Example Workflows

Ansible is a versatile technology that supports a wide range of applications. To begin automating your network, first, define the scope of your project including your desired automation objectives. Then come up with the process that will produce that outcome. Finally, you can get into the details, looking at modules, plugins, etc.

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Simple ready-to-use workflows are available on the aoscx-ansible-workflows Github repository.

The subpages nested in this section go over workflow examples to showcase the synergy between the powerful and versatile AOS-CX and Ansible software!

Day 0 Provisioning

Day 0 provisioning is often the first goal in a network automation project. Automating the initial dynamic bring-up of a device drastically decreases the risk of human error and can prevent hours of network downtime. Approaches for this include:

Generating a device configuration based on a "golden config" template, and pushing the config to the device
Discovering a new device and configuring the desired features individually

See Day 0 Provisioning Workflows for details.

Network Maintenance

Once Day 0 automation is attained, meaning that devices can be provisioned and brought up on the network automatically, the next step is to automate regular maintenance and update tasks. Such tasks might include:

Regularly-scheduled configuration backups, audits, or validations
Incremental config changes like adding a VLAN or route across multiple switches
Turning off PoE ports
Upgrading firmware and rebooting devices

See Network Maintenance Workflows for details.