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Hands-On Enterprise Automation with Python
Hands-On Enterprise Automation with Python

Hands-On Enterprise Automation with Python: Automate common administrative and security tasks with Python

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Hands-On Enterprise Automation with Python

Common Libraries Used in Automation

This chapter will walk you through how Python packages are structured and the common libraries used today to automate the system and network infrastructure. There's a long growing list of Python packages that cover network automation, system administration, and managing public and private clouds.

Also, it's important to understand how to access the module source code and how the small pieces inside the Python package are related to each other so we can modify the code, add or remove features, and share the code again with the community.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

  • Understanding Python packages
  • Common Python libraries
  • Accessing module source code

Understanding Python packages

Python core code is actually small by design to maintain simplicity. Most functionalities will be through adding third-party packages and modules.

Module is a Python file that contains functions, statements, and classes that will be used inside your code. The first thing to do is import the module then start to use its functions.

On other hand, a package collects related modules connected to each other and puts them in a single hierarchy. Some large packages such as matplotlib or django have hundreds of modules inside them, and developers usually categorize the related modules into a sub-directories. For example, the netmiko package contains multiple sub-directories and each one contains modules to connect to network devices from different vendors:

Doing that gives the package maintainer the flexibility to add or remove features from each module...

Common Python libraries

In the next sections, we will explore the common Python libraries used for network, system, and cloud automation.

Network Python Libraries

Network environments nowadays contain multiple devices from many vendors, and each device plays a different role. Design and automation frameworks for network devices are essential to network engineers in order to automate repeated tasks and enhance the way they usually do their job, while reducing human errors. Large enterprises and service providers usually tend to design a workflow that can automate different network tasks and improve network resiliency and agility. The workflow contains a series of related tasks that together form a process or a workflow that...

Accessing module source code

You can access the source code of any module that you use in two ways. First, go to the module page at github.com and view all the files, releases, commits, and issues in one place, as in the following screenshot. I have read access to all shared code via the netmiko module maintainer and can see a full list of commits and file contents:

The second method is to install the package itself in the Python site-package directory using pip or PyCharm GUI. What pip actually does is it goes to GitHub and downloads the module content and runs setup.py to install and register the module. You can see the module files, but this time you have full read/write access on all files and you can change the original code. For example, the following code leverages the netmiko library to connect to a Cisco device and execute the show arp command on it:

from netmiko import...

Summary

In this chapter, we explored some of most popular network, system, and cloud packages provided in Python. Also, we learned how to access the module source code and to visualize it for better understanding of the internal code. We looked at the call flow for code while running. In the next chapter, we will start building a lab environment and apply our code to it.

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Key benefits

  • •Make the most of Python libraries and modules to automate your infrastructure
  • •Leverage Python programming to automate server configurations and administration tasks
  • •Efficiently develop your Python skill set

Description

Hands-On Enterprise Automation with Python starts by covering the set up of a Python environment to perform automation tasks, as well as the modules, libraries, and tools you will be using. We’ll explore examples of network automation tasks using simple Python programs and Ansible. Next, we will walk you through automating administration tasks with Python Fabric, where you will learn to perform server configuration and administration, along with system administration tasks such as user management, database management, and process management. As you progress through this book, you’ll automate several testing services with Python scripts and perform automation tasks on virtual machines and cloud infrastructure with Python. In the concluding chapters, you will cover Python-based offensive security tools and learn how to automate your security tasks. By the end of this book, you will have mastered the skills of automating several system administration tasks with Python.

Who is this book for?

Hands-On Enterprise Automation with Python is for system administrators and DevOps engineers who are looking for an alternative to major automation frameworks such as Puppet and Chef. Basic programming knowledge with Python and Linux shell scripting is necessary.

What you will learn

  • •Understand common automation modules used in Python
  • •Develop Python scripts to manage network devices
  • •Automate common Linux administration tasks with Ansible and Fabric
  • •Managing Linux processes
  • •Administrate VMware, OpenStack, and AWS instances with Python
  • •Security automation and sharing code on GitHub

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Jun 28, 2018
Length: 398 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788998512
Languages :
Tools :

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Product Details

Publication date : Jun 28, 2018
Length: 398 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781788998512
Languages :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

19 Chapters
Setting Up Our Python Environment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Common Libraries Used in Automation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Setting Up the Network Lab Environment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using Python to Manage Network Devices Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Extracting Useful Data from Network Devices Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Configuration Generator with Python and Jinja2 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Parallel Execution of Python Script Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Preparing a Lab Environment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using the Subprocess Module Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Running System Administration Tasks with Fabric Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Generating System Reports and System Monitoring Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Interacting with the Database Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Ansible for System Administration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating and Managing VMware Virtual Machines Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Interacting with the OpenStack API Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Automating AWS with Boto3 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using the Scapy Framework Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Building a Network Scanner Using Python Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Wide range of topics covered but not in depth. I would have preferred more depth in every topic.
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