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Evaluate Cisco Automation and Orchestration Technologies

Most of the early automation tools were developed for server automation. As use cases of automation increased, many companies developed products that supported automation from day one. Cisco is no different; it developed several products such as the Cisco UCS Server, Cisco Nexus switches, and Cisco ACI, which now support automation tools such as Ansible and HashiCorp Terraform. Automation tools help maintain consistent configuration throughout a network with no or minimal human intervention. Some automation tools are agentless, such as Ansible, which utilizes device-specific APIs or SSH to push configuration to network devices, and do not require installation of an agent. However, some automation tools, work with the help of an agent, meaning they are installed on the network devices, which are responsible for converting configuration details to a device-specific configuration.

This chapter discusses the following key topics:

Ansible: This section discusses Ansible concepts, components, and Ansible command-line interface (CLI) tools. Later in this section, we look at a Cisco NX-OS Ansible example.

Python: This section discusses the Python packages supported on-box for Cisco Nexus devices, CLI command APIs, Python in interactive and noninteractive mode, UCS Manager Python SDK, and the Convert to UCS Python API.

PowerOn Auto Provisioning (POAP): This section discusses limitations and network requirements for POAP, POAP configuration scripts, POAP processes, and how to configure a switch using POAP.

Terraform: This section discusses HashiCorp Terraform IaC tool and it’s support on Cisco ACI.

PowerShell: This section explains what are the UCS PowerShell modules, also referred to as UCS PowerTool Suite.

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz

The “Do I Know This Already?” quiz enables you to assess whether you should read this entire chapter thoroughly or jump to the “Exam Preparation Tasks” section. If you are in doubt about your answers to these questions or your own assessment of your knowledge of the topics, read the entire chapter. Table 17-1 lists the major headings in this chapter and their corresponding “Do I Know This Already?” quiz questions. You can find the answers in Appendix A, “Answers to the ‘Do I Know This Already?’ Quizzes.”

Table 17-1 “Do I Know This Already?” Section-to-Question Mapping

Caution

The goal of self-assessment is to gauge your mastery of the topics in this chapter. If you do not know the answer to a question or are only partially sure of the answer, you should mark that question as wrong for purposes of the self-assessment. Giving yourself credit for an answer you correctly guess skews your self-assessment results and might provide you with a false sense of security.

1. Which structured format are Ansible playbooks written in?

a. JSON

b. XML

c. YAML

d. TOML

2. Which statements are CORRECT for the Ansible automation tool? (Choose two answers.)

a. Engineers create Ansible playbooks in JSON that describe a workflow or the configuration of the infrastructure.

b. Ansible scripts run on Cisco devices using Ansible Agent installed on the remote hosts.

c. When the control station runs the Ansible playbooks, they typically copy modules written in Python to remote hosts.

d. Ansible runs the modules on the remote hosts to perform the work described in playbooks.

3. What is the name of the Python package for Cisco?

a. cisco

b. cisco_secret

c. cisco_socket

d. cisco.acl

4. When it is used for executing CLI commands, which API prints the command output directly to stdout and returns nothing to Python?

a. cli()

b. clid()

c. clip()

d. clistdout()

5. Which of the following statements about POAP are INCORRECT? (Choose two answers.)

a. For the POAP feature to function, the switch software image must support POAP.

b. Checking for a USB device containing the configuration script file in POAP mode is supported on the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches.

c. The POAP process requires a minimum DHCP lease period of 1800 seconds (30 minutes).

d. POAP does not support provisioning of the switch after it has been configured and is operational.

6. Which of the following is NOT a phase of the POAP process?

a. DHCP discovery phase

b. Configuration loading phase

c. Script execution phase

d. Post-installation reload phase

7. Which Terraform command is used to define what steps need to be taken and the dependencies between the resources for the successful application of a Terraform plan:

a. terraform destroy

b. terraform init

c. terraform apply

d. terraform plan

8. What is used for Terraform to be able to communicate correctly with the managed resources’ APIs:

a. variables file

b. API key token

c. provider plug-in

d. Applications

9. Where from do you get the Cisco Powershell modules?

a. Cisco Software Download site.

b. Microsoft Download Site

c. PowerShell Gallery

d. Subscription to MS Office 365.

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