Useful Python Libraries for Network Engineers

Collection of scripts and examples of Python code, libraries, and utilities for working with Network Devices.

The code in this repository is used in a demonstrations, talks, and labs as part of Cisco DevNet and specifically NetDevOps Live!.

Hands On Lab

Included in this repo is a short hands on lab guide that walks through many of the libraries discussed and used through the examples. You can view the lab guide here.

Setting Up to Run Examples

Clone and Prep the Environment

1. Clone the code repo

   git clone https://github.com/hpreston/python_networking
   cd python_networking

2. Setup Python Virtual Environment.

   # MacOS or Linux
   python3.6 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate
   pip install -r requirements.txt

   • Note: If on Linux, you will need to install the Python3.6 development files. On CentOS this is done with yum install -y python36u-devel

   # Windows - recommendation to use git-bash terminal
   py -3 -m venv venv
   source venv/Scripts/activate
   pip install -r requirements-win.txt

   • Note: Creation and activation of a venv in Windows is slightly different. Also Ansible and pyATS aren't currently supported on Windows so the requirements-win.txt doesn't contain those libraries.

Infrastructure Resources

The example scripts for data_manipulation require nothing other than the files in this repository and the Python libraries installed with pip install above.

The example scripts for device_apis & network_testing leverage DevNet Always On Sandboxes that are publicly available, with no VPN connection needed. The details for these infrastructure are included in the scripts.

There is also a Vagrantfile included in the repo that can be used to spin up a local IOS XE device to use for the API examples. You'll need to have Vagrant and a box already available. You can find details on obtaining and using Vagrant boxes for Cisco devices at github.com/hpreston/vagrant_net_prog. If you do do this, the following line would need to be changed in the code examples.

from device_info import ios_xe1 as device -> from device_info import vagrant_iosxe as device

Infrastructure for Configuration Management Demonstrations

The configuration management scripts in this repository are written to target a sample network topology built as Core > Dist > Access with IOS XE devices in the Core, and NX-OS devices for Dist and Access. The demo network can be run with Cisco VIRL or CML, and the topology.virl file in the repo has the details. If you do not have your own VIRL server, you can reserve a free DevNet Multi-IOS VIRL Sandbox to use.

1. After connecting to the Sandbox with VPN, start the development network. This single line command will start the simulation, wait to completely start, and then lay down an initial configuration with Ansible.

   virl up --provision \
     && virl generate ansible -o setup/default_inventory.yaml \
     && cd setup \
     && ansible-playbook network_deploy.yaml \
     && cd ../