For the first two sessions of the Building Network Automation Solutions online course I got awesome guest speakers, and it seems we’ll have another fantastic lineup in the Spring 2018 course:

Most network automation solutions focus on device configuration based on user request – service creation or change of data model describing the network. Another very important but often ignored aspect is automatic response to external events, and that’s what David Gee will describe in his presentation. David has been working with StackStorm and running StackStorm trainings, so he’s definitely one of the best engineers to describe this particular challenge. He promised to be focused mostly on concepts and demonstrating StackStorm just as a sample tool you could use to get the job done.

One of the focal points of the course is selecting the best tool for the job. Most of the examples in the course are done with Ansible, as it’s the tool with the easiest learning curve. However, like with Sinclair Spectrum Basic (anyone old enough to remember it?) it’s limited capabilities get annoyingly cumbersome the moment you’re trying to do something more complex. Time to explore the alternatives, and there’s no one better to explain how to use Salt to automate your network than Mircea Ulinic, the author of Salt NAPALM modules.

Interested? All you have to do is to register for the course.

Have no idea what I’m talking about? Listen to the StackStorm and Salt podcasts, and then register for the course.