SSH Beyond Login: Tunnels, Jump Hosts, scp/sftp
Local, remote and dynamic forwards, ProxyJump instead of agent forwarding, scp -O against IOS XE, and why telnet is still a fine port tester.
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.
Latest posts
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.
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
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.
Advanced EEM: Tcl, Multi-Event Correlation, and EEM + Python
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.
JSON vs XML vs YAML for Network Engineers: One Payload, Three Ways
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.
Jinja2 Templates for Network Configs: From Variables to Rendered CLI
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: Scripting IOS XE from the Inside
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 on IOS XE: Linux Inside Your Router
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.
Python and JSON for the ENCOR Exam: Reading Scripts Under Pressure
ENCOR asks you to read Python and JSON, not write it. Learn to parse a script's structure in seconds and read JSON payloads fluently, a comprehension skill worth free marks under exam pressure.