Book Image

Python Network Programming Techniques

By : Marcel Neidinger
Book Image

Python Network Programming Techniques

By: Marcel Neidinger

Overview of this book

Network automation offers a powerful new way of changing your infrastructure network. Gone are the days of manually logging on to different devices to type the same configuration commands over and over again. With this book, you'll find out how you can automate your network infrastructure using Python. You'll get started on your network automation journey with a hands-on introduction to the network programming basics to complement your infrastructure knowledge. You'll learn how to tackle different aspects of network automation using Python programming and a variety of open source libraries. In the book, you'll learn everything from templating, testing, and deploying your configuration on a device-by-device basis to using high-level REST APIs to manage your cloud-based infrastructure. Finally, you'll see how to automate network security with Cisco’s Firepower APIs. By the end of this Python network programming book, you'll have not only gained a holistic overview of the different methods to automate the configuration and maintenance of network devices, but also learned how to automate simple to complex networking tasks and overcome common network programming challenges.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)

Setting up the module structure

Functionality in Ansible is provided and can be extended in two different ways: by writing either a module or a plugin. Ansible defines a module as "reusable, standalone scripts that can be used by the Ansible API, the ansible command, or the ansible-playbook command. Modules provide a defined interface. Each module accepts arguments and returns information…"(see https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/dev_guide/developing_locally.html#modules-and-plugins-what-is-the-difference). An example of such a module could be one command that is executed on a remote device and retrieves some information for you. Writing your own modules can allow you to integrate internal tools, or tools where no module exists yet, into your existing Ansible-based automation plays. Modules for Ansible can be developed in many different languages, but since the core of Ansible is written in Python and most modules are also written in Python, we are going to focus...