Create Network Diagram from LLDP Neighbor Information

One of the sample Ansible playbooks I published to help the attendees of my Building Network Automation Solutions course get started collects LLDP neighbor information on all managed devices and converts that information into a network diagram.

Here’s the graph I got from it when I ran it on my 6-node OSPF network (the Inter-AS VIRL topology from this repository). Please note I spent zero time tweaking the graph description (it shows).

If you need a detailed explanation of how that playbook works, you’ll find it here.

Recent updates

I recently updated the playbook to work with Ansible 2.4 and latest version of NAPALM and napalm-ansible (which changed the names of NAPALM-gathered device facts – really useful).

The playbook also supports either short names (rtr) or FQDNs (rtr.example.com) and interface names used by the network devices (GigabitEthernet0/1) or shortened ones (Gi0/1).

Trust Cisco to mess up your automation: Cisco IOS uses shortened interface names (Gi0/1) in LLDP advertisements while most everyone else uses the actual interface names used on the device.

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1 comments:

  1. RPM 26 October 2017 15:40
    Looks like the diagram is being produced by graphviz; I would use it’s “neato” Force-directed layout instead of the standard layout for network diagrams as it produces good automatic layouts which usually don’t require any tweaks. http://www.graphviz.org/pdf/neatoguide.pdf
    Replies
    1. Ivan Pepelnjak 26 October 2017 15:51
      Yes, it is graphviz. One of the course attendees got better results by using link labels for interface names instead of record shapes. Maybe I'll rewrite my J2 template to try that one as well ;)
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