Course Overview
Network Automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (DO457) is designed for network administrators or infrastructure automation engineers who want to use network automation to centrally manage the switches, routers, and other devices in the organization's network infrastructure. Learn how to use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to remotely automate the configuration of network devices, test and validate the current network state, and perform compliance checks to detect and correct configuration drift.
This course is based on Red Hat® Ansible Automation Platform 2.3
Following course completion, you will receive a 45-day extended access to hands-on labs for any course that includes a virtual environment.
Course Content
- Prepare a development environment for Ansible network automation
- Write and troubleshoot effective Ansible Playbooks for network automation
- Gather information about network infrastructure configuration for infrastructure awareness and configuration backup
- Automate specific network administration use cases, including configuration of routers and switches, ports, VLANs, SNMP monitoring, and routing protocols
- Use Ansible Playbooks to manage devices from various hardware vendors, including Cisco, Juniper, and Arista
- Centrally manage Ansible content in Git and run it centrally with automation controller
- Reuse existing, tested network automation code with Ansible Roles, Ansible Content Collections, and Ansible validated content
Who should attend
This course is designed for network administrators, network automation engineers, and infrastructure automation engineers who are responsible for deploying, managing, and automating the network infrastructure of their organization or enterprise.
Prerequisites
- Take our free assessment to gauge whether this offering is the best fit for your skills
- Experience with network administration, including a solid understanding of TCP/IP, routers, and managed switches
- Familiarity with managing network devices from the command line, preferably with one or more of Cisco IOS, IOS XR, or NX-OS; Juniper Junos; or Arista EOS
- Knowledge equivalent to Red Hat System Administration I (RH124) or better is recommended
- Prior Ansible knowledge is not required
Course Objectives
Impact on the organization
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has as much potential to improve operational efficiency for network automation and administration as it does for traditional system administration automation. By effectively using the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, the network administration team can improve the efficiency, repeatability, quality, and consistency of its work and the organization's network infrastructure. In addition, by using Ansible, the same tools used to manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Microsoft Windows systems can be used to manage network infrastructure, enabling cross-platform commonality of tools and easier auditing of automation. This course is optimized for learners who are already experienced network administrators, but who do not have much experience with Ansible.
Impact on the individual
As a result of attending this course, you will be able to use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to write Ansible Playbooks and launch them to manage the routers, switches, and other devices in your network infrastructure. You will have experience with using Ansible to automate several common use cases and have a basic understanding of how to write playbooks that can target devices made by different network hardware vendors supported by Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
Outline: Red Hat Ansible for Network Automation (DO457)
Introducing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
- Describe the fundamental concepts of Ansible and how it is used, and install development tools from Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Implementing an Ansible Playbook
- Create an inventory of managed nodes, write a simple Ansible Playbook, and run the playbook to automate tasks on those nodes
Managing and Running Playbooks
- Manage automation code in version control and run Ansible Playbooks from a centrally managed automation controller
Managing Variables and Facts
- Write playbooks that use variables to simplify management of the playbook and facts to reference information about managed nodes
Implementing Task Control
- Manage task control and task errors in Ansible Playbooks
Simplifying Playbooks with Roles and Ansible Content Collections
- Use Ansible Roles and Ansible Content Collections to develop playbooks more quickly and to reuse Ansible code
Automating Network Automation Tasks
- Automate common network administration tasks, discussing recommended practices and approaches to cross-vendor automation
Comprehensive Review
- Demonstrate skills learned in this course by installing, optimizing, and configuring Ansible for the management of network devices and infrastructure