Automate Cisco ACI Using Terraform (IaaS) & Python

via Udemy

Go to Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/automate-cisco-aci/

Introduction

Certainly! Here's a comprehensive review and recommendation for the Coursera course on Cisco ACI automation: --- **Course Title:** Learn DevOps: Automate Cisco ACI with Terraform and Python **Overview:** This course offers an in-depth exploration of Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) automation through Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and scripting techniques. Combining hands-on lab setup with practical scripting, it caters to network engineers, DevOps enthusiasts, and IT professionals eager to automate and streamline their ACI fabric deployments. **Course Content & Highlights:** The course is divided into two main parts: 1. **ACI Automation with Terraform (IaC):** - Understanding the fundamentals of Infrastructure as Code and its implementation using Terraform. - Setting up the environment: Installing Terraform and related tools. - Key concepts such as Fabric Access Policies, VLANs, Domains, AAEP, Switch Profiles, Interface Profiles, Tenants, VRFs, Application Profiles, EPGs, and Contracts. - Practical steps to automate the provisioning of Cisco ACI fabric, including creating tenants, VRFs, bridge domains, and configuring L3Outs with OSPF and BGP. 2. **ACI Automation with Python:** - Setting up the lab environment: Installing Python, required libraries, and supporting tools like Visual Studio Code. - Accessing the APIC for automation tasks. - Writing and executing Python scripts to automate tenant creation, EPG configuration, network policies, and more. - Using GitHub repositories for script sharing and version control. - Troubleshooting techniques: Running show commands to verify configurations and diagnose issues. - Utilizing the `acitoolkit` module for logical tenant configurations and troubleshooting. **Key Skills Developed:** - Mastery of Terraform for network automation. - Proficiency in Python scripting for Cisco ACI. - Understanding ACI fabric components and their automation. - Troubleshooting network configurations effectively. - Collaboration using GitHub for version control and sharing scripts. **Pros:** - Comprehensive coverage from basic to advanced automation topics. - Practical, hands-on approach with real-world examples. - Step-by-step guidance on setup and scripting. - Focus on troubleshooting and best practices. - Well-structured for self-paced learning. **Cons:** - Requires prior knowledge of networking concepts and some scripting experience. - Might be challenging for complete beginners without foundational ACI knowledge. **Recommendation:** If you are a network professional looking to enhance your skills in Cisco ACI automation, this course is highly recommended. It provides a balanced mix of theory and practice, empowering you to automate your ACI fabric using industry-standard tools like Terraform and Python. The skills gained will significantly improve your efficiency in managing and scaling network infrastructure. --- **Final Verdict:** This course is an excellent investment for anyone aiming to master Cisco ACI automation, especially in environments adopting DevOps practices. Whether you are looking to improve your automation capabilities or prepare for advanced network certifications, this course offers valuable, practical knowledge you can immediately apply. ---

Overview

There are two part covered like doing the aci automation using Infrastructure as a code (Terraform) and also python.Through IaaS you can do the entire aci build so I have covered some of very important topics of Cisco ACI.Key Skills: Terraform Cisco ACIDevOpsHow to Use TerraformInstall TerraformWhat is DevOpsPythonCourse: Learn DevOps: Automate Cisco ACI with TerraformTopics:Fabric Access Policy: Vlans, Domain, AAEP, Switch Profile and Interface Profile.Tenant Overview and Its Configuration:Create Tenant, VRF, Application Profile, EPGs, BD etc. Contracts: Create Contract, Subject & Filters L3Outs and L2Outs configurationACI Automation Using Python:In this course, you will be going to learn about how to do the ACI Automation and this will help youto automate provisioning of an ACI Fabric.Here you will be going to use the programming language i.e Python which is available to run the automation tasks like Implementing logical Tenant Configuration Changes in the ACI Fabric.The first part of this course will be more about covering the ACI Introduction and ACI Automation.Second part of the course is about setting up the lab like installing Python and its libraries that is required to run the scripts.You will also learn supporting tool like Visual studio Code for editing and running the script.Also I will show you how to get the APIC access to perform ACI automation tasks.Now third section of the course is about the scripting and performing the ACI Automation tasks with the help of Python Scripts.In this section, I am covering how you can perform the changes like creating new tenant, VRF, Bridge Domain, App profile, EPGs, Contracts, Filters, Configuring VLANs, Domains, Static binding with individual interfaces and with the port-channel interfaces. Also, I am covering the very important part like configuring the L3out with OSPF and BGP.Fourth section is about the Github and accessing repositories that you can use it for the ACI automation.And last section is about troubleshooting commands like running the show commands to get the output of theshow interface status, show vrfshow cdp/lldp neighbour,show endpoints, show contract and filters.acitoolkit module helps to cover logical tenant related configuration and some troubleshooting commands.

Skills

Reviews