$ CCNA LABS // automate
Script the network. Hands-on Domain 6.
Seven labs that turn a bare Alpine node into a working automation host: Python and Netmiko, config pushes, JSON, a live REST API, Ansible, and a config drift detector you will keep.
auto-01 is free with no signup and builds the host every later lab assumes.
Automation and Programmability is Domain 6 of the CCNA 200-301: 10% of your score, and the domain most candidates only ever flashcard. These labs fix that. Everything runs in Cisco Modeling Labs Free on the standard five-node PingLabz base (three IOS XE 17.18 routers, one managed switch, one Alpine host) plus an unmanaged switch and a NAT connector, neither of which counts toward the five-node limit. The Alpine node is the star this time. Like every PingLabz lab, every command output was captured from the running lab.
The seven labs
Take them in order. Each lab builds on the host and scripts from the one before it.
The concept side of Domain 6
Three blueprint topics in this domain are architecture rather than keyboard work. They are covered here and inside the labs where they fit.
Controller-based networking and SDN (6.2, 6.3)
Traditional networks distribute the control plane: every router computes its own routing table and every switch learns its own MACs, which is what you watch happening in the rest of the library. Controller-based networking centralizes that intelligence. A controller holds the topology-wide view and pushes policy down, splitting the control plane (decisions) from the data plane (forwarding). The northbound interface is how operators and scripts talk to the controller (REST APIs, like the one you drive in auto-05). The southbound interface is how the controller talks to devices (SSH/CLI, NETCONF, OpenFlow in classic SDN literature). When the exam asks what goes where: north faces people and programs, south faces hardware.
Cisco Catalyst Center and AI-driven operations (6.4)
Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly DNA Center) is the productized version of that controller idea for enterprise campuses: device discovery, golden-image management, configuration templates, policy-based automation, and assurance analytics that baseline what normal looks like and flag deviations. That last clause is the drift-detection concept you build by hand in auto-07, scaled up and given a dashboard. Understand your sixty-line version and the exam's Catalyst Center questions become recognition rather than memorization.
Why IOL and RESTCONF do not mix
The IOL images that make this topology light enough for CML Free do not ship the YANG subsystem, so RESTCONF and NETCONF cannot be configured on these routers. Rather than fake the output, auto-05 teaches REST mechanics against the CML controller's own RESTful API and gives you the RESTCONF syntax as clearly labeled exam reference. If you later want live RESTCONF, a single Catalyst 8000V in CML Personal is the standard path; nothing else in this series changes.
What you need
Cisco Modeling Labs Free with the IOL reference images (new to CML? the free quick-start lab gets you installed in about 30 minutes), the series topology .yaml downloadable inside each lab, and no prior Python. Scripts are short, complete, and explained line by line. If you can read an IOS config, you can read these. Credentials throughout: routers and switch use pinglabz / PingLabz!23 (enable Cisco@123); the Alpine host uses CML's default cisco / cisco.
Where this fits in your CCNA prep
Do the CCNA Labs first if you are starting out; this series assumes you can read interface configs and navigate IOS without thinking about it. Automation pairs naturally with the Troubleshooting Labs (a drift detector is a fault-localization tool wearing different clothes) and makes a satisfying final act before the Mega Lab capstone. Domain 6 is 10% of the exam; ten hands-on hours here turn those questions from guesswork into banked points.