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2.2 Lab - CLI Automation With Python Using Netmiko - ILM

This document discusses using the netmiko Python module to automate CLI tasks on Cisco IOS XE devices. It covers installing netmiko, connecting to a device using SSH, sending show commands to gather information, and sending configuration commands to alter the device configuration such as creating loopback interfaces.

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Alvaro Justiniano Valencia Munoz
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© © All Rights Reserved
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114 views

2.2 Lab - CLI Automation With Python Using Netmiko - ILM

This document discusses using the netmiko Python module to automate CLI tasks on Cisco IOS XE devices. It covers installing netmiko, connecting to a device using SSH, sending show commands to gather information, and sending configuration commands to alter the device configuration such as creating loopback interfaces.

Uploaded by

Alvaro Justiniano Valencia Munoz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lab – CLI Automation with Python using netmiko (Instructor

Version)
Instructor Note: Red font color or gray highlights indicate text that appears in the instructor copy only.

Objectives
Part 1: Install the netmiko Python module
Part 2: Connect to IOS XE’s SSH service using netmiko
Part 3: Use netmiko to gather information from the device
Part 4: Use netmiko to alter configuration on the device

Background / Scenario
For simple network automation using a remote telnet or ssh based command line, network administrators
have been using various screen scraping techniques for a long period of time. Initially the “expect” based
scripts we utilized to automate entering commands when a specific expected string appeared on the
command line. With the evolution of the Python language, the netmiko Python module has emerged as an
open source project hosted and maintained on GitHub.com that provides a simple network automation
interface using similar techniques like the “expect” based scripts.
In this lab activity, you will identify the potential but also the limitations of using netmiko to transport CLI
commands for network automation.

Required Resources
 Access to a router with the IOS XE operating system version 16.6 or higher.
 Access to the Internet
 Python 3.x environment

Instructions

Part 1: Install the netmiko Python module


In this part, you will install netmiko module into your Python environment. Netmiko is a python module that
simplifies ssh CLI connection to network devices. It has built in functionality to identify to execute “exec mode”
commands, as well as apply new commands in the running configuration.
Explore the netmiko module on the project GitHub repository: https://github.com/ktbyers/netmiko

Step 1: Use pip to install netmiko.


a. Start a new Windows command prompt (cmd).
b. Install netmiko using pip in the Windows command prompt:

pip install netmiko


c. Verify that netmiko has been successfully installed. Start Python IDLE and in the interactive shell try to
import the netmiko module:
import netmiko

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Lab – CLI Automation with Python using netmiko

Part 2: Connect to IOS XE’s SSH service using netmiko

Connect to IOS XE’s SSH service using netmiko.


The netmiko module provides a “ConnectHandler()” function to setup the remote ssh connection. After a
successful connection, the returned object represents the ssh cli connection to the remote device.
a. In Python IDLE, create a new Python script file:

b. In the new Python script file editor, import the “ConnectHandler()” function from the netmiko module:

from netmiko import ConnectHandler

c. Setup a sshCli connection object using the ConnectHandler() function to the IOS XE device.

The parameters of the ConnectHandler() function are:


 device_type – identifies the remote device type
 host – the address (host or IP) of the remote device (adjust the IP address “192.168.56.101”
to match your router’s current address)
 port – the remote port of the ssh service
 username – remote ssh username (in this lab “cisco” for that was setup in the IOS XE VM)
 password – remote ssh password (in this lab “cisco123!” for that was setup in the IOS XE
VM)

Part 3: Use netmiko to gather information from the device

Send show commands and display the output


a. Using the sshCli object, returned by the ConnectHandler() function that represents the ssh cli
remote session, send some “show” command and print the output. Use the send_command() function of
the sshCli object with a string parameter that represents the command you wish to execute in the exec
mode:

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Lab – CLI Automation with Python using netmiko

b. Execute the Python script file to see the results.

If you have not saved the script file yet, you will be prompted to save it before it is executed.
c. Verify the results:

d. Verify the data type of the “output” variable. How would you extract the IP address and the Interface
Name into variables? What if there were multiple interfaces?
The “output” variable is of “string” type. Extracting a specific field from a string can be a non-trivial
operation. You could use Regular Expressions (in python the “re” module (i.e. “import re”)) to specify the
parts to be extracted. However, different versions of IOS might have slightly different output and therefore
you might need to build more advanced Regular Expressions to correctly handle different outputs.

Part 4: Use netmiko to alter configuration on the device


In the following steps, you will alter the configuration of the device by creating new loopback interfaces.

Create a new loopback interface


Using the sshCli object, returned by the ConnectHandler() function that represents the ssh cli remote
session, send some configuration command and print the output. Use the send_config_set() function of the
sshCli object with a list parameter including the configuration commands as strings you wish to execute in the
exec mode:
config_commands = [
'int loopback 1',
'ip address 2.2.2.2 255.255.255.0',
'description WHATEVER'
]

output = sshCli.send_config_set(config_commands)

Execute the Python script file and verify the results:

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Lab – CLI Automation with Python using netmiko

Questions

Why does the output from “show ip int brief” not include the “loopback1” interface?
At the point in time when the “show ip int brief” was executed, the loopback1 interface was not created yet. In was
only created once the “config_commands” list of configuration commands was send to the router using the
“send_config_set” command.
How to execute and display the output from the “show ip int brief” command after the loopback interfaces was
created?
Run again the “send_command” function with the “show ip int brief” command and print the returned output.
End of Questions

Add code to create a new loopback interface (loopback2) with the same IP address as on the existing loopback
interface, only with a different description.
Execute the Python script file and verify the results:

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Lab – CLI Automation with Python using netmiko

Questions

Was the new loopback2 interface successfully created?


The Loopback2 interface was created, its description has been configured, only the IP address was ignored for it
overlapped with the IP address of an existing interface.
Was the new configuration change accepted, partially accepted or rejected?
The configuration change was only partially accepted – leaving the final running configuration in an inconsistent
state. In order to build successful automation systems, the configuration intent must be either accepted as is, or
rejected as is. Partial configuration changes might lead to network downtime and unintended behavior.

End of Document

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