Network Automation:

Network automation is the process of automating the configuring, managing, testing,

deploying, and operating of physical and virtual devices within a network. Network automation
is a methodology in which software automatically configures, provisions, manages and tests
network devices. It is used by enterprises and service providers to improve efficiency and
reduce human error and operating expenses. Every day network tasks and functions are
performed automatically. Managing bandwidth and finding fast reroutes to implement the best
computing paths. Automation is any process that is self-driven, that reduces and potentially
eliminates, the need for human intervention. Automation was once confined to the
manufacturing industry. Highly repetitive tasks, such as automobile assembly, were turned over
to machines and the modern assembly line was born. Machines excel at repeating the same
task without fatigue and without the errors that humans are prone to make in such jobs.
Network Automation and Programmability are skills that network engineers of today and the
future are going to need to know.

Python:
Python is widely used to perform network automation. Interacting with network devices.
Python is widely used to perform network automation. Python is an open source scripting
language, thus used to automate anything. Python is a popular programming language. It was
created by Guido van Rossum and released in 1991. Python has a simple syntax similar to the
English language. The most recent major version of Python is Python 3, which we shall be using
in this tutorial. However, Python 2, although not being updated with anything other than
security updates, is still quite popular. Python is an interpreted language, which means you just
type in plain text to an interpreter, and things happen. There is no compilation step, as in
languages such as c. Python is a general-purpose programming language which is dynamically
typed, interpreted, and known for its easy readability with great design principles. Python is
one of the easier languages to get started with and interpret. Python is an object-oriented
programming language. Almost everything in Python is an object, with its properties and
methods. A Class is like an object constructor, or a "blueprint" for creating objects. Python is a
widely-used, interpreted, object-oriented, and high-level programming language with dynamic
semantics, used for general-purpose programming. There are two main kinds of Python, called
Python 2 and Python 3. Python 2 is an older version of the original Python. Python 3 is the
newer (to be precise, the current) version of the language. It's going through its own evolution
path, creating its own standards and habits.
String:
A string is simply one or more alphanumeric characters. A string can comprise many
numbers or letters, depending on the Python version in use. String literals in python are
surrounded by either single quotation marks, or double quotation marks. 'hello' is the same as
"hello". You can display a string literal with the print() function:

Comments:
Comments start with a #, and Python will render the rest of the line as a comment:
#This is a comment
print("Hello, World!")

Variables:
Variables are containers for storing data values. Unlike other programming languages, Python
has no command for declaring a variable. A variable is created the moment you first assign a
value to it.
x=6
y = "ali"
print(x)
print(y)

Data Types:
In programming, data type is an important concept. Variables can store data of different types,
and different types can do different things. Python has the following data types built-in by
default, in these categories:
Text Type: str
Numeric Types: int, float, complex
Sequence Types: list, tuple, range
Mapping Type: dict
Set Types: set, frozenset
Boolean Type: bool
Binary Types: bytes, bytearray, memoryview

x=6
print(type(x))

Print Function:
The print() function is a built-in function. It prints/outputs a specified message to the
screen/console window.
print(“Hello Network Engineers”)
Numeric Type:
There are three numeric types in Python: Int, float and complex. Variables of numeric types are
created when you assign a value to them. To verify the type of any object in Python, use the
type() function: integer are numbers written without a fractional component. Floating are
numbers that contain or are able to contain a fractional component.
x = 1 # int
y = 2.8 # float
print(type(x))
print(type(y))

Lab Time:

NetworkAut and # DHCP config for eth0

Ubuntu1 PC auto eth0
configuration iface eth0 inet dhcp
S1 Switch S1(config)#interface vlan 1
Configuration S1(config-if)#ip address 192.168.122.101 255.255.255.0
S1(config-if)#no shutdown
S2 Switch S2(config)#interface vlan 1
Configuration S2(config-if)#ip address 192.168.122.102 255.255.255.0
S2(config-if)#no shutdown
S3 Switch S3(config)#interface vlan 1
Configuration S3(config-if)#ip address 192.168.122.103 255.255.255.0
S3(config-if)#no shutdown
Switch 1 Telnet Configuration
S1(config)#enable password secret
S1(config)#username admin password cisco
S1(config)#line vty 0 4
S1(config-line)#login local
S1(config-line)#transport input all
S1(config-line)#exit
Switch 2 Telnet Configuration
S2(config)#enable password secret
S2(config)#username admin password cisco
S2(config)#line vty 0 4
S2(config-line)#login local
S2(config-line)#transport input all
S2(config-line)#exit
Switch 3 Telnet Configuration
S3(config)#enable password secret
S3(config)#username admin password cisco
S3(config)#line vty 0 4
S3(config-line)#login local
S3(config-line)#transport input all
S3(config-line)#exit
Ubuntu PC
root@Ubuntu1:~# apt-get update
root@Ubuntu1:~# apt-get install python
root@Ubuntu1:~# python –version
root@Ubuntu1:~# apt-get install vim
root@Ubuntu1:~# python c.py
NetworkAuto PC
root@NetworkAut:~# apt-get update
root@NetworkAut:~# python –version
root@NetworkAut:~# apt-get install vim
root@NetworkAut:~# python a.py
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation):
JSON is a syntax for storing and exchanging data. JSON is text, written with JavaScript object
notation. Python has a built-in package called json, which can be used to work with JSON data.
Import the json module: import json. When exchanging data between a browser and a server,
the data can only be text. JSON is text, and we can convert any JavaScript object into JSON, and
send JSON to the server. JSON is a lightweight data-interchange format. Both JSON and XML can
be used to receive data from a web server. JSON is a human readable data format used by
applications for storing, transferring and reading data. JSON is a very popular format used by
web services and APIs to provide public data. This is because it is easy to parse and can be used
with most modern programming languages, including Python. Both JSON and XML can be used
to receive data from a web server. XML is much more difficult to parse than JSON. JSON is
parsed into a ready-to-use JavaScript object. JSON is light-weight as compare to XML. It is
language independent. Easy to read and write. Text based, human readable data exchange
format. These are some of the characteristics of JSON:
o It uses a hierarchical structure and contains nested values.
o It uses braces { } to hold objects and square brackets [ ] hold arrays.
o Its data is written as key/value pairs.

JSON Data:
In JSON, the data known as an object is one or more key/value pairs enclosed in braces { }.
JSON data is written as name/value pairs, just like JavaScript object properties. A name/value
pair consists of a field name (in double quotes), followed by a colon, followed by a value: JSON
names require double quotes. JavaScript names do not.
"firstName":"Ali"

JSON Objects:
JSON objects are written inside curly braces. Just like in JavaScript, objects can contain multiple
name/value pairs: Always surrounded by curly brackets. Composed of one-or-more name-value
{"firstName":"Ali", "lastName":"Khan"}

JSON Arrays:
JSON arrays are written inside square brackets. Just like in JavaScript, an array can contain
objects: the object "employees" is an array. It contains three objects. Each object is a record of
a person (with a first name and a last name).
"employees":[
{"firstName":"John", "lastName":"Doe"},
{"firstName":"Anna", "lastName":"Smith"},
{"firstName":"Peter", "lastName":"Jones"}
]
JSON List of IPv4 Addresses:

{
"addresses": [
{
"ip": "172.16.0.2",
"netmask": "255.255.255.0"
},
{
"ip": "172.16.0.3",
"netmask": "255.255.255.0"
},
{
"ip": "172.16.0.4",
"netmask": "255.255.255.0"
}]}
Lab Time:

S1 Configuration
S1#terminal length 0
S1#show running-config | format

When run this command: show running-config | format it will show the running configuration
in XML format copy the data go to any XML to JSON convertor in google such as
https://codebeautify.org/xmltojson
Data Models:
Data models describe the things you can configure, monitor, and the actions you can perform
on a network device. So, what is a data model of a network device? To answer that, let's
imagine a hypothetical scenario where your friend asks you what IP interface attributes can be
configured on a specific router. You might say: "Well, to configure an interface on this router,
you need to supply: an interface name, an IP address, and a subnet mask. You also need to
enable the interface - the router will keep the interface disabled if you don't." Now, as simple as
this response, what we just did was describe a data model for an IP interface. A YANG model
will do the same but uses strict syntax rules to make the model standardized and easy to
process with computers.

Yet Another Next Generation (YANG):

SNMP is widely used to monitor networks. You can use SNMP to configure network devices.
YANG is a modeling language and uses data models that are similar to SNMP Management
Information Base (MIBs). A language for building and defining data models. Can be used to
build data models for any kind of data. These data models allow a uniform way for us to
configure, monitor, and interact with network devices. Network automation tools like
NETCONF, RESTCONF, and gRPC require YANG data models. YANG uses a hierarchical tree
structure, similar to the XML data format. There is a clear distinction between configuration
data and state information. A YANG module defines a data model through the data of a
network device, and the hierarchical organization and constraints of that data. YANG identifies
each module with a namespace URL. YANG modules to describe interface, Access-lists, Routing
Tables etc. https://github.com/YangModels/yang

Lab Time:

CSR Router Configuration

Router(config)#hostname CSR
CSR(config)#interface gigabitEthernet 1
CSR(config)#ip address 192.168.122.105 255.255.255.0
CSR(config-if)#no shutdown
CSR(config)#ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.122.2
CSR(config)#username admin privilege 15 password 123
CSR(config)#netconf-yang
CSR# show platform software yang-management process
CSR# show netconf session
CSR# clear netconf sessions
 Ubuntu Virtual Machine
root@test-virtual-machine# ssh -s admin@192.168.122.105 netconf
root@test-virtual-machine# apt-get install python
root@test-virtual-machine# apt install python-pip
root@test-virtual-machine# pip install ncclient

The router responds with a “hello” message:

This hello message contains the capabilities that the router supports. We need to reply to the
router with a hello message. This hello message contains the capabilities that we support:

Interacting with NETCONF manually over SSH is difficult method. Instead, we should use clients
or code libraries that do most of the work for us. Ncclient is a popular python library we can use
for NETCONF.
Ubuntu Virtual Machine
root@test-virtual-machine# apt-get install python
root@test-virtual-machine# apt install python-pip
root@test-virtual-machine# pip install ncclient
root@test-virtual-machine# python get-run-conf.py
NETCONF:
NETCONF is a protocol developed by IETF to “install, manipulate, and delete the configuration
of network devices”. The goal of NETCONF is to make network automation easier. It uses XML
for data encoding and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) for messages. It runs over SSH. NETCONF is
an IETF standard protocol that uses the YANG data models to communicate with the various
devices on the network. NETCONF runs over SSH.
Operation Description
<get> Retrieve running configuration and device state
information.
<get-config> Retrieve all or part of a specified configuration
datastore.
<edit-config> The <edit-config> operation loads all or part of a specified
configuration to the specified target configuration datastore.
<copy-config> Create or replace an entire configuration datastore
with the contents of another complete configuration datastore.
<delete-config> Delete a configuration datastore. The <running>
configuration datastore cannot be deleted.
<commit> The <commit> operation instructs the device to implement the
configuration data contained in the candidate configuration.
<lock> The <lock> operation allows the client to lock the
entire configuration datastore system of a device.
<unlock> The <unlock> operation is used to release a
configuration lock, previously obtained with the <lock> operation.
<close-session> Request graceful termination of a NETCONF session.
<kill-session> Force the termination of a NETCONF session.

RESTCONF:
RESTCONF is protocol which works similar to a REST API. It maps a YANG specification to a
RESTful interface and uses the HTTPS protocol for transport. You can use JSON or XML as data
formats. RESTCONF is newer than NETCONF but not a replacement. It’s more of a lightweight
option for engineers who are familiar with REST APIs.
RESTCONF NETCONF
GET <get>, <get-config>
POST <edit-config> (operation=”create”)
PUT <edit-config> (operation=”create/replace”)
PATCH <edit-config> (operation=”merge”)
DELETE <edit-config> (operation=”delete”)
API (Application Programming Interface):
To interact with applications or network devices, we can use an Application Programming
Interface (API). An API is a software interface which allows other applications to communicate
with our application. APIs are found almost everywhere. Amazon Web Services, Facebook, and
home automation devices such as thermostats, refrigerators, and wireless lighting systems, all
use APIs. They are also used for building programmable network automation. An API is software
that allows other applications to access its data or services. It is a set of rules describing how
one application can interact with another, and the instructions to allow the interaction to
occur. The user sends an API request to a server asking for specific information and receives an
API response in return from the server along with the requested information. XML and JSON
are two of the most common data formats that are used with APIs. An API is similar to a waiter
in a restaurant. A customer in a restaurant would like to have some food delivered to the table.
The food is in the kitchen where it is cooked and prepared. The waiter is the messenger, similar
to an API. The waiter (the API) is the person who takes the customer’s order (the request) and
tells the kitchen what to do. When the food is read, the waiter will then deliver the food (the
response) back to the customer.

REST and RESTful API:

It’s an acronym for REpresentational State Transfer:
Representational means we transfer the representation of a resource between a server and a
client. We use a data format for this representation, typically JSON or XML.
State Transfer means that each operation with a REST API is self-contained. Each request
carries (transfers) all information (state) to complete the operation.
REST APIs typically use HTTP methods to retrieve or send information between applications.
We use the same HTTP methods when we use a web browser to visit a website, but now we
use them to interact with an application. HTTP has multiple methods, but these four are the
most common ones:
GET: A read-only method to retrieve a specified resource.
POST: Submits data to the specified resource to process. The POST method can also create new
resources.
PUT: Updates the specified resource by replacing the existing data.
DELETE: Deletes the specified resource.
HTTP is popular so you can use REST APIs in almost any programming language.
REST has no built-in security features, but if needed we can add these. For example, we can use
HTTPS for encryption and usernames or tokens for authentication.
Embedded Event Manager (EEM):
Embedded Event Manager (EEM) is a very flexible and powerful Cisco IOS tool. EEM allows
engineers to build software applets that can automate many tasks. EEM enables you to build
custom scripts using Tcl. Scripts can automatically execute based on the output of an action or
an event on a device. EEM is all contained within the local device. There is no need to rely on
an external scripting engine or monitoring device in most cases.