Drawer of Any Network Topology (DANT)

This is a demo repository for an automation tool, which collects the operational data from network devices using NETCONF/YANG and visualise it in the way you need.

Discalaimer

This tool allows you provide insights how you can draw any network topology you need for any vendor as long as the following conditions are met:

• Network devices supports NETCONF/YANG
• You have access to YANG modules or knows how to retrieve them from a network device via NETCONF
• You have some Python knowledge

Originally, the provided demo built physical network connectivity's topology between Cisco Nexus 9000 devices leveraging CDP and OSPF information. Later it was extended with furtehr vendors and topologies

Frameworks used

• Nornir for managing interaction with devices in a threaded way
• NETCONF/YANG (using scrapli_netconf) for interacting with network devices
• network and graphviz for building math graph and visualisation

Usage

1. Install Python dependencies:

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Set the following environment variables:

$ export AUTOMATION_USERNAME='username_for_switches'
$ export AUTOMATION_PASSWORD='password_for_switches'

3. Update inventory in app/inventory per standard Nornir inventory pattern. You can integrate it with NetBox or another source of truth, if needed.
4. Check how to specify topology:

$ cd app
$ python main.py --help

4. Launch the script with arguments --topology to specify topology (e.g., OSPF or CDP) of choice and --format (e.g. static or dymamic):

$ python main.py --topology cdp --format static

Supported

Network Operating Systems

• Cisco NX-OS (tested with 9.3.9)
• Cisco IOS XR (testes with 7.2.1)
• Nokia SR OS (tested with 21.5.R1)

Topologies

• CDP
• OSPF
• ISIS
• LLDP

Visualisation

• static leverages Graphviz to create static PNG image.
• dynamic leverages VisJS/pyvis to create dynamic HTML pages.

More details

This repository supports our blog Karneliuk.com. Find the corresponding blogposts explaing these files.

Want to Be The Automation Expert?

This is just a tiny example of what our students from Zero-to-Hero Network Automation Training can create to help them to do troubleshooting or real-time analysis. Enroll to the training today and start studying.

Need Help?

Contact us with your request and we will find the most suitable solution for you.

(c)2022, Karneliuk.com