Ansible for Network Engineers: Hands-On & Capstone Projects

Unlock the power of network automation with Ansible! Designed specifically for network engineers, this comprehensive course takes you from beginner to advanced levels, emphasizing real-world, hands-on labs to build practical expertise.

What makes this course unique?

• ServiceNow Integration: Learn to integrate Ansible with ServiceNow to orchestrate end-to-end automation workflows seamlessly.
• Four Capstone Projects: Tackle real-world scenarios and build projects that prepare you for industry challenges.
• 100+ Videos: Dive deep into a wealth of content covering concepts, labs, and advanced topics.

This course is perfect for those who want to:

• Network engineers aiming to master Ansible for device configuration and management.
• Professionals looking to implement end-to-end automation with ServiceNow.
• Learners preparing for the DevNet Expert certification journey.

What you’ll get:

• Step-by-step creation and management of Ansible playbooks for network devices.
• Real-world applications with a variety of network equipment.
• Advanced features like Ansible Collections, Roles, Templates, Automation Platform, Custom Modules, and integrations with ServiceNow and Slack.

Join the growing community of network professionals leveraging automation to simplify and optimize their workflows. Start your journey towards becoming a DevNet Expert today!

Course Outline:

Course Introduction

• Introduction

Introduction to Ansible for Network Engineers

• Why use Ansible for Network Automation
• Comparing Ansible with Puppet, Chef, and SaltStack: Key Differences
• Ansible Architecture & Concepts
• Ansible Control Node Installation and Setup
• Lab Setup for Network Automation

Ansible Basics: Configuration, Inventory, and Playbooks

• Ansible Configuration
• Ansible Ad-Hoc command and Inventory Basics
• YAML 101
• Inventory in YAML format
• Ansible Playbook

Mastering Variables in Ansible

• Understanding Variables in Ansible
• Valid Variable Names
• group_vars and host_vars
• Register
• ansible_facts
• Magic Variables
• include_vars
• set_fact

[ Capstone Project 1] – Configuration Backup

• Capstone Project 1 – Configuration Backup – Overview
• Capstone Project 1 – Configuration Backup – Solution

Using Conditionals

• loop and with_items
• Registering variables with a loop
• loop_control
• until
• Using when

Managing Cisco IOS Devices with Ansible

• ios_facts module
• ios_command – Part 1
• ios_command – Part 2 – prompt
• ios_config – Introduction
• ios_config –  parents
• ios_config – after
• ios_config – before and match
• ios_config – backup and backup-options
• ios_config – diff_against and diff_ignore_lines
• ios_config – save_when
• ios_config – src
• Resource Module – hostname
• Resource Module – interfaces
• Resource Module – l2_interfaces and l3_interfaces

RegEx and Parsers

• RegEx in Ansible
• cli_parse and TextFSM, NTC-templates, and pyATS

[ Capstone Project 2] – Automated Local Username Update and Cleanup

• Capstone Project 2 – Automated Local Username Update and Cleanup – Overview
• Capstone Project 2 – Automated Local Username Update and Cleanup – Solution 1
• Capstone Project 2 – Automated Local Username Update and Cleanup – Solution 2

Filters Plugins and Jinja2

• Filters – Introduction
• Filters combine
• Filters ternary
• Filters map
• Filters to_json and to_nice_json
• Filters to_yaml and to_nice_yaml
• Filters zip
• Filters ip_addr
• Filters to_datetime and strftime
• Jinja2 Introduction
• Jinja2 – if else
• Jinja2 – for loop
• Jinja2 – include
• Jinja2 – ios_config

Deep Dive into Lookup and Callback Plugins

• Lookup Plugins Overview
• Lookup Plugin – File
• Lookup Plugin – env
• Lookup Plugin – pipe
• Lookup Plugin – template
• Callback Plugin – stdout
• Callback Plugin – aggregate
• Callback Plugin – notification – log_plays and email
• Callback Plugin – notification – slack integration

Managing Task Execution with Blocks, Assert, and Handlers

• Block
• Assert
• Handlers

Reusable Automation with Collections, Roles, Includes and Imports

• Collections
• Roles
• Include and Import

Ansible Best Practices and Optimizations

• Strategies in Ansible
• Forks and Serial in Ansible
• Using tags
• Using check_mode
• Delegation
• no_log and log_path
• ignore_errors
• failed_when and changed_when
• Ansible Lint
• ansible_vault

[ Capstone Project 3] – Automated IOS Upgrade

• Capstone Project 3 – Automated IOS Upgrade – Overview
• Capstone Project 3 – Automated IOS Upgrade – Solution

Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) and AWX Essentials

• Ansible Automation Platform Overview and Installation
• Setting up AAP to manage hosts
• Users, Teams and Roles in AAP
• Job Template Surveys
• Scheduling Jobs
• Notifications in AAP
• Creating Dynamic Inventory in AAP
• Using Workflow in AAP

Advanced Ansible: Custom Inventory Plugins and Modules

• Custom Inventory Plugin
• Custom Module

ServiceNow Integration with Ansible

• ServiceNow Overview and snow_record Module
• ServiceNow snow_record update using Jinja2 and HTML
• ServiceNow ITSM Incident Module
• ServiceNow ITSM Change Module

[ Capstone Project 4] – Automated VLAN Configuration using ServiceNow Workflow and AAP

• Capstone Project 4 – Automated VLAN Configuration using ServiceNow Workflow and AAP – Overview
• Capstone Project 4 – Automated VLAN Configuration using ServiceNow Workflow and AAP – Solution