Book Image

Mastering Python Networking

Book Image

Mastering Python Networking

Overview of this book

This book begins with a review of the TCP/ IP protocol suite and a refresher of the core elements of the Python language. Next, you will start using Python and supported libraries to automate network tasks from the current major network vendors. We will look at automating traditional network devices based on the command-line interface, as well as newer devices with API support, with hands-on labs. We will then learn the concepts and practical use cases of the Ansible framework in order to achieve your network goals. We will then move on to using Python for DevOps, starting with using open source tools to test, secure, and analyze your network. Then, we will focus on network monitoring and visualization. We will learn how to retrieve network information using a polling mechanism, ?ow-based monitoring, and visualizing the data programmatically. Next, we will learn how to use the Python framework to build your own customized network web services. In the last module, you will use Python for SDN, where you will use a Python-based controller with OpenFlow in a hands-on lab to learn its concepts and applications. We will compare and contrast OpenFlow, OpenStack, OpenDaylight, and NFV. Finally, you will use everything you’ve learned in the book to construct a migration plan to go from a legacy to a scalable SDN-based network.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Title
Humble Bundle
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
12
OpenStack, OpenDaylight, and NFV

Elasticsearch (ELK stack)


As we have seen so far in this chapter, use just the Python tools as we have done would adequately monitor your network with enough scalability for all types of networks, large and small alike. However, I would like to introduce one additional open source, general-purpose, distributed, search and analytics engine called Elasticsearch (https://www.elastic.co/). It is often referred to as the Elastic or ELK stack for combining with the frontend and input tools.

If you look at network monitoring in general, it is really about analyzing network data and making sense out of them. The ELK stack contains Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibina as a full stack to ingest information with Logstash, index and analyze data with Elasticsearch, and present the graphics output via Kibana. It is really three projects in one with the flexibility to substitute Logstash with another input, such as Beats. Alternatively, you can use other tools, such as Grafana, instead of Kibana for visualization...