Python Script Examples

Generating configuration files is quite simple, but how to ensure that the result of a configuration template is useful?

In my last post, I wrote about some basic functions of Pandas and DataFrames. Today, I show you how to read DataFrames from Excel. The Scenario is (again) about configuration generation, but this time I like to focus on the data gathering part.

I like to write today about a topic that I used quite frequently within the last weeks/months: pandas DataFrames. At some point in your automation story, you need some data for whatever reason. One example are connection data for some devices. Another example might be the collection of configuration information. I think you know that many people use Excel for this purpose and today, I like to show you, how you can work with DataFrames. In my next post, I show you how to read and work with data from an Excel file.

Today, I like to write about a small and very basic topic. I think everybody requires from time to time the output of certain CLI commands on a set of devices, e.g. for troubleshooting. Quite often, no direct access to the devices is possible, therefore you need to ask somebody else to collect the data. In many cases, you just get plain session logs from e.g. putty and they are in many cases quite unstructured.

Today, I like to give you a brief introduction to a python library called invoke that is used to execute custom tasks within a shell session. Furthermore, I like to show you how invoke is used to simplify the execution of Ansible playbooks within the Product Database.