Demo

Integrating Python Scripts & Ansible Playbooks with Itential for Network Automation

To keep up with the needs of complex network systems, many network teams have turned to script-based tools and programs to automate manual day-to-day network changes. However, these solutions can be limiting for building end-to-end network automations quickly, as they require significant programming and coding knowledge. Network teams need a simple and elegant way to integrate their existing scripts into a flexible automation solution so they can be leveraged together without the need to replace or re-create.

The Itential Automation Platform enables network teams who are already using Python, Ansible, and other automation tools to rapidly leverage and integrate those assets in a low-code automation workflow. The integration process starts with onboarding and testing the scripts, then decorating them by defining valid inputs with a JSON schema, and finally publishing the automation through an API to be used within an automation workflow and shared across the team.

Applying Itential’s integration and decoration capabilities to these assets gives users the ability to further refine how automations are executed with initial input validation. This helps to ensure the scripts are executed correctly within acceptable constraints. As business logic evolves, these decorations can be quickly adjusted without the need to re-write complex validation logic, effectively building an automation strategy for today’s and tomorrow’s network needs.

In this demo, see how to:

  • Onboard existing automation assets in Itential’s Automation Gateway.
  • Decorate assets like scripts for input validation.
  • Test assets using API methods.
  • Integrate assets into an automation workflow within the Itential Automation Platform.

Demo Notes

(So you can skip ahead, if you want.)

00:00 Introduction
1:37 Why Democratize Scripts
4:51 Demo Architecture
5:50 Overview of Automation Scripts & Locating Scripts in Directory
9:00 Onboarding Automation Scripts using Automation Gateway
10:29 Decorating Automation Scripts with Automation Gateway
15:24 Leveraging Decorated Scripts in Automation Workflows
19:16 Running Automation Scripts Outputting Data into JSON Format
22:51 Passing JSON Form Data to an Automation Script
29:12 Different Methods to Utilize Decorated Scripts