PODCAST · technology
The Network Automation Journey
by Tony Bourke
This is a (probably) limited series where Tony Bourke, a networking instructor (Arista, Cisco, etc.) talks in a vendor-neutral way about the process of network automation, the basic concepts, and where everything falls into place.
Episodes
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How Hard Can It Be? Simplicity and Network Operations
In this episode I talk about making technically inferior choices because it makes better operational sense.
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Intent and Natural Languages
In this episode I discuss the use case (or lack thereof) for using natural language in network configuration. (Hint, I don't think natural language is a good fit for network configuration.)
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There Can Be Only One: The Highlander Principle
The source of truth is the source of truth. There can only be one place to look for information or to set information.
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Ansible or Skip and Go Right To Python?
What should you learn? Python? Should you skip Ansible for Python? I discuss all of this in this episode.
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Are Traditional Networking Jobs No More?
Yeah, I think network automation is now just part of being a network administrator.
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What the &#@! Is A Tenant?
In this episode I talk about the concept of a tenant as it relates to network automation (and networking in general).
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Finding the Time To Automate When You're Already Underwater
You're slammed, tickets piling up, deadlines slipping, you're barely keeping your head above water. And some Youtubers are telling you that you should automate? In this economy? I talk about the genuine issue of finding the time to learn, let alone implement, network automation in these trying...
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Network Automation Platform Wishlist (Part 1)
What would a replacement for Ansible look like? What do we want in a network automation platform that would replace Ansible?
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Ansible: No Commit Confirm?
In this episode I talk about the lack of commit/confirm in many of the NOS modules.
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What Is The Goal of Network Automation/NetDevOps
It's easy to be overwhelmed and see all these network automation tools and wonder... what is even the goal? The tools are there to help us achieve our goals, they're not the goal themselves and I talk about how you can pick which tools makes the most sense for you. Especially as it's easy to see...
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Push Configs from Data Models to Configs: The Genesis Torpedo Method
In this episode I talk about my preference for generating a new config and replacing the entirety of the old config, every time, much like the Genesis Torpedo from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Adding things is easy, removing stuff is hard. It can be done, but it's just easier to wipe away…
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Throwing More Shade at YANG
I don't like YANG for configuring devices (and I'm going to tell you allll about it).
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Don't Add Meetings/Committees To Your Change Control Process, Add Autotmation
More meetings, more committees, more reviews isn't going to deliver more reliable network changes. While a formalized process and policies for network changes is important, you hit a point of very diminishing returns: Doubling your meetings or committees or reviews isn't going to halve your error...
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How Automation Affects Design (Like Choosing Routing Protocols)
Today's topic is how automation has made choosing things like routing protocols very different than they were maybe 10 years ago.
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Ansible Problems Summer 2025
In this episode I warn people about issues that have cropped up with the network automation modules/collections/roles that got broken with the new versions of Ansible (Ansible Community 12/Ansible-core 2.19)
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It's Time To Retire The Term SDN (Software Defined Networking)
In this longer episode, I share my thoughts on the term "Software Defined Networking" (SDN) and why it should be retired as a term.
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I Love YAML
In this episode, I talk of my love for YAML as a tool for network automation.
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Declarative vs Imperative Automation
Here I talk about declarative vs imperative approaches to network automation.
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Getting Syntax onto Switches (No YANG)
In this episode I talk about my thoughts on using OpenConfig versus managing the device in a more native way.
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Too Many New Things At Once
In this episode I talk about the pitfall of throwing too many new things at once to someone who's just learning network automation. Keeping it simple and using a layered approach is what I've found to be the best way to introduce network automation to new people.
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Test Driven Deployment
In the software development world, they have a concept called "test driven development", whereby code is tested (unit tests, integration tests) before committing to the main branch and before deployment. We can take that concept and use it in the networking world, and to some extent we are, but...
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AI, Machine Learning, or Nah?
What place does AI or Machine Learning have in network automation today, or even network operations in general? Writing Python scripts, playbooks, etc. Not much more. At least for now.
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CI/CD and Network Automation
In this episode, I talk about what CI/CD is for networking automation as well as the general idea for what is in the developer world. And more importantly, I talk about how most organizations probably don't need full CI/CD, they can get a lot of benefits from network automation by adopting three...
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What's In A Name?
There's marketing terms, and then there's words that accurately describe a new way of doing things. Cloud computing was one of these terms, and now "Network as Code", "Network Automation", or the older "Software Defined Networking", while they can be used a marketing fluff, they do represent a...
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REST API or RPC?
In this episode I talk about the two main categories of APIs you're likely to run into as a network administrator: REST APIs and RPCs (XML-RPC, JSON-RPC, gRPC, etc.) and why a device might have one or another.
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The Network Automation "Hump"
How is network automation and packing parachute similar? They're both intimidating, and they both involve a learning curve. On the other side of the learning curve/hump, it's pretty nice.
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Network Controller Concepts and Evolution
In this episode, I share my thoughts on what constitutes a network controller. Back in the early 2010s, it was thought to be the way devices had their forwarding tables configured. Now it's how a devices configuration state is configured.
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Automation in the Past
What was automation like in the past? Well, it was mostly non-existent in most of the networking world. But we did do automation in the server world, but it was quite different than it is today.
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Skillsets
In this episode I talk about skillsets that I've picked up outside of the networking world that have really helped me out.
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A Brief History of Network Automation
Here is just a quick talk about some of the history of network automation, at least from what I've seen in 25 years of server and network administration.
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Automation in a Team Environment
A great question from Twitter: "Any tips for leveraging Ansible in a team environment". In this episode I answer that question with what I've learned. Coder: Essentially VS Code in webapp form: https://coder.com/
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Open Source vs Closed Source For Network Automation
In this episode I talk about open-source versus closed-source projects.
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The Term "CLI" and Network Automation
A recent discussion had me thinking about the two common uses for the term "CLI" (Command Line Interface, of coures) with regards to network automation: One is the configuration method (as opposed to API or GUI), and the other is the configuration state (CLI syntax, such as running-config on...
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Linux Controversy
Recently RedHat has been making some decisions that has affected a large percentage of its user base. In this episode, I share my thoughts from a network automation perspective.
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Raw Python versus Frameworks/Platforms
In this short episode, I talk about making your own platform versus using an existing platform/framework. An example would be writing your own Python automation platform, versus using something like Nornir (which is a platform plus some Python) or Ansible. I talk about why it's usually a good…
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DevOps for Automation or Na?
I saw a comment on a network automation forum, and while the poster made a lot of great points, there was one point I disagreed with: That DevOps practices are a necessary component on network automation. While I think there are some aspects that are important, going full CI/CD pipeline isn't...
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CI/CD for Network Automation
In this episode, I give an overview of what CI/CD is (both traditionally and for network automation), how it's used, and why it's used in network environments. If you have questions about network automation, you can ask me on Twitter: @tbourke
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Incremental Configuration Change versus Total Configuration Replacement
One of the things we think about as network automators is the concept of incremental change versus total configuration replacement. Traditionally all our changes have been incremental. From the day a switch/router comes online, it's little change after little change. In this episode I talk about...
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APIs: Open or Na?
In this episode I talk quickly about whether APIs should be standardized. Pretty much all APIs are open in that the vendors allow anyone to access them and the specifications on how to interact with them are public. But using NX-API from Cisco and eAPI from Arista means using two different sets…
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Problems with Network Autotmation
In this episode of the Network Automation Journey I talk about some other criticisms of network automation that I've heard of lately.
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Configuration Generation
One of primary the factors pushing organizations into embracing network automation is the need to dynamically generate complex configurations, specifically for campus and data center implementations of EVPN/VXLAN.
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Syntax or Models
Different devices have different native configuration methods. Generally they're either syntax (think Cisco IOS) or state-based (more rare, like Cisco ACI).
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Google It!
When I teach an automation course, I'll typically show a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluANRwPyNo (a bit of foul language in it... but very realistic use of it) In networking, everyone Google's everything. Got an error message? Google Search. Can't remember how to do something? Google...
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Whither VIM?
Recent discussions on Twitter and in a few classes brought up the venerable VI editor (or the more common upgrade to VI, VIM). It was once a must-learn tool for Unix/Linux/BSD administrators. It was used for editing configuration files, data entry, and even coding. These days it's not quite the...
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Stunted Growth
In this episode, I talk about stunted careers, people (including myself at one point) that just won't learn anything new, despite the world passing them by. Luckily I got out of my stunted phase relatively quickly, but it's something I see in networking from time to time.
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Bad Takes #1
Bad Takes: Is Ansible just automation for people who don't know Python? Of course not. And we'll talk about why.
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Questions Part 2
@el_dude_abides asked a few more excellent questions which I did my best to answer: How do you lock down APIs? Experience with Terraform?
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Undertaught Aspects of Network Automation: YAML, Dictionaries, Lists, JSON
One of the most important skills in network automation is to know your way around YAML files and JSON, to know the difference between lists and dictionaries, and how to iterate through them.
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On Supplemental and Total Automation
In this episode, I talk briefly about two different depths of automation: Supplemental and Total. With supplemental automation, automation is used only on part of a config (SSH keys, DNS, NTP, etc.) while the rest of the device is configured in the traditional (i.e. manual) way. With complete...
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Network Automation Questions #1
On twitter (my handle is @tbourke) I asked for people to submit any questions about network automation that they might have. I got one response pretty quickly from @el_dude_abides, and here were their questions: Will SNMP ever go away? YANG or NETCONF? GUI or CLI best? Will application & server...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
This is a (probably) limited series where Tony Bourke, a networking instructor (Arista, Cisco, etc.) talks in a vendor-neutral way about the process of network automation, the basic concepts, and where everything falls into place.
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Tony Bourke
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Network Automation Journey have?
The Network Automation Journey currently has 54 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Network Automation Journey about?
This is a (probably) limited series where Tony Bourke, a networking instructor (Arista, Cisco, etc.) talks in a vendor-neutral way about the process of network automation, the basic concepts, and where everything falls into place.
How often does The Network Automation Journey release new episodes?
The Network Automation Journey has 54 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to The Network Automation Journey on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Network Automation Journey?
The Network Automation Journey is created and hosted by Tony Bourke.
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