Network Automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has as much potential to improve operational efficiency for network automation and administration as it does for traditional system administration automation. By effectively using the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, the network administration team can improve the efficiency, repeatability, quality, and consistency of its work and the organization's network infrastructure. In addition, by using Ansible, the same tools used to manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Microsoft Windows systems can be used to manage network infrastructure, enabling cross-platform commonality of tools and easier auditing of automation. This course is optimized for learners who are already experienced network administrators, but who do not have much experience with Ansible.

As a result of attending this course, you will be able to use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to write Ansible Playbooks and launch them to manage the routers, switches, and other devices in your network infrastructure. You will have experience with using Ansible to automate several common use cases and have a basic understanding of how to write playbooks that can target devices made by different network hardware vendors supported by Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

• Experience with network administration, including a solid understanding of TCP/IP, routers, and managed switches.
• Familiarity with managing network devices from the command line, preferably with one or more of Cisco IOS/IOS XE, IOS XR, or NX-OS; Juniper Junos; or Arista EOS.
• Knowledge equivalent to Red Hat System Administration I (RH124) or better is recommended
• Prior Ansible knowledge is not required

We recommend completing our no-cost skills assessment before enrolling in any Red Hat Training or Certification. Learn more.

Introducing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

• Describe the fundamental concepts of Ansible and how it is used, and install development tools from Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

Developing Automation Content

• Develop Ansible inventories for network devices, explore dynamic inventory concepts, and develop and run network automation playbooks.

Running Network Automation Playbooks

• Manage automation code in a version control system, run Ansible Playbooks from the centrally managed Ansible Automation Platform web UI, and troubleshoot common issues.

Managing Variables and Facts

• Develop playbooks that use variables and facts to simplify network automation, protect sensitive network data with Ansible vault, use surveys in Ansible Automation Platform to supply runtime values, and transform data with filters.

Implementing Task Control

• Develop efficient playbooks using loops and conditionals, handle task failures with automated recovery strategies, validate pre- and post-change network state, and orchestrate multijob automation workflows using Ansible Automation Platform.

Simplifying Playbooks with Roles and Ansible Content Collections

• Use Ansible Roles and Ansible Content Collections to develop reusable, scalable network automation playbooks with included or imported tasks, structured roles, and external content sources.

Automating Network Administration Tasks

• Automate common network administration tasks by using validated network content, Jinja2 templates, and platform-independent modules, and perform rolling configuration updates with automated error recovery.