This course will help you:
- Gain an overview of the skills you need to become a next-generation engineer
- Prepare to accelerate network automation in your organization
- Increase collaboration across internal and external teams using version control systems
After taking this course, you should be able to:
- Articulate the role network automation and programmability play in the context of end-to-end network management and operations
- Define and differentiate between waterfall and agile software development methodologies
- Interpret and troubleshoot Python scripts with fundamental programming constructs built for network automation use cases
- Describe how DevOps principles, tools, and pipelines can be applied to network operations
- Understand the role of network automation development environments and associated technologies such as Python virtual environments, Vagrant, and Docker
- Understand and construct HTTP-based API calls to network devices
- Articulate the differences among and common use cases for XML, JSON, YAML, and protobuf
- Construct and interpret Python scripts using the Python requests module to automate devices that have HTTP-based APIs
- Understand the role YANG plays in network automation
- Understand that a number of tools exist to simplify working with YANG models
- Describe the functionality of RESTCONF and NETCONF and the differences between them
- Construct Ansible playbooks to configure network devices and retrieve operational state data from them
- Build Jinja2 templates and YAML data structures to generate desired state configurations
There are no prerequisites for this training. However, the knowledge and skills you are recommended to have before attending this training are:
- Routing and switching including open shortest path first (OSPF), border gateway protocol (BGP), and basic configuration features such as interfaces, simple network management protocol (SNMP), and static routes
- Fundamentals of Python data structures and programming constructs, such as loops, conditionals, and classes, or the equivalent of 3–6 months of experience writing Python scripts
- Basic Linux commands for navigating the file system and executing scripts
- Knowledge of working with text editors
The following recommended Cisco offering may help you meet these prerequisites:
- Implementing and Administrating Cisco Solutions (CCNA)
