Preface

Some engineers will be familiar with the basic programming concepts however there is a natural transitionary period as new tools and technologies are introduced and adopted.

Seasoned Network Administrators The need for CCNP / CCDP level of knowledge and capabilities is not replaced by automation. In fact, the two go together very nicely. An understanding of IP addressing, routing and spanning-tree is required, as well as knowing how to operate and configure network devices. These skills only enhance the ability to automate a network.

New Network Administrators Understanding the basics of networking will always be the foundation of a career in IT. However, if new network administrators can learn automation skills in conjunction with learning the fundamentals of networking, it becomes their native way of operating the network. It is a great time to begin with networks and see them as something that can be operated like an application and not just a collection of hardware devices. Novice network administrators may benefit most from network automation because entering the industry during the inception of automation means they develop from the ground up. Careers will grow along with network automation and will no longer suffer the dark ages of manual CLI network management.

Software Developers The skills of a software developer directly translate to network administration and operations. A basic understanding of networking is required; however software development skills are otherwise directly transferrable. As the network is converted to code there are opportunities for a larger team to contribute to operations with a NetDevOps approach. Software developers can bring ideas and concepts of development to the network team. They can offer to setup a collaboration between developers and network administrators in the organization and convert the network to code together.

Tools Used in This Books Microsoft Visual Studio Code https://code.visualstudio.com/ Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is more than just an enhanced text editor, it is a full development environment. Git integrates with VS Code which acts as a Graphical User Interface (GUI) front-end, transforming commands to point and click operations. All the code in this book has been created using VS Code.

This free tool is used by software developers everywhere and can be adopted by network administrators. The base editor will be enhanced by installing extensions used to help write effective, error-free Python code, YAML files, and Jinja templates.

Microsoft Team Foundation Server https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/tfs/