Device Onboarding

This workflow allows users to onboard devices to the HPE Aruba Networking's Central application from Greenlake's device inventory & deploy them using a group and site using a Python script that utilizes the PyCentral library. This script automates the complete device onboarding workflow. This workflow is an enhanced version of the Device Provisioning workflow

Workflow Overview

Assign Devices to Central Application

The script assigns devices to the Central application from HPE Greenlake's device inventory.

Assign Central Subscriptions to Devices

Once devices are assigned to a Central Application, the script assigns Central subscriptions to the devices.

Group Creation

The script creates a group on Central. A group is the primary configuration element that functions as a container for device management, monitoring, and maintenance. The group that the script creates is a CLI-based configuration template group

Upload Configuration to group

After the group is created it has to be provided with configuration. The script uploads template files that hold CLI-based configuration. The script allows each device type(for eg. AP, AOS-CX Switch, etc.) to have one configuration file.

Move Device(s) to group

After the group is configured, devices can be moved into it. These devices will get the configuration as defined in the group.

Site Creation

While groups handle configuration, a site in Central refers to a physical location where a set of devices are installed. The script creates a site to indicate where the devices will be located.

Associate Device(s) to Site

After the site is created, the script then associates the devices to the site. This indicates to Central that the physical location of the devices.

Script's Input Files

As a user, you only need to input details in the following files before running the script

1. central_token.json -> This file has the Central API Gateway Base URL & Access Token. These details are needed for the script to connect with Central via REST APIs
2. workflow_variables.json -> This file has the following details relevant to the workflow-
   1. Group - Details of the group like name, attributes, & configuration file paths.
   2. Site - Details of the site like name & address
   3. Device - Details of devices like serial numbers, mac address & central subscription type.

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Sample Files

You can check out the sample files here - central_token.json & workflow_variables.json

You can find the complete script & installation instructions for this workflow here.

Please check out other Central workflows utilizing PyCentral in central-python-workflows GitHub repository.