

Mastering Python Networking - Third Edition

By : Eric Chou

4.3 (24)

Mastering Python Networking

4.3 (24)

By: Eric Chou

Overview of this book

Networks in your infrastructure set the foundation for how your application can be deployed, maintained, and serviced. Python is the ideal language for network engineers to explore tools that were previously available to systems engineers and application developers. In Mastering Python Networking, Third edition, you’ll embark on a Python-based journey to transition from traditional network engineers to network developers ready for the next-generation of networks. This new edition is completely revised and updated to work with Python 3. In addition to new chapters on network data analysis with ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, and Beats) and Azure Cloud Networking, it includes updates on using newer libraries such as pyATS and Nornir, as well as Ansible 2.8. Each chapter is updated with the latest libraries with working examples to ensure compatibility and understanding of the concepts. Starting with a basic overview of Python, the book teaches you how it can interact with both legacy and API-enabled network devices. You will learn to leverage high-level Python packages and frameworks to perform network automation tasks, monitoring, management, and enhanced network security followed by Azure and AWS Cloud networking. Finally, you will use Jenkins for continuous integration as well as testing tools to verify your network.

Preface

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Get in touch

Review of TCP/IP Protocol Suite and Python

Review of TCP/IP Protocol Suite and Python

An overview of the internet

The OSI model

Client-server model

Network protocol suites

Python language overview

Summary

Free Chapter

Low-Level Network Device Interactions

Low-Level Network Device Interactions

The challenges of the CLI

Constructing a virtual lab

Python Pexpect library

The Python Paramiko library

The Netmiko library

The Nornir framework

Summary

APIs and Intent-Driven Networking

APIs and Intent-Driven Networking

Infrastructure-as-code

The Cisco API and ACI

Cisco Meraki controller

The Python API for Juniper Networks

The Arista Python API

VyOS example

Other libraries

Summary

The Python Automation Framework – Ansible Basics

The Python Automation Framework – Ansible Basics

Ansible – a more declarative framework

A quick Ansible example

The Advantages of Ansible

The Ansible architecture

Ansible networking modules

The Ansible Cisco example

Ansible 2.8 playbook example

The Ansible Juniper example

The Ansible Arista example

Summary

The Python Automation Framework – Beyond Basics

The Python Automation Framework – Beyond Basics

Lab preparation

Ansible conditionals

Ansible loops

Templates

Group and host variables

The Ansible Vault

The Ansible include and roles

Writing your own custom module

Summary

Network Security with Python

Network Security with Python

The lab setup

Python Scapy

Access lists

The Syslog search

Other tools

Further reading

Summary

Network Monitoring with Python – Part 1

Network Monitoring with Python – Part 1

Lab setup

SNMP

Python for data visualization

Python for Cacti

Summary

Network Monitoring with Python – Part 2

Network Monitoring with Python – Part 2

Graphviz

Flow-based monitoring

ntop traffic monitoring

Summary

Building Network Web Services with Python

Building Network Web Services with Python

Comparing Python web frameworks

Flask and lab setup

Introduction to Flask

Network resource API

Network dynamic operations

Authentication and authorization

Running Flask in containers

Summary

AWS Cloud Networking

AWS Cloud Networking

AWS setup

AWS network overview

Virtual private cloud

Direct Connect and VPN

Network scaling services

Other AWS network services

Summary

Azure Cloud Networking

Azure Cloud Networking

Azure and AWS network service comparison

Azure setup

Azure administration and APIs

Azure global infrastructure

Azure virtual networks

VNet routing

Azure VPNs

Azure ExpressRoute

Azure Network Load Balancers

Other Azure network services

Summary

Network Data Analysis with Elastic Stack

Network Data Analysis with Elastic Stack

What is the Elastic Stack?

Lab topology

Elastic Stack as a Service

First End-to-End example

Elasticsearch with a Python client

Data ingestion with Logstash

Data ingestion with Beats

Search with Elasticsearch

Data visualization with Kibana

Summary

Working with Git

Working with Git

Content management considerations and Git

Introduction to Git

Setting up Git

Git usage examples

Git branch

Git with Python

Automating configuration backup

Collaborating with Git

Summary

Continuous Integration with Jenkins

Continuous Integration with Jenkins

The traditional change management process

An introduction to continuous integration

Installing Jenkins

Jenkins example

Jenkins with Python

Continuous integration for networking

Summary

Test-Driven Development for Networks

Test-Driven Development for Networks

Test-driven development overview

Topology as code

Writing tests for networking

pytest Integration with Jenkins

pyATS and Genie

Summary

Other Books You May Enjoy

Other Books You May Enjoy

Index

Index

Automating configuration backup

In this example, we will use PyGithub to back up a directory containing our router configurations. We have seen how we can retrieve the information from our devices with Python or Ansible; we can now check them into GitHub.

We have a subdirectory, named config, with our router configs in text format:

$ ls configs/ 
iosv-1 iosv-2

$ cat configs/iosv-1 
Building configuration...

Current configuration : 4573 bytes
!
! Last configuration change at 02:50:05 UTC Sat Jun 2 2018 by cisco
!
version 15.6
service timestamps debug datetime msec
...

We can use the following script, Chapter13_1.py, to retrieve the latest index from our GitHub repository, build the content that we need to commit, and automatically commit the configuration:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38594717/how-do-i-push-new-files-to-github

from github import Github, InputGitTreeElement...

CONTINUE READING

83

Tech Concepts

36

Programming languages

73

Tech Tools

Unlimited access to the largest independent learning library in tech of over 8,000 expert-authored tech books and videos.

Innovative learning tools, including AI book assistants, code context explainers, and text-to-speech.

50+ new titles added per month and exclusive early access to books as they are being written.

Mastering Python Networking

Search

Your notes and bookmarks