Network Automation with Nautobot

Transform the way your network teams think about and deploy enterprise network automation through the power of Nautobot's open-source platform

Key Features

• Learn how documenting your network in Nautobot can accelerate your network automation journey
• Apply NetDevOps to your network by leveraging Nautobot as a network source of truth
• Minimize tool sprawl by extending, using, or building Nautobot Apps
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

Nautobot enables network teams to build a scalable and extensible network source of truth that provides a foundation to power any network automation stack.

With the help of this guide, you'll learn how to deploy, manage, and integrate Nautobot as a source of truth and network automation platform. As you progress, you'll learn what a network source of truth is, the relationship between data and network automation, and network data models. You'll also gain a broad understanding of Nautobot and its robust features that allow maximum flexibility. A dedicated section will show you how to construct a single source of truth with Nautobot and help you explore its programmatic APIs, including REST APIs, GraphQL, webhooks, and Nautobot Job Hooks. Later, you'll develop custom data models and custom apps for Nautobot and experience its extensibility and powerful developer API. In the last part of this book, you'll discover how to deploy configuration compliance and automated remediation once Nautobot is deployed as a network source of truth.

By the end of this book, you'll be able to design and manage Nautobot as a network source of truth, understand its key features, and extend Nautobot by creating custom data models and apps that suit your network and your team.

What you will learn

• Understand network sources of truth and the role they play in network automation architecture
• Gain an understanding of Nautobot as a network source and a network automation platform
• Convert Python scripts to enable self-service Nautobot Jobs
• Understand how YAML files in Git can be easily integrated into Nautobot
• Get to grips with the NetDevOps ecosystem around Nautobot and its app ecosystem
• Delve into popular Nautobot Apps including Single Source of Truth and Golden Config

Who this book is for

This book is for network engineers, network automation engineers, and software engineers looking to support their network teams by building custom Nautobot Apps. A basic understanding of networking (e.g. CCNA) and knowledge of the fundamentals of Linux, Python programming, Jinja2, YAML, and JSON are needed to get the most out of this book.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Nautobot
2. Nautobot Data Models
3. Installing and Deploying Nautobot
4. Understanding the User Interface and Bootstrapping Nautobot
5. Configuring Nautobot Core Data Models
6. Using Nautobot's Extensibility Features
7. Managing and Administering Nautobot
8. Learning about Nautobot APIs - REST, GraphQL, and Webhooks
9. Understanding Nautobot Integrations for NetDevOps Pipelines
10. Embracing Infrastructure as Code with Nautobot, Git, and Ansible
11. Automating Networks with Nautobot Jobs
12. Data-Driven Network Automation Architecture
13. Learning about the Nautobot App Ecosystem
14. Intro to Nautobot App Development
15. Building Nautobot Data Models
16. Automating with Nautobot Apps
17. Appendix 1: Nautobot Architecture
18. Appendix 2: Integrating Distributed Data Sources of Truth with Nautobot
19. Appendix 3: Performing Config Compliance and Remediation with Nautobot