Network Automation with Ansible

✍ Scribed by Jason Edelman

• Publisher: O'Reilly
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 52
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

API-driven network devices are much easier to manage and operate than their older counterparts, but that’s not their only advantage. These new devices also enable true network automation, and that’s a real game changer for network engineers. This O’Reilly report explores the capabilities of Ansible, an agentless and extensible configuration management platform that dovetails well with the new trend in software-defined networking.
Author Jason Edelman is a veteran network engineer who firmly believes the way we currently build, manage, and operate networks has to change. In this report, he explains why the network community is rallying around Ansible as a more efficient method for managing and maintaining modern networks.
- Get hands-on examples for automating devices from multiple vendors with Ansible
- Automate any network environment, including legacy command-line interface and SNMP-based devices
- Explore Ansible’s extensibility and agentless architecture for automating your network
- Automate network tasks such as device provisioning, data collection, and reporting

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
4 Easy Ways to Stay Ahead of the Game
Copyright
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Network Automation
Simplified Architectures
Deterministic Outcomes
Business Agility
Chapter 2. What Is Ansible?
Simple
Agentless
Extensible
Chapter 3. Why Ansible for Network Automation?
Agentless
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
Extensible
Integrating into Existing DevOps Workflows
Idempotency
Network-Wide and Ad Hoc Changes
Chapter 4. Network Task Automation with Ansible
Device Provisioning
Data Collection and Monitoring
Migrations
Configuration Management
Compliance
Reporting
Chapter 5. How Ansible Works
Out of the Box
Ansible Network Integrations
Chapter 6. Ansible Terminology and Getting Started
Inventory File
Playbook
Play
Tasks
Modules
Chapter 7. Hands-on Look at Using Ansible for Network Automation
Inventory File
Playbook
Chapter 8. Summary