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General Information

Scenario

In this lab activity, you will learn how to build a flexible network automation workflow using tools like Ansible, NetBox, pyATS, and GitLab CI/CD. Each mission is designed to progressively enhance your understanding of modern network automation and orchestration.

  • Mission 1: Ansible and Catalyst Center: You will start by using Ansible to configure a new area in Catalyst Center, leveraging the cisco.dnac Ansible collection to deploy and manage the network hierarchy.

  • Mission 2: NetBox and Ansible: In this mission, you will create the site hierarchy within NetBox and use Ansible to pull this data dynamically to deploy it in Catalyst Center.

  • Mission 3: NetBox and Ansible Dynamic Inventory: Building on the previous mission, you will explore the NetBox dynamic inventory plugin. This will enable plug-and-play provisioning of switches in Catalyst Center using Ansible.

  • Mission 4: pyATS: You will use pyATS to validate your deployed network infrastructure. This mission will involve testing the NTP configuration and synchronization on your devices.

  • Mission 5: GitLab CI/CD: In this mission, you will bring all the components together by building a GitLab CI/CD pipeline. This pipeline will automate deployment, validation, and testing for your network configurations.

If time permits, you may proceed with the additional Missions 6 and 7, working with minimal guidance to further enhance your understanding of GitLab and network automation workflows.

  • Additional Mission 6: GitLab Variables: You will explore how to leverage GitLab variables to manage environment-specific configurations dynamically within your CI/CD pipelines.

  • Additional Mission 7: Update Switch Interfaces: In this mission, you will create an Ansible playbook to dynamically update switch interfaces based on configuration data stored in NetBox.

Lab Overview

The lab is accessible via AnyConnect (Secure Connect Client). For each pod there is a workstation (Wkst-1 to Wkst-5) with a web-based remote development environment installed. You can access your development environment with your web browser and everything you need for the lab is already pre installed and configured.

All you need to successfully complete the lab is a VPN connection and a web browser on your Laptop.

Lab Overview

Network Diagram

Your personal site (pod) featuring a switch and is running in Cisco Modeling Labs (CML). Catalyst Center, Netbox and Gitlab are shared across the five pods.

Network Diagram

Switch Management IP Addressing

Pod Subnet
Pod 1 10.99.1.0/24
Pod 2 10.99.2.0/24
Pod 3 10.99.3.0/24
Pod 4 10.99.4.0/24
Pod 5 10.99.5.0/24