Model-driven telemetry replaces SNMP polling with continuous streaming from the device. This article covers the MDT subscription model on IOS XE, dial-in vs dial-out over gRPC, and the honest platform picture.
Go past one-line EEM applets: multi-event correlation, Tcl policies, and EEM as the trigger for on-box Python. Includes a real applet firing and capturing device state in a CML lab.
One interface configuration rendered as JSON, XML, and YAML from a single Python dictionary. See why RESTCONF, NETCONF, and Ansible each picked their format and how all three encode the same data model.
Stop hand-editing pasted router configs. This post builds the full templating pipeline: YAML variables, a Jinja2 template, rendered CLI, and a Netmiko push to a live router, all captured from a real CML lab.
On-box Python puts automation scripts on the IOS XE device itself, so they run even when the management network is down. Covers the cli module, where scripts run, and the honest platform picture, with a fully captured off-box pipeline as reference.
Guest Shell is a Linux container running on your router's own hardware, with access to the IOS XE CLI from inside it. Run Python and script the box with no external automation host. What it is, why it matters, and where you can run it.
NAT, DHCP, and IP SLA faults rarely leave clues in show ip route. Five services ticket scenarios with the exact translation table, binding, or tracking object to check for each, grounded in real lab behavior.
DHCPv6 prefix delegation, general prefixes, and NPTv6: the IPv6 services engineers often skip, shown with real CML output of a delegated prefix flowing all the way to a downstream interface.
Embedded Packet Capture puts Wireshark-grade capture inside the IOS XE router itself: no SPAN, no capture laptop, no cabling. Includes a real on-router capture from a CML lab and the syntax difference that will bite you.
Build SNMPv3 in production form: users, groups, views, and the three security levels. The payoff is a real encrypted trap arriving and being decrypted on a Linux receiver, with no cleartext community strings on the wire.
The IOS DHCP server does far more than network, default-router, dns-server. This article covers options for PXE boot and phones, DHCP classes, and manual bindings, with real lease output from a CML lab.
Two customers with identical 10.5.5.0/24 subnets reach one shared exit through a single router. VRF-aware NAT on IOS XE keeps them separate, and this CML lab build shows two translation tables holding identical inside-local addresses.