Getting Started with Ansible for Network Automation
The Ansible IT automation platform is spearheading the automation revolution in the computer networking industry. This course will teach you the basics of automating your network with Ansible through practical use cases and applications.
What you'll learn
Within the past few years, more IT operations teams are applying DevOps principles to computer networks. Specifically, modern network engineers are expected to use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) philosophies and leverage IT automation tools like Ansible to define the state of their network. In this course, Getting Started with Ansible for Network Automation, you'll learn Ansible fundamentals. First, you'll explore how they apply to automate computer networks. Next, you'll learn a variety of methods to gather data from and configure network devices using basic Ansible automation techniques. Finally, you'll discover how to improve the automation you write to be scalable and reusable. When you're finished with this course, you'll have a foundational understanding of Ansible needed to begin automating tasks within your network.
Table of contents
- Documentation for Installing Ansible 2m
- Demo: Ansible Control Node Prerequisites 4m
- Demo: Install Ansible with Your OS Package Manager 6m
- Demo: Install Ansible from Source 1m
- Demo: Install Ansible in Python Virtual Environment with Pip 6m
- Demo: Update Ansible Between Major Releases 2m
- Module Summary 1m
- Module Introduction 1m
- Types of Ansible Nodes 2m
- Demo: Ansible Configuration Files 9m
- Introduction to YAML 7m
- Demo: Ansible Inventory Files 6m
- Demo: Host/Group Variables and Variable Inheritance 4m
- Demo: Ansible Facts 5m
- Demo: Ansible Project Structure 4m
- Ansible Automation Components 8m
- Demo: Install Ansible Collections 7m
- Module Summary 2m
- Module Introduction 1m
- Demo: Verify Connectivity to Network Devices 11m
- Demo: Run CLI Commands with Ad-hoc Ansible Commands 4m
- Demo: Run CLI Commands with an Ansible Playbook 5m
- Demo: Testing Playbooks with the Limit Parameter 3m
- Demo: Leverage Ansible Facts on Network Devices 7m
- Demo: Archive CLI Command Output to Disk 6m
- Module Summary 2m
- Module Introduction 2m
- Demo: Network Device Configuration with Ansible Playbooks 9m
- Demo: Understanding Idempotence 3m
- Demo: Testing Playbooks with Check Mode 3m
- Demo: Network Device Configuration with Variables 6m
- Demo: Network Device Configuration with JSON/YAML Data 12m
- Demo: Debugging Ansible Playbooks 6m
- Demo: Network Device Configuration with Resource Modules 7m
- Demo: Connect to Network Devices with Alternative Transport Methods 3m
- Module Summary 3m
- Module Introduction 1m
- Understand Ansible Roles and Philosophy 2m
- Demo: Understand the Ansible Role Directory 5m
- Demo: Refactor Simple Playbooks with Ansible Roles 6m
- Demo: Refactor Complex Playbooks with Ansible Roles 3m
- Demo: Testing Roles, Playbooks, and Plays with Tags 2m
- Module Summary 1m
- Final Thoughts 1m
About the author
Christopher Hart is a Software Consulting Engineering Technical Leader for Cisco specialized in enterprise and data center network solutions. Christopher continuously hones his Python software development skills and advocates for automation-first mindsets and DevOps principles. Christopher enjoys producing technical documentation and training, publishing over a dozen articles for Cisco and speaking at Cisco Live 2021. Christopher holds a Bachelor's of Science in Industrial Technology from East C... more