Netmiko vs NAPALM vs pyATS: Three Ways to Diff a Cisco Change
Netmiko, NAPALM and pyATS answer "did my change do anything?" at three different layers. Same three IOS-XE 17.18.2 routers, same lab, real captured diffs.
Network Automation
Configuring and validating devices with code instead of a keyboard. Articles tagged Network Automation cover Python tooling, model-driven interfaces and testing changes before they ship.
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pyATS and Genie: Diff Cisco Operational State, Not Config
Config diffs tell you your text landed. They do not tell you the interface came up. Here is how pyATS and Genie snapshot live operational state, diff it across a change, and prove a rollback was clean, captured against IOS-XE 17.18.2 in CML.
Nornir and NAPALM: Cisco Config Management That Is Actually Idempotent
Nornir gives you the inventory and the concurrency netmiko never had. NAPALM asks the router for the diff instead of guessing in Python. Captured on three IOS-XE 17.18.2 nodes, including the dest_file_system fix nobody documents.
Netmiko Tutorial for Cisco: SSH Automation That Proves It Worked
A netmiko walkthrough built from a live capture against IOS-XE 17.18.2: connect, read, parse with TextFSM, push with send_config_set, then prove whether anything actually changed. Includes the ntc-templates key names that fail silently.
Model-Driven Telemetry on IOS XE Routers: gRPC Dial-Out in Practice
SNMP polling is how the network has been monitored for thirty years, and it is showing every one of them.
Advanced EEM: Tcl, Multi-Event Correlation, and EEM + Python
EEM - the Embedded Event Manager - is the router's built-in automation engine, and it has been there, on
JSON vs XML vs YAML for Network Engineers: One Payload, Three Ways
Every network automation interface speaks in one of three data formats. RESTCONF uses JSON. NETCONF uses XML. Ansible and most
Jinja2 Templates for Network Configs: From Variables to Rendered CLI
Copying a router config, pasting it, and changing the IP addresses by hand is how configuration errors are born. Jinja2
On-Box Python: Scripting IOS XE from the Inside
Off-box automation - a Python script on a server driving routers over SSH - is where most network automation lives, and
Guest Shell on IOS XE: Linux Inside Your Router
There is a full Linux environment hiding inside your router. Guest Shell is a Linux container (CentOS or a minimal
Python and JSON for the ENCOR Exam: Reading Scripts Under Pressure
The ENCOR exam does not ask you to be a software developer, but it does ask you to read a
SD-WAN Manager (vManage) API: Monitoring Catalyst SD-WAN Programmatically
If Catalyst Center is the controller for the campus, SD-WAN Manager (formerly vManage) is the controller for the WAN.