Python for Network Engineers - A Practical Guide for Getting Started
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This document is an introduction to Python for network engineers, emphasizing its importance for improving job efficiency without replacing engineers. It outlines key topics for learning Python, recommended tools, and practical applications in network automation. The author encourages continuous mentorship and realistic expectations for skill development.
![© Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved
Learning any New Skill [1]
Novice Expert MasterCompetent Proficient
Experience over a long time
● Use everyday concrete experiences,
not abstract concepts
● Attaining core competency requires
instructor led training and / or
directed tutorials
Jeremy's key takeaways:
● Attaining proficient skill requires
experience and knowledge
that takes massive time investment
● Continuous mentorship, peer-review,
feedback, learning, experimentation](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/pyne-chapter1-2018public-180307144451/85/Python-for-Network-Engineers-A-Practical-Guide-for-Getting-Started-8-320.jpg)
Python for Network Engineers - A Practical Guide for Getting Started
- 1. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Python for Network Engineers Chapter 1 A Practical Guide for Getting Started Jeremy Schulman @nwkautomaniac
- 2. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Jeremy Schulman ● Software Engineer ● 20 Years in Industry ● Since 2012 exclusively focused on "network automation" ● Other Roles: ○ Developer Advocate ○ Systems Engineer ○ Automation Architect ○ Open source contributor @nwkautomaniac Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/ jeremyschulman Github: https://github.com/ jeremyschulman
- 3. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Obligatory Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are Jeremy Schulman's and do not represent any employer past or present. Reference materials provided in this presentation, such as links to external training sites, do not represent any form of recommendation.
- 4. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Network Engineers need to competently use Python so that they can make, and make use of, power-tools that will improve their jobs. These tools will not replace them.
- 5. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Agenda ● Discussion ○ Realistic expectations ○ Getting started ● Live coding ○ Jupyter Notebook - makes Python feel like a CLI ○ NetOps example exercises ● Where to go from here ...
- 6. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved "Manual via CLI" "SNMP based products" "Vendor Products" "SDN" "Orchestration Systems" "DevOps" "Network Automation" "Network Engineers must become Software Engineers" Managing Networks
- 7. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved "Manual via CLI" "SNMP based products" "Vendor Products" "SDN" "Orchestration Systems" "DevOps" "Network Automation" "Network Engineers must become Software Engineers" Managing Networks
- 8. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Learning any New Skill [1] Novice Expert MasterCompetent Proficient Experience over a long time ● Use everyday concrete experiences, not abstract concepts ● Attaining core competency requires instructor led training and / or directed tutorials Jeremy's key takeaways: ● Attaining proficient skill requires experience and knowledge that takes massive time investment ● Continuous mentorship, peer-review, feedback, learning, experimentation
- 9. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Systems are Risky and Complex Manage Distributed Network Services High Risk Complex Tasks Low Risk Simple Tasks Configuration Management “config” Situational Awareness “show” Host-Only (blast radius = 1) Distributed System (blast radius > 1)
- 10. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Where to start using Python High Risk Complex Tasks Low Risk Simple Tasks Configuration Management “config” Situational Awareness “show” Host-Only (blast radius = 1) Distributed System (blast radius > 1) "Your network is a crime scene, and you are the detective. You need better ways to investigate what happened, and prove guilt or innocence". -- Jeremy
- 11. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Live Coding Make Python *feel* like being on a CLI http://jupyter.org/
- 12. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Jupyter Notebook $ virtualenv playground $ source playground/bin/activate (playground)$ pip install ipython==5 jupyter Setup a Python virtual-environment (playground)$ pip install jupyter Install Jupyter notebook for Python 2.7 Install Jupyter notebook for Python 3
- 13. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Jupyter Notebook (playground)$ jupyter notebook Start Jupyter notebook system, will launch browser
- 14. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Novice Topics ● Variables, duck-typing ● help(), type(), dir() ● pretty-printing ● Importing packages ● List, Dictionary ● Tuple, Set ● Functions ● For-loops ● If / Then / Else ● Working with files ● JSON, YAML files ● List Comprehensions ● Dictionary Comprehensions ● Set Comprehensions ● Collections - Counter ● Collections - defaultdict
- 15. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Python Libraries ● ipaddress ● tabulate ● first ● tqdm ● requests ● collections ● csv ● json ● yaml ● gtextfsm ● netmiko ● napalm ● lxml ● paramiko ● bidict ● operator ● itertools ● chain
- 16. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved NetOps Examples 1. Use NAPALM drivers to execute device-specific CLI commands a. Arista EOS b. Cisco NX-OS 2. Process IP routing table information 3. Process LLDP neighbor information 4. Process Interface information
- 17. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Next Steps ● Take formal Python courses ● Global Knowledge ● Subscribe to Python News ○ Dan Bader ○ https://www.pythonweekly.com/ ● https://www.python.org/ ● Try PyCharm IDE (Integrated Development Environment) ● Use Python every day ● Use Jupyter notebook ● Take industry classes ○ IpSpace ○ NetworkToCode ○ Kirk Byers ● Free Cisco DevNet Building Novice Skills Building Competency
- 18. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Closing Thoughts "A good network engineer is proficient at quickly becoming competent." -- Derick Winkworth (@cloudtoad) ● Be patient. Set realistic goals, both with yourself and your management ● Consider how long it took you to become a Senior Network Engineer
- 19. © Jeremy Schulman - 2018 - All Rights Reserved Cheers! Jeremy Schulman @nwkautomaniac