Practical Network Automation

Key Features

• Get started with network automation (and different automation tasks) with relevant use cases
• Apply software design principles such as Continuous Integration and DevOps to your network toolkit
• Guides you through some best practices in automation

Book Description

Network automation is the use of IT controls to supervise and carry out every-day 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, SDN, 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 reporting methodologies such as IPv6 migration, DC relocations, and interface parsing, all the while retaining security and improving data center robustness. 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 different tools, and other important techniques.

By the end of the book, you will be well acquainted with the various aspects of network automation.

What you will learn

• Get the detailed analysis of Network automation
• Trigger automations through available data factors
• Improve data center robustness and security through specific access and data digging
• Get an Access to APIs from Excel for dynamic reporting
• Set up a communication with SSH-based devices using netmiko
• Make full use of practical use cases and best practices to get accustomed with the various aspects of network automation

About the Author

Abhishek Ratan has around 15 years of technical experience in networking, automation, and various ITIL processes, and has worked in various roles in different organizations. As a network engineer, security engineer, automation engineer, TAC engineer, tech lead, and content writer, he has gained a wealth of experience during the 15 years of his career. Abhishek also has a deep interest in strategy game playing, and if he is not working on technical stuff, he is busy spending time on his strategy games.

He is currently working as a Sr Automation Engineer at ServiceNow, learning, and expanding his automation skills in the ServiceNow platform. His earlier experience includes working for companies such as Microsoft, Symantec, and Navisite,which has given him exposure to various environments.

Table of Contents

1. Fundamental Concepts
2. Python for Network Engineers
3. Accessing and Mining Data from Network
4. Web Framework for Automation triggers
5. Ansible for Network Automation
6. Continuous Integration for Network Engineers
7. SDN Concepts in Network Automation