{"id":32506,"date":"2021-08-05T13:48:19","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T13:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infosim.net\/stablenet\/?p=32506"},"modified":"2025-04-08T09:08:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T09:08:52","slug":"network-automation-configuration-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infosim.net\/stablenet\/blog\/network-automation-configuration-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 5: Network Automation – Configuration Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ background_color=”#002846″ background_color_gradient_direction=”60deg” global_module=”41229″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_blurb image=”https:\/\/www.infosim.net\/stablenet\/wp-content\/uploads\/5\/2021\/03\/Blog-1.png” icon_placement=”left” image_icon_width=”67%” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” body_text_color=”#FFFFFF” body_font_size=”18px” custom_css_blurb_image=”width:100px” custom_css_blurb_content=”max-width: none!important;” global_colors_info=”{}”]StableNet\u00ae<\/sup>\u00a0Blog
\n<\/strong>Regular posts on all things StableNet\u00ae<\/sup> related from a sales, techie, or marketing perspective[\/et_pb_blurb][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ background_color=”#D6D6D6″ custom_padding=”||2px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row disabled_on=”on|on|off” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#dd8430″ custom_margin=”||40px||false|false” custom_padding=”15px|25px|8px|20px|false|false” border_width_all=”0px” border_color_all=”#e09900″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_text_color=”#FFFFFF” text_font_size=”22px” custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

Network Automation Insights
<\/b><\/p>\n

Stay tuned and keep informed with our blog series about the future of automation in network and service management<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#FFFFFF” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”|25px|2px|25px|false|false” border_width_top=”4px” border_color_top=”#dd8430″ border_width_right=”4px” border_color_right=”#dd8430″ border_width_left=”4px” border_color_left=”#dd8430″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_blurb image=”https:\/\/www.infosim.net\/stablenet\/wp-content\/uploads\/5\/2021\/03\/Blog-Automation-Series-1-1.png” icon_placement=”left” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” body_text_color=”#dd8430″ global_colors_info=”{}”]Automation Series – Part 5<\/b>[\/et_pb_blurb][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#FFFFFF” custom_padding=”15px|25px|3px|25px|false|false” border_color_top=”#dd8430″ border_width_right=”4px” border_color_right=”#dd8430″ border_width_left=”4px” border_color_left=”#dd8430″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” header_text_align=”left” background_color=”#FFFFFF” custom_padding=”|||0px|false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

Network Automation – Configuration Generation<\/strong><\/h1>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#FFFFFF” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”|25px|0px|25px|false|false” border_width_right=”4px” border_color_right=”#dd8430″ border_width_left=”4px” border_color_left=”#dd8430″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_color=”#FFFFFF” custom_margin=”||15px||false|false” custom_padding=”1px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

August 5th<\/sup> 2021, W\u00fcrzburg<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_toggle title=”This post is part of the ongoing blog series about Network Automation. Click here to see all parts.” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” title_font=”|700|on||||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]Part 1: A Network Automation Platform improves Operations to deliver Business Results<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 2: Platforms and Workflows that Automate Operations<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 3: Network Automation \u2013 Market Perspectives<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 4: Network Automation for Discovery & Inventory<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 5: Network Automation \u2013 Configuration Generation<\/p>\n

Part 6a: Network Automation \u2013 Monitoring and Tagging (Part 1 of a 3-Part Series)<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 6b: Network Automation \u2013 Monitoring and Tagging (Part 2 of a 3-Part Series)<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 6c: Network Automation \u2013 Monitoring and Tagging (Part 3 of a 3-Part Series)<\/a>[\/et_pb_toggle][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_color=”#FFFFFF” custom_padding=”1px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

Remember part 3 when we looked at network automation market perspectives? Eventually not, because it was published quite some time ago. No harm if you dial back in<\/a><\/strong>, but here\u2019s a quick summary:<\/p>\n

Whilst the market considers \u201cnetwork configuration and change management\u201d (NCCM) an equivalent to \u201cnetwork automation\u201d, the StableNet\u00ae<\/sup> platform provides a much wider application framework which offers automations for discovery, inventory creation, backup & restore, configuration change, policy & compliance checking, common vulnerability exposure & lifecycle management and workflow & business process automation, to name the most important ones.<\/p>\n

In this blog post, my focus will be on technical concepts for network automation when using the entire StableNet\u00ae<\/sup> NCCM toolkit as well as the value of optimized configuration generation.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#FFFFFF” custom_padding=”|25px||25px|false|false” border_width_right=”4px” border_color_right=”#dd8430″ border_width_bottom=”4px” border_color_bottom=”#dd8430″ border_width_left=”4px” border_color_left=”#dd8430″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”I. Agent Flow Query – H2″ _builder_version=”4.21.0″ min_height=”40px” custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”13px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n

Configuration Management Toolkit<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Most market contenders do not cover the above outlined array of functionalities for configuration management. They start their \u201cnetwork automation journey\u201d with the prerequisite that an operational configuration is already in place which needs to be deployed or modified.<\/p>\n

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But where do you start if that is not the case? By ringing up the network engineers (who are most certainly not sitting \u201cidle\u201d in their offices awaiting a call to get going on the task)? Chances are that folks won\u2019t even pick up the phone as they are busy and have other important things to cover, with enough priorities and time pressure to worry about.<\/p>\n

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Smart people may have taken care in advance and constructed several home-grown configuration generation scripts. However, even if those work for them, they probably only cover a single vendor and specific models, do not have an underlying resource database, miss an easy-to-operate GUI, and lack sanity checks to ensure that all required unique local parameters are considered with correct syntax. Essentially such scripts are very limited and not meant to be universal configuration tools, which were optimized to present a minimum of site-specific inputs, thereby avoiding misconfigurations by the end user to warrant error-free configuration file-creation in all circumstances.<\/p>\n

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The smartest architects however saved their valuable development time and leveraged a pre-built configuration generation tool that has all the aforementioned building blocks in place. Such a solution can be equipped with data models and parameter sets right at project start, whilst the underlying workflow process is kept very flexible for adaption to individual configuration requirements.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]This is exactly what the StableNet\u00ae<\/sup> NCCM Configuration Engine and the Config Generator user front end provides: the ability to create device configurations from pre-defined resources from the outset in order to lay the groundwork for simplified, automated workflows well into the future.[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”I. Agent Flow Query – H2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ min_height=”40px” custom_margin=”||19px||false|false” custom_padding=”13px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

Config Generator Workflow Introduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Let\u2019s explore the \u201cmechanics\u201d and the associated workflow for Config Generation:<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.infosim.net\/stablenet\/wp-content\/uploads\/5\/2021\/08\/Config-Generator.png” alt=”Config Generator” title_text=”Config Generator” align=”center” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” width=”100%” max_width=”91.3%” custom_margin=”||21px|||” custom_padding=”10px||10px||true|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||16px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

The below outlined steps are required prior to using the Config Generator.<\/p>\n

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