New Training: Automate IP Reachability Testing
In this 6-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer John McGovern demonstrates how to use Python to build effective command-line IP reachability tools for testing network connectivity. Watch this new networking training.
Watch the full course: Advanced Network Automation with Cisco and Python
This training includes:
6 videos
57 minutes of training
You’ll learn these topics in this skill:
Overview
Building a Script
Show IP Interface Brief
Targeting Loopbacks
Management Interfaces
Ping Report
How Do You Automate Testing IP Reachability?
Let's say that you need to verify a list of IP addresses in use in an enterprise environment, or you may want to automate network deployment and need a way to verify IP addresses first. You certainly don't want to verify a long list of IP addresses by hand.
Thankfully, tools like Nornir make this quite easy. Nornir is a Python-powered IT automation framework like Ansible. Because Nornir uses Python for its scripting, automating tasks like checking for IP reachability is simple.
The idea is easy. Create a script in Python that sends a ping command to specific IP addresses. If you need to check a range of IP addresses, that script could loop through an entire address block. The results of each of those tests can be piped to a text file, spreadsheet, or database.
This is only one example of a task that you can complete with these automation tools. Tools like Nornir and Ansible make performing routine and repetitive tasks like this quick and painless.