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Network Automation at Scale

Executive summary

This showcase demonstrates network automation for hybrid and lab environments using:

  • Declarative Ansible playbooks for repeatable changes.
  • Programmatic Nornir workflows for more complex logic and testing.
  • CI/CD integration for linting, dry-runs and safe rollouts.
  • EVE-NG topologies for realistic but contained lab scenarios.

The focus is on patterns that transfer cleanly from lab to production networks.

Case study – how this was used in practice

  • Context: Multi-vendor network lab built on EVE-NG, with a requirement to show both breadth (many devices) and depth (safe changes, tests).

  • Challenge: Manual CLI changes were slow, error-prone and hard to audit or repeat.

  • Approach: Introduced a layered automation approach:

  • Ansible for standardised changes (interfaces, routing, BGP, ACLs).
  • Nornir for more advanced flows (tests, data collection, conditional logic).

  • CI/CD integration to validate changes before touching the lab.

  • Outcome: Faster, safer iterations in the lab, repeatable demos, and patterns ready to map into real enterprise networks.

Related decisions (for example):

Demo

Video walkthrough

  • Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NETWORK_AUTOMATION_DEMO

The demo highlights:

  1. A change defined in Ansible inventory and playbooks.
  2. Automated validation using Nornir tasks and tests.
  3. Safe rollout across lab devices in an EVE-NG topology.
  4. Evidence capture (pre/post state, diffs, logs).

Screenshots

![EVE-NG topology](./diagrams/eveng-topology.png)
![Ansible run](./screenshots/ansible-run.png)

Architecture

  • High-level diagram:
![Network automation architecture](./diagrams/architecture-overview.png)
  • Key components:
  • EVE-NG with multiple lab topologies (for example core and branch variants).
  • Ansible for declarative configuration.
  • Nornir for programmatic workflows and tests.
  • CI/CD for running checks on playbooks and Nornir tasks.

Optional detailed diagrams:

Implementation highlights

  • Use of inventories to represent multiple labs and device roles.
  • Safe patterns for pushing config, including diffs and dry-run support where possible.
  • Programmatic tests (for example reachability, BGP sessions, interface state) expressed in Python via Nornir.
  • Evidence captured for each run under an evidence/ tree, suitable for later review or audits.

Assets and source

  • GitHub folder for this showcase:
    https://github.com/hybridops-studio/hybridops-studio/tree/main/showcases/network-automation

  • Automation code:

  • showcases/network-automation/declarative-ansible/
  • showcases/network-automation/programmatic-nornir/

  • showcases/network-automation/jenkins-pipeline/

  • Topologies:

  • showcases/network-automation/topologies/ – EVE-NG definitions and diagrams.

  • Evidence:

  • ./evidence/ – logs, outputs and screenshots from automation runs.

Academy track (if applicable)

In the Academy, this showcase can be expanded into a set of labs where learners:

  • Build a simple playbook and roll it out safely.
  • Implement a Nornir-based validation flow.
  • Compare manual vs automated approaches in terms of time and reliability.

Role-based lens (optional)

  • Network Engineer: sees practical paths to move from manual CLI to automation.
  • Platform / SRE: sees how network changes can be integrated into broader CI/CD practices.
  • Engineering Manager / Hiring Manager: sees that automation is approached in a safe, testable and auditable way.

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