The Single Source Of Truth For Network Automation - NANOG
The Single Source ofTruth for NetworkAutomationAndy Davidson andy@asteroidhq.com March 2018CEE Peering Days 2018, DKNOG 8, UKNOF 40
Automation Journey ReportingMost network engineers begin their automation journey by producingsome simple reporting software. It is low-risk, has a positive usefulimpact, and a good introduction to network scripting and the manylibraries that support network automation.2
Automation Journey ReportingMost network engineers begin their automation journey by producingsome simple reporting software. It is low-risk, has a positive usefulimpact, and a good introduction to network scripting and the manylibraries that support network automation.3
Automation Journey Reporting ToolingEventually, tasks which are repetitive, and simple to automate start tolook like great candidates to automate. Engineers discover that thegreat libraries that integrate with software tools can be used to writeas well as read configuration, and simple standalone tools are created.4
Automation Journey Reporting ToolingEventually, tasks which are repetitive, and simple to automate start tolook like great candidates to automate. Engineers discover that thegreat libraries that integrate with software tools can be used to writeas well as read configuration, and simple standalone tools are created.5
Automation Journey Reporting ToolingApplicationMore complex tools are eventually produced. Engineers begin to“configure the network and not the device”, so state becomes aproblem (I mean state becomes properly managed). This takes thelook and feel of a proper application.6
Automation Journey Reporting ToolingApplicationMore complex tools are eventually produced. Engineers begin to“configure the network and not the device”, so state becomes aproblem (I mean state becomes properly managed). This takes thelook and feel of a proper application.7
Automation Journey Reporting ToolingApplication BusinessThe ultimate place to reach is a fully automated and integratedbusiness with a set of processes enforced and delivered by software.“Configure the product, not the network”.Generally solved by businesses with scale challenges (mass access,hosting) but now a commonplace medium sized ISP/IXP requirement.8
This presentation. Offer a technical perspective/thoughts on architecture on Greenfield deploymentat the ‘automated business’ end of the spectrum What motivated this decision? Replication - “as a service” product Efficiency, leanness Service assurance (rapid provisioning, ongoing high availability) Integration with third party peering networks, Euro-IX, PeeringDB Experience in this field, and frustration with traditional model Chance to align business and technical process from the start - in our “DNA”9
This presentation . (2) Data model Why and how to build a data model to support integratedautomated businessSoftware architecture for network centric businesses Abstraction APIs & API integration with customers Software testing Useful third party tools10
What I mean, “data icesInfrastructureElements A description of the things your business needs to ‘know’in order to operate Start with the steady state of the business11
What I mean, “data model”?People OrganisationsProductsThen model the interactionsbetween those reElementsConfigurations
Why to care from anengineering point of ions
Where does/shall data live?FinanceSalesEngineeringSupport14
Where does/shall data live?FinanceSalesFundamentally it is finefor data to “live” indifferent tools anddatabasesEngineeringSupport15
Where does/shall data live?Search Engine, Inc.FinanceSalesSearch Engine (Netherlands) B.V.Search EngineEngineeringSupport16
Where does/shall data live?Search Engine, Inc.FinanceSalesSearch Engine (Netherlands) B.V.We just deal with FredEngineeringSearch EngineSupport17
Where does/shall data live?FinanceFundamentally it isnot fine for more thanone data place to beauthoritative for anysingle type of recordSalesThe other databasesmust refer to the key(id) of a singleauthoritative sourceEngineeringSupport18
Where does/shall data live?FinanceFundamentally it isnot fine for more thanone data place to beauthoritative for anysingle type of recordSalesThe other databasesmust refer to the key(id) of a singleauthoritative sourceEngineeringSupportWe will talk about how to configure and enforce that shortly.
Rules of Engagement Store any item of data ONCE Easy to ensure that it is correct “Third normal form”Give every record a unique ID which has nothing to do with therecord (ASN is not to be used as ID!) Decide where it will be authoritative Requires buy in and planning from across the business.20
Separate your customer/infrastructure dataPortServiceport idservice idcustomer idport idbridge idservice item1port nameproduct idEnsure infrastructure centric and customer-centric data is not in the same tableThis will make your data substantially easier to maintain in terms of portability21
Database Fashions Document store -vs- RDBMS Developers like document stores because they are veryextensible and less strict “Storage” cost reduced, so now we can be lazyStrict is a benefit / feature22
Common Data Stores inEngineering SQL - Truths about users, ports, services, ‘state’, e.g.MySQL Time Series - e.g. Port utilisation, light level, error count,e.g. InfluxDB Third Party - Someone else’s sorted data, e.g. CRM, e.g.EuroIX/PeeringDB23
General ArchitectureClient Utilities (scripts, portals, even customers)APIWorkerDeviceADeviceADeviceWA single API layer makes it simpler to developand monitor your platform, and easier to makechanges to back end services as time goes by24
General ArchitectureClient Utilities (scripts, portals, even customers)APIWorkerDeviceADeviceADeviceWIt also makes it easier to expose your tools anddata to customers. This is a good thing!25
General ArchitectureClient Utilities (scripts, portals, even customers)APIWorkerDeviceADeviceADeviceWAPI can export data, no matter about back endstorage format in a single format (pick JSON)26
Worker, BIRDInternal SQLWorker, AristaInfluxDB
Models Templates Once you have confidence in your data model you canharness the power of templated configuration Once your data model extends across the business youcan do that with greater accuracy and devolved control e.g. at Asteroid, our sales people can deliver exchangeports directly from the quotation So can customers Simultaneous delivery of monitoring from the quotation28
DaredturucStTemplatesnatotomAutaAutomation fire triangle
Templates - Jinja Generate any kind of configuration Takes variables from your JSON API Facilitates programatic methods in configuration strophe Loops Conditionals30
Automation - Ansible31
Conditional Logic withoutscript32
Advantages API layer lightweight Retrieve and update database records Write in a familiar type-safe language (I chose Python)Automation layer lightweight Essentially Ansible configuration files Configuration “easier” than coding?33
Business LogicClient Utilities (scripts, portals, even customers)APIWorkerDeviceADeviceADeviceWEnsure your API choices allow you to store, retrieveand process business logic as well as your technicalproducts. Example: Asteroid Campaign logic.34
Worker ArchitectureClient Utilities (scripts, portals, even customers)APIWorkerDeviceADeviceA DeviceW35Must consider:Inter Process CommunicationJob and network stateDevice independentVendor failure behaviourDevice swap-outs
Inter-Processcommunication Message Queue based? e.g. RabbitMQ Quite good support in major scripting languages Fault tolerant, order matters, guaranteed delivery, HA Extra software to support & CentralisedWeb Services Same technology stack as central API Inherently extensible Decentralised Extra software to write and more state to manage36
Device Independence I chose to write a different worker per back endtechnology A bit of copy/paste code, which is an anti-pattern No stress trying to treat different vendors generically NAPALM allows me to continue with Ansible Can swap out a switch/server architecture for sure37
Device Swap-outs Using Ansible/NAPALM for switch configuration allows aprocess for rolling full configuration in event of devicefailure No need for specific software feature, an operationalprocess is ok38
Software Testing Write the test first Red, Green, Refactor mantra39
Integration vs Unit Testing If you are like me, you will prefer Integration tests Write lots, and remember to cover desired exceptions Run on your development instance after every change “Back to Zero” testing catches unexpected failures40
The Joy of Errors41
Ubiquity of JSON for an ISP Especially in Peering! PeeringDB Euro-IX IXF-DB Asteroid JSON
Summary Single source of truth under the control of all departments Which is used to configure services and network Accessible to all departments Customer self service Provision from quote “Information in one place and tool” Account Managers can do troubleshooting
Any Questions?Andy Davidson andy@asteroidhq.com www.asteroidhq.com
Automation Journey! Reporting Most network engineers begin their automation journey by producing some simple reporting software. It is low-risk, has a positive useful impact, and a good introduction to network scripting and the many libraries that support network automation. 2
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Le genou de Lucy. Odile Jacob. 1999. Coppens Y. Pré-textes. L’homme préhistorique en morceaux. Eds Odile Jacob. 2011. Costentin J., Delaveau P. Café, thé, chocolat, les bons effets sur le cerveau et pour le corps. Editions Odile Jacob. 2010. 3 Crawford M., Marsh D. The driving force : food in human evolution and the future.
