Cisco pyATS Network Test and Automation Solution: Data-driven and reusable testing for modern networks

Auteur

John Capobianco has a dynamic and multifaceted career in IT and networking, marked by significant contributions to both the public and private sectors. Beginning his journey in the field as an aluminum factory worker, Capobiancos resilience and dedication propelled him through college, earning a diploma as a Computer Programmer Analyst from St. Lawrence College. This initial phase set the foundation for a career underpinned by continuous learning and achievement, evident from his array of certifications, including multiple Cisco certifications as well as Microsoft certification.

Transitioning from his early educational accomplishments, Capobiancos professional life has spanned over two decades, featuring roles that showcased his technical prowess and strategic vision. His work has significantly impacted both the public and private sectors, including notable positions at the Parliament of Canada, where he served as a Senior IT Planner and Integrator, and at Cisco, where he began as a Developer Advocate. These roles have been instrumental in shaping his perspective on network management and security, leading to his recent advancement into a Technical Leader role in Artificial Intelligence for Cisco Secure, reflecting his commitment to integrating AI technologies for enhancing network security solutions.

In addition to his professional and technical achievements, Capobianco is also an accomplished author. His book Automate Your Network: Introducing the Modern Approach to Enterprise Network Management, published in March 2019, encapsulates his philosophy toward leveraging automation for efficient and effective network management. He is dedicated to lifelong learning and professional development, supported by a solid foundation in education and a broad spectrum of certifications, and now aims to share his knowledge with others through this book, YouTube videos, and blogs. John can be found on X using @john_capobianco.

Dan Wade is a Network and Infrastructure Automation Practice Lead at BlueAlly. As part of the Solutions Strategy team at BlueAlly, he is responsible for developing network and infrastructure automation solutions and enabling the sales and consulting teams on delivery of the developed solutions. Solutions may include infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, network source of truth, network observability, and, of course, automated testing and validation. Previous to this role, Dan worked as a consulting engineer with a focus on network automation.

Dan has more than seven years of experience in network automation, having worked with automation tooling and frameworks such as Ansible and Terraform, and Python libraries, including Nornir, Netmiko, NAPALM, Scrapli, and Python SDKs. Dan has been working with pyATS and the pyATS library (Genie) for the past four to five years, which has inspired him to embrace automated network testing. In 2021, Dan contributed to the genieparser library with a new IOS XE parser. He also enjoys creating his own open-source projects focused on network automation. Dan holds two professional-level certifications from Cisco: Cisco DevNet Professional and CCNP Enterprise. He is also a member of the Cisco DevNet 500 and Cisco Champions program.

Dan enjoys sharing knowledge and experience on social media with blog posts and YouTube videos as well as participating in podcast episodes. Hes passionate about helping others explore network automation and advocating how network automation can empower, not replace, network engineers. You can find him on social media @devnetdan.

Texte du rabat

Unlock the power of automated network testing with the Cisco pyATS framework.

Written by industry experts John Capobianco and Dan Wade, Cisco pyATSNetwork Test and Automation Solution is a comprehensive guide to the Cisco pyATS framework, a Python-based environment for network testing, device configuration, parsing, APIs, and parallel programming.

Capobianco and Wade offer in-depth insights into the extensive capabilities of pyATS and the pyATS library (Genie). You'll learn how to leverage pyATS for network testing, including software version testing, interface testing, neighbor testing, and reachability testing. You'll discover how to generate intent-based configurations, create mock devices, and integrate pyATS into larger workflows using CI/CD pipelines and artificial intelligence. You'll explore the pyATS Blitz feature, which introduces a low-code no-code approach to network testing by allowing you to configure devices and write test cases using YAML, much like Ansible. And you'll learn how to reset devices during or after testing with the pyATS Clean feature, build a pyATS image from scratch for containerized application deployment, and much more.

Whether you're a network professional, software developer, or preparing for the Cisco DevNet Expert Lab exam, this book is a must-have resource.

Understand the foundations of NetDevOps and the modern network engineer's toolkit

• Install, upgrade, and work with the pyATS framework and library
• Define test cases, control the flow of test execution, and review test results with built-in reporting features
• Generate automated network documentation with Jinja2 templates and Genie Conf objects
• Apply CI/CD practices in network automation with GitLab, Ansible, and pyATS
• Leverage artificial intelligence in pyATS for enhanced network automation

Contenu

Introduction xxx

Chapter 1 Foundations of NetDevOps 1

Traditional Network Operations 2

Software Development Methodologies 11

NetDevOps 14

Comparing Network Automation Tools 21

The Modern Network Engineer Toolkit 22

CI/CD 32

Summary 35

References 36

Chapter 2 Installing and Upgrading pyATS 37

Installing pyATS 37

Upgrading pyATS 42

Troubleshooting pyATS 45

Summary 47

Chapter 3 Testbeds 49

What Is YAML? 49

What Is a Testbed? 51

Device Connection Abstractions 60

Testbed Validation 63

Dynamic Testbeds 66

Intent-based Networking with Extended Testbeds 68

Summary 70

Chapter 4 AEtest Test Infrastructure 73

Getting Started with AEtest 74

Testscript Structure 75

AEtest Object Model 82

Runtime Behavior 85

Test Results 88

Processors 91

Data-Driven Testing 94

Running Testscripts 108

Testscript Flow Control 117

Reporting 126

Debugging 133

Summary 134

Chapter 5 pyATS Parsers 137

Vendor-Agnostic Automation 138

pyATS learn 139

pyATS Parsers 146

Parsing at the CLI 148

Parsing with Python 159

Dictionary Query 160

Differentials 162

Summary 167

Chapter 6 Test-Driven Development 169

Introduction to Test-Driven Development 170

Applying Test-Driven Development to Network Automation 172

Introduction to pyATS 174

The pyATS Framework 175

Summary 187

Endnotes 188

Chapter 7 Automated Network Documentation 189

Introduction to pyATS Jobs 190

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