An Automated Network is built-in Five Stages

Gunjan thakurFebruary 22, 2022

Being a network administrator, it’s only natural that you are interested in network automation. When designing your automation architecture, what should you focus on first? A system architecture is presented along with a sequence of elements to be implemented in our article.

In the world, there can be as many network automation architectures as there are networks. It is crucial to design an architecture that is independent of any specific product, whether commercial or open-source.

Identify a set of requirements that reflects the architecture, such as the automation engine. The different elements interact depending on the inputs and outputs of each of those functions.

As the new technologies and processes are integrated and adopted in the preceding phase, network automation architecture is implemented in phases.

Architecture’s phases and functions

Implementations typically follow a crawl, walk, run, and fly pattern. In the early stages, devices can only be read-only. Modifying device configurations begins in later phases, while the final phases automate complete processes, including testing on virtual cases of the production network before final deployment. The organization may require moving some functions to other phases.

Phase 1

The device overlay layer offers three basic functions: automatic orchestration, UI, and device overlay. During Phase 1, automated, read-only processes are used to store settings, collect troubleshooting data, and verify network configuration against templates. This includes:

Automatic Occurrence. Orchestration controls automation. Among its features are similar processing and distributed agents. Open-source and commercial products are available to perform the task.

1. UI. GUIs and APIs are essential to the latest automation stages of commercial products. Many open-source projects rely on the command-line control interface and the system control API.

Extrusion layer. The abstraction layer hides the differences between device vendors, making it much easier to network devices. Other singing systems could be built with an abstraction layer as well.

Phase 2

NSoT database and trouble ticket interface added to virtual reality network.

The NST database. NSoT maintains information regarding the network location that you want the automation system to use to approve – and, in later stages, validate – a network service. Among the data are address assignments, network process neighbors, and working status in view and access.

Phase 3

Implements a code-based infrastructure operation model. It includes the following elements:

Managing source code Repository. Configuration templates saved configurations, and scripts can be stored in a source code repository, typically based on Git. The automation orchestration system is tightly integrated with it, so it generates device configurations based on templates and network service operations data – for example, generating configurations for all network equipment in a data center pod.

Flows of work. The transition from manual to automated workflows begins in Phase 3. The source code repository contains scripts that can be used to instantiate workflows. The majority of commercial products include graphic editors and APIs for controlling workflows.

Automated chatbots. The automation system uses chatbots to communicate workflow and state information to unified communication chat rooms where network staff collaborate on implementation and troubleshooting. Team members can work remotely using this system, which is especially effective for distributed networks.

Phase 4

The network should provide a mechanism for feedback. Until now, the network has only provided validation checks against NSoT data as a response. Among the elements of Stage 4 are:

Monitoring and measurement from a distance. The Simple Network Management Protocol was historically used for network monitoring, but more modern implementations use online telemetry. In the future, both methods will be necessary for networks.

Monitor and manage databases. For variable interface performance, monitored data needs to be stored either in a relational database or in a time series database.

Trigger for an action. Monitored networks are only valuable if they drive feedback. In action triggers, a set of rules or machine learning detects anomalies, issues alerts, and opens troubleshooting sheets. With more advanced implementations, automated workflows can initiate remediation without human intervention, such as routing around a failed link.

Phase 5

Automation of change testing and validation is the last step in the architecture. Below are the issues:

Testing of virtual networks. Tests in the lab before deployment to production are a key component of network change management. By modeling the key parameters of the production network, the laboratory uses virtual devices simulated by software. In addition to activating the virtual network, pre-switch tests will verify that the lab is operating as expected, apply the change, and run post-switch tests to confirm the desired results have been achieved.

Test the new authentication method. A switch can be applied to a production network if the virtual network tests are successful. Statements follow the same three-step process: validating the pre-change state, applying the change, and validating the resultant state.

Ultimately, what we want

This article describes a framework for building network automation. You should adjust your plan to the needs of your organization and the capabilities of your chosen equipment.

The ultimate goal is to create continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous delivery systems in which small, well-defined network changes are used automatically only after they have passed difficult tests. As part of this function, also known as NetOps or NetDevOps, you migrate your network to infrastructure as a code using many of the same techniques and concepts as software development.

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