While the networking world slowly moves towards automation being a standard aspect of the profession, skills such as coding and data modelling are increasing. Network automation is evolving in complexity and capability. This piece is a reminder about one ultra simple concept that catches teams out and is rarely discussed: You can't automate what you... Continue Reading →
Windmill.dev for Network Automation Scripting
Over the last half a year I have been experimenting and learning how to use Windmill. It is designed to be a central place that a team can run and develop scripts. It has the ability to be complex and powerful but I just want somewhere that network automation scripts could live and run. It... Continue Reading →
IP Fabric Netbox Plugin – How to strip the re0 from Juniper Routers
Larger Juniper routers have two hardware control planes, known as routing engines. These can be seen on some models as a removable slot in the chassis. Each has its own management IP, storage etc and can be seen as an independant compute node. If one fails, the other takes over. When IP Fabric connects to... Continue Reading →
IP Fabric Script to Check and Alter Attributues
IP Fabric allows one or more attributes to be assigned to a device. These act like tags in blog posts where certain optional attributes/values can be given to each object. They can be used to filter down devices in all the views of the UI, or via the API. Built in attributes like the site... Continue Reading →
IP Fabric Netbox Plugin vs Device Library Import (UPDATED)
The very talented Alex Gittings from IP Fabric has helped me to understand how to get around the capitalisation issue. In the transform maps you can create a jinja2 template that capitalises a field. So if applied in the device - DCIM|manufacturer map, with source field as vendor and target field as name, it will... Continue Reading →
What is a Single Source of Truth?
When we talk about a concept for a long time, its meaning can become unclear or changed. What it truly represents might become less significant. Today, I want to discuss the SSoT, a term that many people think they understand, but I believe has lost some clarity. This term is essential in modern IT automation.... Continue Reading →
Netbox: Custom Link to Run a Custom Script that Specifies the Object to Pass as a Paramter
This is a short and simple post to describe how in netbox you can create a custom button that invokes a netbox custom script, with parameters pre-populated. In the example I use, the FindOwners button below is found only in the device page. Clicking it navigates to a particular script with the device in question... Continue Reading →
Netbox Scripts – Getting Started
An introduction to Netbox's script feature including a basic sample.
Why parsing display commands with Ansible can often provide a 100% hit rate
A lesson I learnt the hard way about sending commands to a network device and parsing the result.
Can you fully automate a network?
A view point exploring why network automation should be an overlay rather than replacement of traditional networking skills.
Constantpinger 