Python: What is it and what is it for, Complete guide

‍The Foundations:

In recent years, computer networks have seen a significant increase in size and complexity, so much so that it is increasingly Difficult manage them with methods”manuals”.

For this reason, in order to be able to ensure reasonable time of preparing and managing activities and above all maintaining a high level of reliability it is appropriate, if not sometimes essential, to rely on Network Automation.

For this purpose it is possible to make use of free tools or for a fee, from third parties, which are not always, however, perfectly tailored for our purposes.

Often have the ability to Create yourself Work tools can represent the winning card for obtaining a significant increased productivity, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, and for this purpose, knowledge of a programming language is essential.

Why Python?

In particular, the language that in recent years has become increasingly established in the field of network management is certainly Python and for various reasons including:

· It's user-friendly, its syntax is easy to read, it is not necessary to specify the data type for variables, it has versatile data structures such as lists and dictionaries

· It is productive and rapidly developing, minimizes the distance between the idea and its implementation, even for beginners

· It has existed since the nineties, is therefore a Mature language With a great support community: on the Internet you can find all kinds of courses, blogs and discussions about it and it is easy, therefore, that any problem you encounter has already been addressed and discussed and if you find any extensive documentation.

· It has a rich set of bookcases that range in every field: from those specifically created for networking, to string processing, to interaction with third-party programs, such as the Microsoft Office suite

My personal experience:

In the working group of which I belong, while working with “traditional” network technologies (not SDN to be understood), Python is used extensively for the purpose of preparing and verifying activities. Below are some concrete examples based on my personal experience:

· Automatic inventory: creation of inventories concerning various elements of network devices, such as transceivers, modules, software versions

· Automatic generation of configuration files for upgrade and migration activities: creation of command files for isolation at various levels (HSRP, OSPF, BGP, PHYSICAL) of devices starting from updated production configurations.

· Recovery and automatic saving of information from network equipment for pre/post activity verification and comparison: MAC-Address Table, OSPF Database, BGP Table and more.

· Normalization in tabular form comparison of Routing Table: the routing tables pre/post activities of devices of different types and brands are reported in a common form (file.csv) and compared for verification purposes.

· Automatic recovery of network information from the customer's tool: for example, given any IP Host, you can retrieve which device/interface/vrf it belongs to.

· Creation of tables and graphs on bandwidth occupancy of particular interfaces: tables and graphs are obtained by processing the information sent automatically by Info-vista

In conclusion:

If already in the context of traditional networking technologies Pyhton reveals its usefulness, it is in the new world of Software Defined Networking that the greatest employment opportunities are opening up.

The birth of the new certification path Cisco DevNet It is particularly significant for understanding where the future of networking: the low-level network part will be increasingly 'hidden' and interaction with the network will take place more and more at the API level (Application Programming Interface) with a increasing importance of programming skills compared to traditional systems.

Even if it cannot be hidden that the classic network system operator may struggle to adapt to this new paradigm and to resist the idea of moving towards programming, after an initial understandable hesitation, it will be possible to realize the great advantages and also some satisfaction.”Creative” that it offers.

Useful resources:

On the Internet there are a lot of resources to get closer to Python, just to name a few:

The official reference site

Interactive online courses

Online video courses

A special site (and a book) to get to the heart of the subject

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