Note: This post integrates several automation tools at once. My objective is to provide some well-documented, concrete examples of executable Ansible Playbooks, D2 Diagrams, and best practice to illustrate ways to make good documentation easy. Note: All code examples in this blog post are structured in a format to be …

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Ansible is a fantastic tool for Linux-based and NOS-based automation. Have you seen this error before? 1"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: Host key verification failed." When you use Ansible with SSH transport (as opposed to an API), you rely on the SSH key trust …

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In a previous post, we covered how to create a virtual machine from a VM template in vSphere using Python and the REST API as an example of service-agnostic methods to invoke infrastructure resources. VMware's PowerCLI is a fantastic tool, but it's not for me. Tweaking or porting functionality from PowerCLI to other …

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Reliably executing repetitive tasks with automation is easy (after the work is done) Given enough work, self-built automation can be easy to consume. Non-consumers (engineers) need to focus on reliability and repeatability, but occasionally there's an opportunity to save time and simplify lives directly. Information …

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There are numerous advantages to deploying an internal root CA to an enterprise: Autonomy: Enterprises can control how their certificates are issued, structured, and revoked independently of a third party. Slow or fast replacement cycles are permissible if you control the infrastructure, letting you customize the CA to …

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What is the point of all this software-defined infrastructure if you don't use it? In prior examples, it's a fairly straightforward path to SDN when deploying NSX Data Center, allowing a VI admin or network engineer to deploy virtual network resources via a GUI. This isn't the end of an effort, but the start of a …

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DNS is a vital component of all computer networks. Also known as the "Internet Yellow Pages," this service is consumed by every household. DNS services are typically deployed in several patterns to support users and systems: DNS Forwarder: This deployment method is the most common. Everybody needs name …

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At some point, we can't "do it all" with one block of code. As developers, we need to store persistent data for a variety of reasons: We want it for later execution (or to compare it to another result) We're sick of storing variables in code. This matters a lot more in compiled languages than runtime ones We …

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Continuous Delivery: No Rest for the Wicked Now that we have: A method to generate Desired State Configurations, by defining Declaratively what the device config should be, and combining it with what a device config should have A method to apply configurations automatically, without PuTTY Copy-Pasting We now can …

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Don't Reinvent the Wheel: Ansible Playbooks Writing your own code isn't always the answer Often, communities such as Python will contribute code of substantially higher quality than what you/I can create individually. This is OK. In nearly every case, dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist programmers will consume …

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