New blog articles in For Developers

#CiscoChat Live - Jump to Hybrid Cloud on Tuesday, June 1st at 10am PDT

greghami — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 16:50:17 GMT

Dive into the key elements of building your Hybrid Cloud strategy. We’ll cover the need for a comprehensive plan that addresses security, observability, and orchestration — as well as fine-tuning the plan to balance costs and vendor lock-in.

https://community.cisco.com/t5/cloud-videos/ciscochat-live-jump-to-hybrid-cloud-on-tuesday-june-1st-at-10am/ba-p/4411534#M1

#CiscoChat Live - Jump to Hybrid Cloud on Tuesday, June 1st at 10am PDT

greghami — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 16:46:35 GMT

How to find agentCount for single Attribute using cisco attribute API

sindhureddy — Tue, 25 May 2021 08:11:24 GMT

I want to find out how many agents are configured for an attribute. I have followed all the steps which are provided by the Cisco UCCE 11.6 API guide but I could not get the count. Is it possible to get a count of agents or not?

Archive Webex Space messages

Dirk-Jan Uittenbogaard — Tue, 18 May 2021 16:04:07 GMT

Lately I have received a few requests from people asking if it was possible to Archive a Webex Message
Space as in "download all messages".
Interesting.

You can download all messages using the messages API but that leaves you with a pile of unreadable JSON data.

Therefore I wrote a Python script that downloads space messages and turns it into an HTML file.
This is a single HTML file that looks just like the Webex Message client.

Features

Archive all messages in a space
Find space ID with built in search function
Deal with threaded messages
Download space images, files or both
All files are organized: \spacenamefolder with subfolders for \files, \images, \avatars
Export space data to JSON or TXT file
Restrict messages by number of messages or number of days
Display: messages grouped per month
Display: show full user names
Display: show (linked or downloaded) user avatars
Display: attached file-names + size
Display: "@mentions" in a different color
Display: quoted or formatted text
Display: external users in different color (users with other domain)
Display: images in popup when clicked
Print: just like it appears on the screen

Video

Use case

Potential use-cases:

For regulatory reasons (export & store content)
Make the full contents of a space easier to read & search (in 1 single file)
Share content & discussions with non Webex Message users or members
Sharing Q&A's

Code, Installation & Configuration

This is all explained on the Github page: see https://github.com/DJF3/Webex-Message-space-archiver

More projects

will be posted in the Webex Developer LinkedIn Group: http://cs.co/webexdevlink <--- don't forget to join!

Webex Developer Resource overview: http://cs.co/webexdevinfo

More tools: check out https://tools.sparkintegration.club

bye!

/DJ

New: Webex Space Tab API

Dirk-Jan Uittenbogaard — Tue, 18 May 2021 14:57:06 GMT

On May 10th 2021 a new API component was added: SPACE Tabs!

We call them ROOM tabs to be consistent with the room (space) API. Room Tabs represent an always available tab that is added as a tab in the space. It is configured with a content url. Just like in the Webex app, you must be a member of the room in order to list its Room Tabs.

What to use these for?

In your team space, add a tab with your team intranet page.
In a finance space, add a tab with a specific Smartsheet
For an event space: add tabs for event project management tools
For file access: add box.com tab to see certain files in a space
In brainstorming spaces, add a Miro tab

The same applies to any other tool like Trello, Youtube, etc.

NOTE: when a login is required for pages in space tabs, you do have to login. Tools that use Single Sign On will make life easier.

TIP: when you click a tab one more time a menu appears with the following options:

TIP: you can also move the space tab into a separate window by clicking the icon marked here:

Room Tab API call

When using the room tabs API to list all tabs you can expect something like this:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "Y2lzY29zcGFMzQ1NWQ1ZDExZWYzOmNkZTGQtMTFlNS1iYTljLTdiNjU1NmQyMjA3Yg",
      "roomId": "Y2lzY29zcGFyJPT00vYJjZWIxYWQtNDNmMS0zYjU4LTkxNDctZjE0YmIwYzRkMTU0",
      "roomType": "group",
      "displayName": "Project Management HomePage",
      "contentUrl": "https://internal.cisco.com/projectmanager/team/233210119",
      "creatorId": "Y2lzY29L3VzL1BFT1BMRS9mNWIzNjE4Ny1jOGRkLTQ3MOGIyZi1mOWM0NDdmMjkwNDY",
      "created": "2021-05-18T26:14:16"
    }
  ]
}

Where:

id          = the space tab ID
roomId      = space that the tab is visible in
DisplayName = Title of the tab
contentUrl  = Tab content source URL
creatorId   = userId of the person who added the tab
created     = date & time

When creating a space tab, the following items are required:

roomId
contentUrl
displayName

Details: https://developer.webex.com/docs/api/v1/room-tabs

Besides creating space t....ehh room tabs you can also remove/update/read them:

Enjoy!

Developer Days Call for Speaker is now open!

Nicklas Wagerth — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 07:08:21 GMT

All,

We are excited to announce that our call for speakers for our upcoming Developer Days events is open!

Automation is a journey in itself and no two journeys are alike. Planning and preparation are a must for any major project. Having an open mind to unforeseen events, daring to accept help from others and collaboration makes the trip a much more enjoyable experience.

We are planning four Developer Days events over the next 12 months, and are now looking for presenters who would like to share their experiences. An important segment at our events is to present real-world stories and focus on success factors. Of course, we also talk about pitfalls and how to avoid them but the solution and the success is our focus.

We want to know what challenges you faced and how you solved them. What made your solution special and how did you get there? How does NSO fit into your architecture and what features helped you most? What features would have helped you more?

Thank you for your continued support.

//NSO Team

Developer Days Stockholm 2022

Nicklas Wagerth — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:42:15 GMT

Now you can really plan ahead! Dates are set for all events one year out!

Developer Days APJC, 2022

Nicklas Wagerth — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:34:46 GMT

Dates for Developer Days in APJC are now finally set. More information to come.

Developer Days US, 2021

Nicklas Wagerth — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:24:48 GMT

Dates are now set for the next Developer Days in US! The exact location and form for the event are still in the works. If possible this may very well be the first hybrid event for us in a long while.

Webex Message CARD school

Dirk-Jan Uittenbogaard — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 11:55:46 GMT

In a previous article I talked about the Cards & Buttons functionality of Webex Message. It's great to send nicely formatted or interactive messages.

What if you want to learn about Cards? There is a bot that teaches you all about Cards using...

...CARDS!

A lovely and interactive way to learn. How does it work? As mentioned on the Cardschool App hub page, just add cardSchool@webex.bot to a 1:1 space and say hello. The bot will then guide you through the world of cards. (BTW, you can also add the bot to a group space)

When designing your own cards please look at the CardSampler. An online tool where you can design your card and it spits out the JSON needed for that card.

Please try it and let me know what you think!

/DJ

Webex Developer related announcements will be shared in this group: http://cs.co/webexdevlink
Webex Developer Resource overview: http://cs.co/webexdevinfo

#collaboration #ciscocollab #webexdev #webex #devnet #semaker #ciscose #programmability

Webex Cards using webexteamssdk library

Dirk-Jan Uittenbogaard — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 10:33:37 GMT

The Python library "webexteamssdk" is great but there's one part of this library that "may need better documentation". This is the ability to create cards & buttons.

Here's a card example:

How is this card setup? What components are used? The following image visualizes the underlying architecture:

That's why I found out what's wrong with the code and ended up with a working example that I want to share with you.

Details, code & setup on Github

More projects

will be posted in the Webex Developer LinkedIn Group: http://cs.co/webexdevlink

Webex Developer Resource overview: http://cs.co/webexdevinfo

Question

What else do you think is missing from the documentation/examples?

Bye!

#python #webex #webexdev #ciscocollab #webexcollab #samplecode #ciscose

Webex Message oAuth Integration

Dirk-Jan Uittenbogaard — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 11:19:48 GMT

(using Python and the Flask Library)

An oAuth integration allows you to have an application "do stuff on your behalf".

This is a topic that can be quite complex to understand. For that reason I created this Python code to make it as easy as possible to understand.

What happens in when you run this code?

Step 1

First you open the application that can only say "hello world". Click the authenticate link.

Step 2

After successful authentication on the Webex platform (with or without SSO integration), you have to confirm that application XYZ is allowed to do things on your behalf.

Step 3

Now the application can, on your behalf, get your details (name, email address, etc).

How does oAuth work?

Here's a single slide that I created as part of an extensive oAuth presentation. (Let me know if I should publish that presentation on Youtube!)

Now go ahead and look at the instructions / code and try to make it work.

Details, code & setup on Github

More projects

will be posted in the Webex Developer LinkedIn Group: http://cs.co/webexdevlink

Webex Developer Resource overview: http://cs.co/webexdevinfo

QUESTION: Should I publish my oAuth explanation videos on Youtube?

Just leave a comment.

/DJ

#python #webex #webex4dev #ciscocollab #webexcollab #samplecode #ciscose #oauth #integration

Add Logos/Text To Your Virtual Background?

Dirk-Jan Uittenbogaard — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 14:38:27 GMT

It may be easier than you think.

After some customer requests I started writing code in Python. A few days later the script was ready.

What can it do?

ADD LOGO or image to your virtual background (using a domain/email address/URL/local-file)
ADD TEXT to your virtual background
CLEAR the above from your virtual background
SWITCH between user-defined virtual backgrounds
CHANGE the image of one of the 3 user-defined virtual background slots (based on a local file or URL)
AUTOMATIC logo insertion based on call participant email domains

What next?

Check out the GitHub URL in the post below to see how you can install it and use it yourself.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6780505711634903040

More projects

will be posted in the Webex Developer LinkedIn Group: http://cs.co/webexdevlink

Webex Developer resource overview: http://cs.co/webexdevinfo

bye!

#CiscoChat Live - A DevNet Story: Abstracting Your Infrastructure Through Code

Kelli Glass — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 15:04:18 GMT

Join us on Tuesday, April 6 at 10 am PT (and on demand after) for a new DevNet Story.

#CiscoChat Live - A DevNet Story: Abstracting Your Infrastructure Through Code

Kelli Glass — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 14:59:34 GMT

Join us on Tuesday, April 6 at 10 am PT (and on demand after) for a new DevNet Story.

We'll take your questions during the broadcast and after, so post them below in the comments.

New Episode Cisco Champion Radio: S8|E11 Walk, Run and Fly with DevNet Automation Exchange

aalesna — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 20:34:50 GMT

Listen: https://smarturl.it/CCRS8E11

What is all this talk about automation? How do you get started? What resources are out there to help you tackle your automation projects?

Join Cisco Champions, and DevNet Developer Advocate Kareem Iskander, as they discuss 1) the DevNet Automation Exchange, 2) automation use cases, and 3) a special challenge for Cisco Champion Radio listeners that can earn you some cool DevNet swag.

To register for the challenge visit cs.co/autochallenge. Once you register, you will be redirected to submit your DevNet Automation Exchange Use Case. Then, simply wait by your mailbox for your swag.

Follow us: twitter.com/ciscochampion

Cisco Champion Hosts:
Joe Houghes (twitter.com/jhoughes), Veeam Software, Solutions Architect
Mark Sibering (twitter.com/netcicd), Devoteam, Principal Architect
Shala Warner (twitter.com/giftedlane), IT Desktop Analyst

Guest:
Kareem Iskander (twitter.com/kareem_isk), Cisco, DevNet Developer Advocate

Moderator:
Amilee San Juan (twitter.com/amileesan1), Cisco, Technical Influencer Marketing and Cisco Champion Program

Are you looking for NSO trainings?

Nicklas Wagerth — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 13:12:05 GMT

Learning NSO hasn't been easier!

Although navigating the offerings may need some guidance.

You basically have two options, one instructor-led and one self-paced using free resources on DevNet. We of course recommend using both options.

Cisco Instructor-led Learning Path

To locate the Cisco Learning Offerings, Use the "Cisco Learning Locator" (https://learninglocator.cloudapps.cisco.com) and search for "NSO". It is really that simple! Note that the featured link on the right is updated and will take you there in one click.

If you do this, you will find three courses all instructor-led and delivered both physically and virtually.

NSO Essentials for Programmers and Network Architects, aka NSO 201 is where you start. NSO 201 is a 4-day course. Targeting audience: Network administrators, Solutions designers, and System installers,-integrators, and -administrators.

if you want to continue your learning journey there are two courses depending on your role. Both require that you completed NSO201. These are:

NSO Advanced for Python Programmers (NSO300) 4.0
Cisco NSO Administration and DevOps (NSO303)... 4.0 (This course is new and replace the old NSO200, the schedule is currently TBD)

The self-paced learning path

There are numerous Learning Labs and free resources on NSO Dev Center. Make sure you always keep an eye on DevNet since we are constantly adding new content here. To name a few options;

Always-On Sandbox

Get started with NSO now with the NEW always-on sandbox lab, which provides access to everything you need to explore the APIs for NSO, as well as develop network automation packages and services for use in your networks. Read Stuart Clark’s blog to learn more.

Learn by Doing Series

Check-out Jason Belk’s NEW series where he takes one topic to learn and one use case to recreate a repo with some simple explanation.

Links to individual sessions: NSO Developer Days - APJC, 2021

Nicklas Wagerth — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 08:23:49 GMT

Live Event & Video On-Demand

Individual Live Sessions

Telstra Network Transformation with Automation
Ross Manariti, Technical Product Owner - Resource Domain & Element Management, Telstra

Customer services across thousands of network appliances are still manually configured today. Capabilities, processes, and practices vary from platform to platform and amongst different administrative groups. This can and has led to poor customer experience, high cost of delivery & lost revenue opportunities. We decided to take a different approach to developed a multi-vendor, model-driven, highly-customizable system - capable of repeatable, predictable service and infrastructure resource configuration automation. This approach has seen us improve customer experience and standardize IT/Network interactions, enabling network services to be consumed digitally.

Customer Success: Cross-Domain and Multi-Layer Transport Network Automation
Naveen Kumar, Technical Lead, Cisco CX

The Customer is the largest telecommunication company in the area with its core businesses in fixed-line, mobile, broadband, and IoT services. Cisco as a partner is helping the Customer in their transformation journey towards the next-gen network which serves to meet their scale demand and agility for 5G, Broadband, and enterprise offerings. The Customer recognizes that automation is key for increased service velocity and operational efficiency by leveraging cutting-edge technologies. NSO is a major building block in this architecture for their multi-domain and multi-layer service orchestration solution for IP and extending it to the optical network. This session covers the details pertaining to the use cases and how the solution has evolved in conjunction with network design & build.

Service Design for Scaling
Ulrik Forsgren, Software Engineer, Cisco

The session guides you through common best practices and gives pointers to useful information. After the talk, you should be able to describe and motivate your design choices, as well as recognize questions to be asked next to meet future requirements.

Monitoring NSO: Understanding What’s Going On Inside
Kristian Larsson, Architect, Cisco

Kristian is the author of the OpenTelemetry exporter package for NSO, which exports metrics and traces from within NSO. Tag along to see how you can leverage observability data to understand the behavior of NSO and services in your environment.

On-Demand Sessions

Use Case: Optical Orchestration
Mark Swanborough, Software and Automation Practice Leader, Cisco CX
Krishna Shanmughom, Customer Delivery Software Architect, Cisco CX

Optical Automation using NSO – This presentation talks about how to use NSO for automating L0, L1, and L2 services on Cisco as well as third-party optical networks like Ciena, Huawei, etc thereby helping Service Providers achieving cross-domain orchestration. Also includes Optical automation case studies, challenges and lessons learned.

NSO Scale and Performance Tests
Anshu Narang, Software Engineering Technical Leader, Cisco

Help new users of NSO understand what to expect from NSO in terms of Scale and Performance for their use case(s). Share NSO Scale and Performance capabilities for Reference Use Cases i.e. NFVO (Virtualization) and T-SDN (Physical device configuration) Core FPs.

Technical Deep Dive: Monitoring NSO
Kristian Larsson, Architect, Cisco

A deep dive into NSO observability and the technical underpinnings of the opentelemetry-exporter package. See how it all works and learn how you can expand and build your own custom visualizations or how to instrument your own services for observability.

Auto Heal Your System
Eswaramoorthy Ramasamy, Software Consulting Engineer, Cisco CX

Auto healing is the highest level of automation anyone can achieve. In this session, we would be covering how auto-healing can be achieved with NSO and Open Source Monitoring tools.

Webinar - Feb 18th - 10am PST - The Integrated NSO and ConfD Transaction Managers

Nabil_Michraf — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 19:45:59 GMT

If you are an NSO user, you are probably aware that when you write and read data from any of the NSO northbound interface agents, such as NETCONF, RESTCONF, CLI, MAAPI, etc., those agents are going through the NSO transaction manager before reaching the CDB "running" datastore and the southbound NEDs.

Even if you are aware that the NSO transaction manager is tightly integrated with all NSO components, when managing the network using the NSO device and/or service manager, there are a number of crucial decisions to consider. Such as, are you going to enable the NSO commit queues, are you going to make use of the logical datastores that comes with NMDA, how will you reconcile your services with a device that is out-of-sync, and what requirements for northbound interfaces will you have for the devices you deploy in your network?

Did you also know that, in the bigger picture, NSO’s transaction manager is extended by the devices transaction managers, that may be implemented by ConfD or not at all, and that NSO may be managing a hundred other transaction managers in parallel?

Even if the device is enabled by ConfD and its transaction manager, there are a quite a few things to consider when deciding on how to manage such devices and maximizing the value of a full-fledged transaction manager instead of the opposite.

In this 1h workshop, scheduled on February 18th, 10am PST, we will spend most of our focus on the integration between NSO and ConfD's transaction managers and go through the more common and impactful design decisions when integrating with the two while keeping the bigger picture in mind.

Join us for NSO Developer Days APJC on March 3

Kelli Glass — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 23:49:15 GMT

NSO Developer Days is an opportunity for both new and experienced customers to come together and network, share best practices, meet engineering and learn more about what is coming next for NSO. Join service provider and enterprise network automation professionals for this one-day virtual event.

How to make sure IP is unique in a simple service to configure IP

Chandra L — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 12:48:24 GMT

Hi,

I have a simple service to configure an IP under loopback interface, but how do I delete the IP, if the one I am going to configure is pre-existing on another interface or at least give a warning that this IP is already in use?

Here is my yang file -

module colour {
namespace "http://com/example/colour";
prefix colour;

import ietf-inet-types {
prefix inet;
}
import tailf-ncs {
prefix ncs;
}
import tailf-common {
prefix tailf;
}
list colour {
key name;

leaf name {
type string;
}

uses ncs:service-data;
ncs:servicepoint "colour";

leaf colour {
tailf:info "Select the Colour for SLA";
type enumeration {
enum BLUE;
enum GREEN;
enum RED;
}
}

leaf intf {
tailf:info "Select Loopback Interface number";
type enumeration {
enum 101;
enum 102;
enum 103;
}
}
leaf ip_address {
tailf:info "Select IP Address";
type enumeration {
enum 11.1.1.1;
enum 11.1.1.100;
enum 11.1.1.200;
}
}
}
}

ANNOUNCEMENT: Sandbox experiencing technical issues - February 2, 2021

Dan Klingler — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 22:20:58 GMT

It's not you - it's us!

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may be experiencing in reserving a sandbox lab today. We're experiencing intermittent technical issues. Be assured, we're actively working on the problem and hope to get full services restored as soon as possible.

Again, we apologize for these issues.

Dan

Cisco DevNet Sandbox Team

pyang error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)

BasharAziz — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:35:57 GMT

Hi,

As I understand, when I source ncsrc then it inserts pyang version 1.5 in my path and won't be the use the one I had installed on my system. I'm still facing the same errors every time when executing pyang :

❯ pyang test01.yang
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/ietf-yang-schema-mount.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/ietf-yang-schema-mount.yang:9: error: unexpected keyword "reference"
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/ietf-yang-schema-mount.yang:15: error: unexpected keyword "reference"
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-cluster.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-common.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-compliance.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-customers.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-devices.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-devices.yang:3807: error: XPath function "derived-from-or-self" is not defined in the XPath context
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-devices.yang:4015: error: XPath function "derived-from-or-self" is not defined in the XPath context
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-java-vm.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-log.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-packages.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-plan.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-python-vm.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-service-progress-monitoring.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-services.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-smart-license.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-snmp-notification-receiver.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-software.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs-ssh.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/src/ncs/yang/tailf-ncs.yang:2: error: bad value "1.1" (should be version)
~/nso-run/packages/test01/src/yang 

❯ which pyang
/Users/dev_ws/nso-5.3.2.1/bin/pyang

pyang -version
pyang 1.5

Regards,

Bashar

What is on the NSO Developer Days Agenda in March?

Nicklas Wagerth — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 13:14:26 GMT

A great question! Before I finalize the NSO Developer Days agenda and share the details, I'd like to make a final call to get your input!

Like most things in life, Network Automation is not a trivial thing. Since you are here you have probably decided that the benefits are too many and that the power of collective intelligence to great.

The goal of this community is to but be there with you regardless of where you are on your journey! In addition to the 10.000 unique visitors we get each month, we have a dedicated global team of Cisco NSO Subject Matter Experts (SME) representing all regions and relevant roles.

The value we deliver to you - is closely linked to the feedback we receive. To empower you to do your jobs better and help you through challenges, we must know what is going well and what is going less well.

Take the opportunity now, to influence the NSO Developer Days agenda and make your voice heard. The next event is scheduled for March 3, 2021. We will close the feedback window on Monday, Jan 25. Use this link to suggest a topic.

To stay engaged, do like the SME’s, and subscribe to discussions. Thanks to this feature and all the dedicated people, the community can deliver a solution within just 2 days! Can we improve? Definitely, if we do this together!

Did you miss Developer Days in December?

What would you like to see on the NSO Developer Days agenda in March 2021?

Nicklas Wagerth — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 15:23:32 GMT

Our next stop on the virtual NSO Developer Days tour will be Asia Pacific, March 3 (at noon Singapore Time). We would like to make this a special event and we are asking for your input. It may be a topic that you think is challenging and still haven't got your arms around or an experience that you would like to share to help others. The floor is open and we have saved two slots for the community!

Take the opportunity and provide input using this form before Jan 25, 2021.

Wishing you and your loved one's peace, health, happiness, and prosperity in the coming New Year

//NSO team!

Code Coverage Of Your NSO Python Code

Ulrik Stridsman — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 14:58:36 GMT

For those of you who are using Python for you code, knows that there is only one way to be sure and it is to run the code. But how do you know what parts of you code have been executed?! I do very often put in print statements and look at the output and very often I find that I need to add more statements and to do that I need to restart the package. This time consuming and boring and thought I should share my experiences how to mitigate this problem.

During some other test related work I came across Coverage.py and it was much easier to use than I thought and can produce HTML reports that gives a very good overview and also details down to each line of code loaded to memory.

Here is one example to how to use it for a simple Python based service. The package name is python_service_template and will be run outside of NSO.

Installation of coverage:

pip3 install coverage

First you need to be able to stop the Python VM:s started by NSO. Add this to ncs.conf and reload or restart NSO:

<hide-group>
  <name>debug</name>
</hide-group>

Stop the running python-vm in the NSO cli:

admin@ncs# unhide debug
admin@ncs# python-vm stop name python_service_template
result OK

Start the service's Python VM on the command line. This has beed tested with a NSO local installation:

coverage run /Users/uforsgre/ncs-release/5.4.1/src/ncs/pyapi/ncs_pyvm/startup.py -l debug -i python_service_template

Now you will do your tests, creating services, modifing services, etc.

When you are done and ready to get truth, you stop the Python VM, again:

admin@ncs# python-vm stop name python_service_template
result OK

I am not sure if it works just to press ctrl-c in the terminal windows where service is running. I leave that to you to find out.

Now you will find a file .coverage in the directory where the service was running. To show a textual overview just run:

coverage report

To produce a more extensive HTML report run:

coverage html

The HTML report end up in a directory htmlcov and the overview looks like this, showing a summary of all used modules. It also has a seach function if you have a lot of files.

Click on any of the files will show a detailed view for that file. Here you can highlight lines the have been executed:

This is a view some lines highlighted as not executed:

Which I personally think is a good way of getting input to create tests to improve the coverage of my tests. Since I had 100% coverage in my service I am showing this part the application class in the NSO API, revealing that I have no actions in my service.

Let me know if you find this useful and have ideas how we can impore development of packages, services and other script for NSO.

Ulrik Stridsman

Software Engineer

NSO CTO Team

Don't miss the NSO Developer Days virtual event

Kelli Glass — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 19:06:17 GMT

Join us and an amazing line-up of speakers at NSO Developer Days on Wednesday, December 16
from 9 to 11 am PT.

NSO customers and experts will be live and answering questions during the two-hour event.

Karl Newell from Internet2, keynote speaker at Developer Days

Nicklas Wagerth — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 10:20:54 GMT

We are honored to have Karl Newell from Internet2 as our first speaker. Read the blog from Internet2 here if you are curious about him and what NSO brings to their Network Automation Journey.

Nicklas

Let all our community actions turn into a donation for the good cause!

Nicklas Wagerth — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 16:26:52 GMT

Do you see the green ribbon above?

Read the link and learn how we can come together and give a helping hand to UNICEF.

The program will run until January 31st or up to a maximum donation of $10,000 USD, whichever comes first.

At the same time, you will make a small, but important investment into our community culture, which in long term will make the day-to-day work smoother for everyone! Think of it as the "butterfly effect"! To get started, give me a helpful vote... for the good cause!

//Nicklas

Showcase Blog

Brian Sak — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 14:09:20 GMT

{
  "Forums": {
    "Application Security": {
      "Technologies": ["Secure Workload (Tetration)", "AppDynamics"]},
    "Cloud Edge": {
      "Technologies": ["Cisco Umbrella"]},
    "Network Security": {
      "Technologies": ["Threat Defense (FTD)", "Threat Defense Manager (FMC)", "CDO", "ASA", "ISE", "Secure Network Analytics (Stealthwatch)"]},
    "SecureX": {
      "Technnologies": ["SecureX Threat Response", "SecureX Orchestration"]},
    "User and Endpoint Protection": {
      "Technologies": ["Cisco Secure Access by Duo", "Secure Endpoint (AMP)"]},
    "Other Security Topics": {}
  }
}

Join the DevNet Class of 2020 – Get your DevNet Gear

Kelli Glass — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 19:44:28 GMT

DevNet Certifications provide you with the skills you need to make the most of new advancements in technology.

Earn any DevNet Certification before February 24 to become part of the DevNet class of 2020. You'll get access to special tools and resources and earn exclusive Cisco DevNet gear.

Learn more

Register for NSO Developer Days - U.S. Dec 16 2020!

Nicklas Wagerth — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 08:20:06 GMT

NSO Developer Days U.S. is a virtual live event for all of you!

If you have not yet signed up and need 5 more good reasons to attend you should read this blog

Do you want to share your developer experience at future events or have ideas on an interesting topic that you would like to see covered? Don't hesitate to let us know. Your feedback is important and extremely valuable for the community!

Hope to see you virtually on December 16!

//Nicklas and the event team!

Cisco Champion Radio: S7|E44 DevNet Specialization, Programmability and You!

aalesna — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 16:40:03 GMT

Cisco Champion Radio · S7|E44: DevNet Specialization, Programmability and You!

Join this episode, featuring three Cisco partners, as they discuss the ins and outs of DevNet Specialization for partners.

DevNet Specialization is a catalyst for Cisco’s ecosystem partners to build and enhance their software development practices, with a focus on automation and application development with Cisco platforms and APIs. Achieving this Specialization recognizes their expertise and ability to support customers with the right people, tools, and processes.

Listen in and hear experiences from current DevNet Specialized Partners, how new skillsets are changing the networking landscape and how you and your company can get started. Hint: Go get DevNet Certified!

Learn more: developer.cisco.com/partner/special…d=opdcsnc001469

Cisco Champion Hosts:
Matyas Prokop (twitter.com/maty0609), Natilik, Principal Architect
Paul Giblin (twitter.com/dreamlessod), Presidio, Distinguished Engineer

Guests:
Chuck Stickney (twitter.com/chuckstickney), Cisco, Business Development Architect, DevNet Ecosystem
Ryan Wolfe (twitter.com/somewolfe), Iron Bow Technologies, Programmability Architect

Moderator:
Amilee San Juan (twitter.com/amileesan1), Cisco, Technical Influencer Marketing and Cisco Champion Program

New Learn by Doing Example Series

Jason Belk — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 02:09:31 GMT

I am the NSO Technical Evangelist in the NSO BU. I have started a series I am calling "Learn by Doing", which I take one topic to learn and one use case (as simple as possible, and as focused as possible) and create a repo with some simple explanation that will work on the DevNet NSO reservable sandbox .

I have made a few so far and they are on GitHub / DevNet Code Exchange:

https://developer.cisco.com/codeexchange/github/repo/jabelk/radius_server_example (FOR loops in XML templates and using IOS radius server config)

https://developer.cisco.com/codeexchange/github/repo/jabelk/ntp_server_example

(Service Template Conditionals, Foreach Template Device looping and using NTP IOS config)

https://developer.cisco.com/codeexchange/github/repo/jabelk/svi_verify_example

(Service Health Verification and Importing Packages, using Nexus / ASA SVI Config)

https://developer.cisco.com/codeexchange/github/repo/jabelk/ansible-nso-restconf

(Using Ansible RESTCONF modules to configure NSO, YAML and Infra as Code)

https://developer.cisco.com/codeexchange/github/repo/jabelk/python_nso_commit_flags

(Commit dry-run using Python API)

I have already asked for feedback in this discussion post, but would love to hear more thoughts people have, especially customers or potential customers. (And a big thanks to those who already responded!)

My question is this:

What parts of NSO would you like to see covered and/or what focused and simple use cases (that are feasible in a CML 2.0 virtual topology of IOS/XR/ASA/NX devices) are interesting to you?

Thanks!

NSO Ansible Modules Migrated to Collections

Jason Belk — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 17:30:25 GMT

We officially have NSO as a Cisco Ansible collection, aligning to the new way Ansible handles non-core modules:

https://galaxy.ansible.com/cisco/nso

If you have issues or pull requests you can open them on the following collection repo:

https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/ansible-nso

Why did we do this?

Ansible has changed their software architecture to remove “non-core” modules from their distribution. NSO was previously a part of the Ansible distribution, but as a result of the most recent versions, must be installed manually through the collections / galaxy process. We are aligning to what Ansible has dictated in terms of the software distribution process for third party modules, and we are aligning to how other Cisco software products such as ACI and Meraki have already adopted this model. This was not as a result of some additional feature or functionality, but merely keeping up with Red Hat’s decision to change the way Ansible handles non-Red Hat modules.

What benefit is there to this change?

The value to having NSO in collections allows us to be more nimble in providing updates and keeping track of issues. Since the NSO Ansible code was buried in the monolithic Ansible Git Repository under the old architecture, and there were many, many, issues on Ansible and its suite of modules being opened and closed, it was harder to manage ownership and maintenance. Since our code is decoupled from the Ansible repo, if customers have issues or feature requests, they can submit them on the GitHub link above.

In addition to moving to the collection architecture, we are taking the chance to add in a few more examples into the documentation and have the examples align to the NSO Reservable Sandbox environment to make it easier for new users to get started.

From a pure functionality perspective, there should not be any change (apart from playbooks needing the new collections syntax), and in the long run it should help our team better manage the code base and keep on top of issues and feature requests as they come in.

NSO Developer Days - Stockholm, 2021

Nicklas Wagerth — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:17:15 GMT

Due to the current situation, we may need to plan for yet another virtual event. We are hoping for the best but we plan for the worst.

NSO Developer Days - APJC, 2021 - Register NOW!

Nicklas Wagerth — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 08:49:20 GMT

Save the Date for the virtual NSO Developer Days event in APJC (Singapore time)!

Best Regards,

NSO team

NSO Developer Days - US, 2020

Nicklas Wagerth — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 12:00:00 GMT

Save the Date for our next virtual NSO Developer Days event! The registration link with the agenda will be provided shortly.

During this 2 hour event, we will give you a packed agenda with customer success stories and insights, NSO deep dives, and updates from our product managers! We invite you to engage through live chats and Q&A sessions. Along with the live appearance we will of course provide complimentary on-demand content for those who want to continue exploring.

This event target NSO practitioners and those who are in the process of evaluating and learning the product. For anyone that is new to the product, we recommend exploring www.cisco.com/go/nsodevnet to learn the core concepts and take our earning labs prior to developer Days.

Time-zone-wise, this is an event for the Americas, but we welcome all attendees regardless of your location! All content will be recorded and can be viewed on-demand.

Our next event on March 3, 2021, will be hosted in the Singapore time-zone, hopefully, followed by an in-person global event in Stockholm in September.

Best Regards,

NSO team

Cisco Champion Radio: S7|E41 Design Thinking for Innovative Solutions

aalesna — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 20:28:18 GMT

Cisco Champion Radio · S7|E41 Design Thinking for Innovative Solutions

Design thinking is a framework and methodology for creative problem-solving. It helps define problems, design solutions, test and deliver. It can be used by any business or function to achieve extraordinary results.

Join Cisco guest Edwin Zhang, Director of Cisco DevNet Content, UX & Apps, and Cisco Champions to learn more about Cisco Design Thinking principles. They share how Cisco applies Design Thinking in real-world scenarios and projects with partners and customers to accelerate innovation and product development. You can also get tips and best practices on how to get started with Design Thinking in your team and organization.

Learn more: https://developer.cisco.com/designthinking

Join the Cisco DevNet Design Thinking Webex Teams community: https://eurl.io/#OMLM8kGx-

Cisco Champion Hosts
Jose Bogarin (twitter.com/josebogarin), Altus Consulting Costa Rica, Chief Innovation Officer
Matyas Prokop (twitter.com/maty0609), Natilik, Principal Architect
Paul Giblin (twitter.com/dreamlessod), Presidio, Distinguished Engineer/ Enterprise Architect

Guest
Edwin Zhang (twitter.com/edwin_zh), Cisco, Senior Director, DevCX

Moderator
Lauren Friedman (twitter.com/lauren), Cisco, Technical Influencer Marketing and Cisco Champion Program

Cannot reserve CML Lab

rasmus.elmholt — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 17:10:13 GMT

I am trying to reserve the CML lab for 4 hours. But gets this error:

17:06:26 Environment Driver Setup has begun Beginning sandbox setupPreparing connectivityApps deployment startedApps are being discovered...Connecting all appsError occurred during "Connectivity" stage, See additional entries in the Activity Feed for more information.17:07:21 ERROR: OOB Setup script returned errors Driver:UDC_EnvironmentDriver_D_V2 Function:call_OOB_setup_script 17:07:21 Errors occurred preparing environment. Please use the forum at https://communities.cisco.com/community/developer/sandbox for assistance 17:07:21 Driver Complete.

Does anyone know what this means?

Finesse 12.5 performance improvements - part 1. c10k

asrambik — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 08:21:24 GMT

The browser-based Finesse Agent Desktop 12.5, that ships with the Cisco Unified CCE / CCX contact center solutions, has made massive strides in the performance of its underlying infrastructure, which improves its throughput and reliability by an order of magnitude compared to Finesse 11.x and below.

This is part one of a series of posts from the engineering team that aims to describe the changes made in the 12.5 release and the resulting improvements.

Finesse Failover as a driving force for performance

Faster failover is one of the major improvements that was added in Finesse 12.5. Failover is the process by which the desktop reloads from the alternate Finesse server when it senses a problem with the currently connected server.

Finesse failover involves 2 major scenarios,

CTI Failover -

A breakage of the CTI connection above, causes Finesse server to go out of service, while it connects to the alternate side and re-initializes its in-memory state. The desktop will keep querying either sides, (preferring the current side) and ultimately reconnects to the Finesse server which comes into service. If the Finesse it is connected to, does not come back in service, the desktop has to be reloaded from the alternate Finesse.
Desktop Failover

When the browser running the Finesse desktop, faces disruption to the REST / HTTP connection or XMPP connection shown above, the desktop will reload from an active side and re-initialize its display state.

Nature of the challenge

A desktop reload, requires all the clients to reload the complete desktop & its resources from the alternate server within a very short window.

This operation is akin to a complete browser relaunch for the desktop and produces the same load as a login operation for a single client.

While shift changes and consequent user logins typically happen over a period of a few minutes, a browser failover would generate the entire load at the Finesse server in a much shorter time period, comprising of static HTTP resource loads and REST API calls from all the clients involved.

This made scaling thousands of clients to simultaneously become available in the shortest possible time, an exacting challenge.

Therefore, this requirement became the source of a major list of optimisations made to the Finesse desktop.

C10k Scale

One of the critical challenges faced by a web server is scale. In the initial days of Common Gateway Interface (CGI) web , HTTP servers used to serve a request by spawning a new process for each request, which was no doubt influenced by the Unix process spawning philosophy. Once the scale requirements grew, this was deemed to be too inefficient and thread-based request handling replaced it and has been more or less in force for a decade or two.

However, this architecture became inadequate beyond a certain scale, and c10k refers to the challenge of scaling a single web server to handle simultaneous connections from 10k clients. The act of spawning a different thread for each request becomes untenable at this scale due to the inherent in-efficiency present in context switching between different thread stacks and synchronising between them.

Asynchronous request processing architecture (which was definitely not pioneered by the web industry) was the next family of architecture that was picked by web servers to overcome this challenge.

Asynchronous request processing

Asynchronous requests refer to the nature of application code that aims to remove extra thread requirements by using only non-blocking API calls, which does not entail any waits. The results of the API calls are communicated over callbacks to the application code to process later.

This allows a single thread to run without being blocked and cater to multiple requests at the same time.

Finesse Tomcat

Finesse uses Apache Tomcat as its underlying web server. Tomcat HTTP connector with the fastest throughput (APR) uses synchronous style of request processing and improving upon this, became a requirement to meet the rate of requests pushed during a failover scenario. Though Tomcat does have a non-blocking connector, it handles only the TCP connection establishment phase in an async manner and does not seem to be able to scale the static resource processing in an async manner.

Therefore, Finesse opted to use Nginx since it has an asynchronous / event-based architecture, which was a departure from the thread-based request processing used by Apache Tomcat. Nginx was one of the pioneers of this new web server architecture and has now become one of the leading web servers in the industry.

Changes introduced to Finesse web server

These are the changes we introduced to improve the tomcat scale issues

Front Apache Tomcat with Nginx web server

The Apache Tomcat was modified to run only on localhost over HTTP and the Nginx server was configured to expose the ports required for the clients.

In tests involving 3000 clients firing all of the login time requests in a 1 minute window, the Nginx server was able to successfully finish the load, where the Apache server tried to cope, by increasing the thread count and finally ground to stop since the server could not deal with the number of threads created (amounting to 5000 odd threads, from which the test never recovers).

This failure is essentially the crux of the problem faced by threaded synchronous architectures.
Nginx performs SSL termination and provides HTTP/2 connectivity to clients.

Once the Apache tomcat was made local, it no longer required to process SSL requests and the SSL termination was taken over by Nginx, which allowed protocol support separate from the underlying Tomcat server.

Deploying Nginx as a proxy to Tomcat thus enabled HTTP/2 support, which would have otherwise, required a tomcat upgrade. If you are not familiar with benefits of using HTTP/2, here is why everyone should be using HTTP/2.
Cache static files at Nginx

Nginx’s cache flexibility allowed Finesse to serve the static HTML resource serving responsibility to the Nginx server. Once this is done, the REST API requests that drive the core functionality of Finesse are the only requests that the Finesse tomcat needs to handle.

Removing Tomcat from serving the countless number of requests reduces the load on the system (far fewer threads and CPU consumption) and provides better throughput to the REST request layer.
Cache possible REST API responses at Nginx

As part of the effort to reduce the number of requests that reach Tomcat, responses for the API calls that retrieve configuration was cached at Nginx for a very brief period of time. This ensured that after a single client had fetched this data, it would not hit the Apache Tomcat again for all other agents of the same team retrieving the same data.

This reduced the load on the server by a factor 20 or 30, depending on the team size. This reduced the impact of the desktop initialisations to a large extend. Since this data is cached only to cater to logins, it is cached for only a few seconds in a memory backed file system, thus removing any disk impact for the load.
Enable browser cache of static resources
Browser can cache static files and does not request for the full files if the cache-control headers are present. Nginx supports cache-control header configuration, which makes it easy to control this behavior. We pre-loaded all the static files from the secondary site and unless the browser cache is loaded, these resources are never pulled again.

This reduces the number of requests hitting the Finesse web server and those that do hit the server are served by the Nginx cache.
Caching of gadget requests

Finesse gadget functionality is structured as multiple iFrames created within the desktop’s page area, loading a specific gadget’s HTML. Once Nginx based HTTP response cache was available, caching semi-constructed gadget HTML’s for XML gadgets became possible and all the stock gadgets where moved to XML based gadgets.

Gadget HTML creation done by the Shindig web server was expensive due the parsing and caching it performs to modify the script and CSS includes, such that scripts will correctly refer to the Finesse server. Performing this repeatedly for all agents is a gross waste of the server’s capability and this has now become efficiently cached, with the aid of some clever scripts at the desktop, which can fill in a few remaining dynamic parts of the response.

By offloading this processing, a significant load was reduced again. If each desktop contains 5 gadgets, that is a saving of 20,000 VERY expensive requests.

Please note though that this optimisation is available only for static gadget URIs, and to make use of this, all stock gadgets that ship with the solution have been converted to use XML based URI’s.

CCE deployments performing upgrades, need to run a CLI to upgrade their LiveData gadget URI’s, after CUIC is upgraded.

Summary of Improvements

Connection handling is vastly improved. I.e. c10k compliance + HTTP/2 + SSL termination

The HTTP request handling infrastructure is vastly improved.
Reduction in CPU consumption from-
1. SSL offloading
2. reduced request processing at Tomcat
Reduction in no of HTTP calls due to
1. Efficient static resource caching.
2. REST response caching.
3. Gadget HTML response caching.
Resiliency

Sudden increase in load, can be handled effectively with improvements in connection handling, which otherwise breaks the old Tomcat server. Finesse is primarily a web application and the improvements made in its HTTP processing availability improves it resiliency during peak periods and load situations.
Security

Since Nginx is acting as physical layer of separation, much like a reverse proxy, between Tomcat & the HTTP request termination point, it provides an additional level of security, by shielding Tomcat and enforcing limits, before the request is evaluated by Tomcat.

Application code is tightly coupled with the Apache Tomcat server due to the usage of the Tomcat provided JEEE interfaces. However, no such restriction applies to the external proxy.

Therefore, this allows the product to react quickly and the client facing web server layer becomes easily upgradeable, which is a big plus from security perspective. Additional security checks can also be enabled at Nginx if so desired, using security modules like modsecurity.

Overall, this change has provided significant gains from all the above perspectives and enables new opportunities due to the flexibility it provides to the application stack.

Live Demos and a Cisco NSO Overview at Network Field Day 23 Event

Jason Belk — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 10:51:00 GMT

Hank Preston and Jason Belk presented at Network Field Day 23 to a network engineer audience. Jason shared his personal journey from network engineer to automation evangelist, and how Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) drew him deeper into automation as a network engineer. He then demoed some of NSO’s basic features on the CLI, showing how a network engineer could get started without having to learn any other coding skills yet. By watching this overview video, you will get a better idea of what Cisco NSO is and why it is relevant to network engineers.

Hank shared how he is using Cisco NSO in the DevNet Sandbox team to manage a variety of network devices and other infrastructure components. He gave a live demo in his pre-production environment, creating a new service instance which provisioned configuration across a number of devices.

His service behind the scenes used Python code and Yang to enforce his network standards automatically, so an engineer consuming his service from another team would only have to provide a few basic inputs and Cisco NSO would handle all the rest. Hank’s demo showcases some of Cisco NSO’s more advanced features, and shows the sky is the limit in terms of what the product can accomplish after you learn the basics.

The session was lively and interactive, including questions about how Cisco NSO compares to Ansible and how does NSO handle configuration rollbacks. The panelists asking the questions represented a variety of engineers from different backgrounds not from Cisco.

Links:

https://techfieldday.com/video/cisco-network-services-orchestrator-architecture/

https://techfieldday.com/video/cisco-network-services-orchestrator-demo/

https://techfieldday.com/video/cisco-devnet-sandbox-network/

Video demo: Ansible integration with NSO provisioning a Cloud Native Functions(CNF) spun up in AWS EKS environment

Aseem Srivastava — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 23:19:15 GMT

Demo components:

Amazon AWS EC2 environment - Running NSO, AWX(Ansible Tower)

AWS EKS environment: Running Kubernetes cluster housing CNFs(Client/Server POD, Arista cEOS devices)

Cisco Webex Virtual Hackathon: Fun & Easy, 60 Teams Win Prizes, ALL participants receive certificate

ivypham — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 22:09:05 GMT

Fun and Easy Virtual Hackathon

60 Teams Win Prizes

ALL Participants Receive Certificate Signed by Execs

Important Note: This contest is governed by the Terms and Conditions in the document attached at the end of this page. Please review it for full details of the official rules.

About

Submission:

Sign up at: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/7b0ad5a8ec754e1bab8bed8498bcad82
Create a Cisco account and log in to https://innovationchallenge.cisco.com/itonics_campaign_tr3/76/details. It takes just a minute, and you will be automatically prompted to do so when you click on the link (note: works best on Chrome browser; contact hack@cisco.com if you have any issues)
Click SUBMIT to submit your project. Note: You can only be part of one team (1-4 people), and only submit one entry. Remember to submit it by January 15, 2021.

No technical knowledge, experience, or team? No problem. Ideas can be technical or non-technical. All experience levels are welcome. If you need help looking for a team, join this space. Or you can always submit individually. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this space.

Need inspiration? Check out the Resources section below.

Eligibility: This Hackathon is open to participants who are age eighteen (18) years or older at the time of entry. This Hackathon is not open to: (1) employees or internally contracted vendors of Sponsor or its parent/subsidiaries, agents and affiliates; (2) anyone professionally involved in the development or administration of this Hackathon; (3) employees or internally contracted vendors of governments and government-affiliated companies or organizations; or (4) any employee whose employer's guidelines or regulations do not allow entry in the Hackathon or acceptance of the prize(s). This Hackathon is not open to individuals in the province of Quebec in Canada. In addition, residents of Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Sudan are not eligible to participate. This Hackathon is void in these countries and where otherwise prohibited or restricted by law.

Resume Drop: Optionally, candidates interested in a Cisco career can submit their resumes here: https://jobs.cisco.com/jobs/EventDetailNL?projectId=1297954

Deadline: You can edit your submission up until January 15, 2021 at 11:59pm PST.

Prizes

Subject to the Terms and Conditions, the following prizes will be awarded. For the sake of clarity, if a Team is designated as a winner, each Participant on the Team will receive the prize for which they qualified below, and the Team will be counted as a single winner for prize administration.

Ten (10) first place Teams or Participants will each receive a Dyson Pure Cool DP04 purifying fan, with approximate retail value of $449.99 USD
Twenty (20) second place Teams or Participants will each receive a Galaxy Tab A 10.1” 32 GB, with approximate retail value of $229.99 USD
Thirty (30) third place Teams or Participants will each receive a JBL Live 650BTNC Wireless Over-Ear Noise-Cancelling Headphones, with approximate retail value of $199.95 USD
All Participants will each receive a certificate of recognition or participation signed by executives and delivered virtually via email.

Innovation Themes

Here are our two main hackathon themes.

You may submit an entry that fits one or both themes.

Cisco Webex and Collaboration

Any solutions to benefit the Cisco Webex / Collaboration business.

Social Good

Any solutions to benefit people, society, or the planet. (Not required to use Cisco products).

Sample Topics:

Next Gen (AR & VR, AI & ML, workplace transformation, etc.)
Experience (end user, customer, operations, analytics, etc.)
Cross Architecture (integrate with cross business unit products, etc.)
....and more. You are not limited to these topics. Feel free to be creative!

Sample Topics:

COVID-19
Work from home / online school
Health, education, environment
....and more. You are not limited to these topics. Feel free to be creative!

Resources

Learn More About Cisco Webex and Collaboration

Webex: webex.com
Collaboration: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collaboration/index.html
Webex Blog: https://blog.webex.com/
Collaboration Blog: https://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration
Webex AppHub: https://apphub.webex.com/
Workplace Transformation: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/cisco-on-cisco/connected-workplace.html

Developer Resources

Webex API, SDK, and Widgets: https://developer.webex.com/
Cisco DevNet: http://developer.cisco.com/
- Collaboration: https://developer.cisco.com/site/collaboration/
- Webex: https://developer.cisco.com/webex/
Device xApi & Macros:
- https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/awesome-xapi
- https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/roomdevices-macros-samples
Momentum Design System (Momentum-UI) as a resource for anyone building front-end: https://momentum.design/
Open source projects: https://github.com/webex

Need inspiration?

Check out projects from other challenges such as:

Judging Criteria

Section	Description	Scoring
Idea	How innovative / creative is the idea? Is the idea new? Is it old but with a new or better implementation?	0-30
Impact	How significant is the impact of the solution?	0-30
Implementation	How effective is the approach and implementation of the solution? Is it feasible? Is the experience intuitive and easy to use?	0-30
Presentation	How well does the team articulate the solution?	0-10

Questions?

Join our Ask Space

Other inquiries: hack@cisco.com

Cisco AMP for Endpoints Find Duplicates

IamSamSaul — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 14:06:14 GMT

Hi there,

I have downloaded a Python script to find the duplicates on Cisco AMP for Endpoints dashboard from the following URL:

https://github.com/CiscoSecurity/amp-04-find-duplicate-guids

When I'm running the Python script, I'm getting the following error:

py find_duplicate_guids.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "find_duplicate_guids.py", line 147, in <module>
main()
File "find_duplicate_guids.py", line 124, in main
total_guids = response_json['metadata']['results']['total']
KeyError: 'metadata'

I hope someone can help me solving this issue. Thanks.

Regards,

Sam

Social Miner Info required

Roy_11 — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 12:09:42 GMT

Hi Experts,

I Need one help on Cisco social miner , hope you will help us on below requirements . Many Thanks!!!!

Actually, we have third party application trying to integrate in UCCE through task routing API concept .

Just we need to get the agent status with help of Cisco Social miner API's , once agent is available we are offering the chats from (web site) to agent. we are trying to achieve this requirements , Right now we don't have Cisco Social Miner in Our environment so we are planing to install Miner and MR PG as well , So my question is here, Based on the DEVNET Development guide, I know we have some API need to call like feed,task creation and get status, how these API responses are coming? is there something we need to update any code in social miner backend to get response for all Task Submission API's? Could you please help on this , this really will help us to update in Miner

Many Thanks!!!

Thanks!

Roy

Unlocking Performance in your NSO System, Part IV

KJ Rossavik — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 09:03:27 GMT

Previous instalments of this blog post series have covered requirements (parts I and II) and baselining, profiling/optimising and monitoring (part III). In this final part we will discuss some architectures you may want to consider as your system grows in scale and performance. We would recommend a simplicity-first approach, and not introduce further complexity before it is needed.

Transactions in NSO

The majority of NSO deployments are running in transactional mode. This is the least complex way of running NSO, and this is the way we would recommend all users to go first. Run with transactions as long as you can. Run on the biggest, most powerful single server you can afford. That way you don’t need to move to more complex solutions such as commit queues and clustering until later, or perhaps never.

When you run a transaction in NSO then the system will spend some time preparing, then some time doing the actual transaction, and then some time cleaning up. The important point is that the CDB database and the overall system is locked during the middle section, and hence the system will process these middle sections in series, one by one. Therefore, it is critical to keep processing in this section to an absolute minimum. This means that there is a lot of scope for optimisation in most service applications. So, when you start running out of processing power, the first thing you should consider is to optimise the solution. E.g. does the system make calls to other systems and spend time waiting for them to return? Try to move anything that takes time out of the critical section of the transaction. Unfortunately, what is going to take most time is probably interacting with the devices, and even though device interactions take place in parallel, the duration of a transaction cannot be faster than the slowest device interaction.

See also:

The Anatomy of an NSO Transaction, Devnet NSO Best Practices, https://developer.cisco.com/docs/nso/#!performance-scaling/anatomy-of-an-nso-transaction

Reactive Fastmap – Nano Services

If the system does have to make calls to other systems, other than the devices to be configured, then perhaps Reactive Fastmap is a design pattern you want to consider. Or perhaps there are external system operations that take a long time, where you don’t want to wait in a transaction lock for the operation to conclude, e.g. starting up a VNF. This design pattern breaks the transaction processing into a sequence of transactions which can be run incrementally until the service intent has been reached. This allows other transactions to be processed while you are waiting to be able to run the next incremental step. Hence, this allows a greater degree of parallelism in the system.

Reactive Fastmap has been available in NSO for many years, and over the years several additional features have been added in order to make it easier to use, reduce code volume, and increase maintainability. These include Kickers, Plans, and most recently Nano Services.

See also:

NSO Developer Days 2019: Nano Services – Another approach for Reactive Fastmap (RFM) services, Try Ryeng, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJhOBf8J-J8
NSO Developer Days 2020: Building a Service - from Template to Reactive Fast Map to Nano services, Simon Unge, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIzBhzdAC9M&list=PLhTPrPcGzO7GZyx5DGpP6sCEiBYPYK24d&index=26&t=0s

Commit Queues

Commit Queues is another way to achieve more parallelism. Here you break down the transaction so that instead of processing service transactions in series, you create a queue per device. This enables you to process multiple transactions in parallel. This is particularly the case if the transactions don’t touch overlapping devices. This comes at the cost of higher complexity, but there is an increasing set of tools available in the NSO platform to manage this complexity.

See also:

NSO Developer Days 2020: Demystifying NSO Commit Queues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pEdvZS5yE0

Layered Services Architecture

Parallelism and concurrency are complex topics. Universities teach entire courses about these. It is important to note that clustering architectures such as NSO LSA are used for other reasons than scale and performance. It is a very elegant solution to cross-domain orchestration, where you want each domain to be owned by a separate organisation, with a level of autonomy of operation.

When considering LSA for scale and performance, one obvious conclusion is that a cluster processing one transaction at the time is no faster than a single server doing it - in fact it is probably slower. Therefore, you want to deploy Nanoservices and/or Commit Queues before moving to LSA. You also need to be very clear about how you believe your service application can be parallelised in order to take advantage of multiple servers. We suggest you work together with the NSO Solution Architects on such architectures.

See also:

NSO Dev Days: LSA, Scaling & Performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfSnurZZwd0

Summary

In this four part blog post we have discussed an approach where you define the requirements, select an appropriate server size, test that the solution can support the required scale and performance, profile and optimise as needed, and monitor the deployed solution so that you know whether it is delivering the required scale and performance.

We also discussed a simplicity-first approach where you start with a single server deployment in transactional mode, and then gradually introduce more complex architectures when the solution is approaching running out of steam. These architectures include Nano Services, Commit Queues and Layered Services Architecture.

Unlocking Performance in your NSO System, Part III

KJ Rossavik — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 09:21:40 GMT

In part I and part II of this blog, we have been discussing scale and performance requirements. In this third instalment we are going to look at baselining, profiling, optimising and monitoring scale and performance.

Baselining Scale and Performance

You have defined your requirements, and you have estimated an NSO server size. How do you verify that your automation solution can support your requirements?

Before the automation solution is deployed it needs to be tested to ensure that the solution can deliver the performance needed at the scale required. Note that although it is useful to test the scale and performance of individual components in the solution, this is not a substitute for end to end solution testing. The end to end solution is likely to include other systems, such as order entry systems, resource management systems (e.g. IPAM), workflow management systems, etc.

You will probably not have the same size of network in the lab as you have in the production environment, so most of the network will need to be simulated. Remember take into consideration the difference in behaviour between real and simulated devices, e.g. with respect to response time.

Another point is to carry out scale and performance testing with negative scenarios. How does the solution deal with e.g. a device being unreachable, or with a device having unexpected configuration?

System Profiling and Optimisation

If you see an operation that is not performing as required, then you want to find out where time is spent so that you can decide where to look for optimisation opportunities. It is important to do this across the entire solution, and not only with individual components. Individual components can be performant, but when assembling them other performance issues may arise.

NSO offers a lot of visibility into where time is spent in the system. This is discussed in detail in Kristian Larsson’s document

See also:

Performance and Scaling, Devnet NSO Best Practices, https://developer.cisco.com/docs/nso/#!performance-scaling/performance-and-scaling

Monitoring System Performance

The solution deployed in the production environment needs to be monitored for performance so that you have early warnings for when the system approaches not meeting the scale and performance requirements. This involves monitoring the performance of the end-to-end solution as well as monitoring individual components such as an NSO server and its applications.

The end-to-end performance needs to be monitored from the top-level system, e.g. an order entry system. Here you can monitor throughput and operation duration. This can be plotted against scale to check for non-linear behaviour.

The NSO server needs to be monitored at multiple levels:

Operating system – monitor CPU, memory and disk usage
Monitoring NSO platform. NSO offers metrics to be monitored. These are specified in the NSO Administrator Guide, in the System Monitoring chapter. A lot of service applications are now implemented as Nanoservices, and there is a lot of data to be mined related to the NSO Plan. There is a lot of activity going on in the area of observability, so watch this space for increased monitoring capabilities.
Application specific monitoring. The NSO service application or function pack may have application specific attributes that can be monitored. The NSO Plan now has the feature to set a threshold for how long the Plan should take to execute, and to raise an alarm if the threshold is breached. This could be used as a mechanism for monitoring service application performance.

See also:

NSO Administrator Guide, System Monitoring chapter

In part IV of this blog we look at some architectures to consider if your solution needs further gains in scale and/or performance

Unlocking Performance in your NSO System, Part II

KJ Rossavik — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 09:23:10 GMT

In part I of our Unlocking Performance in your NSO System blog we started discussing scale and performance requirements, including

Size of device configuration
Number of service instances
Frequency of operation
Interactive or batch operation

Here will we continue that discussion

Size of device configuration

What is the size of the running configuration of the devices? This may vary from device to device based on device type and the device role in the network. Often it is useful to create a few categories, e.g. core devices and edge devices, and estimate the configuration size and quantity of each. E.g. CPE devices could have 100s of lines of configuration, and edge devices could have 1000s or 10s of thousands.

The aggregate configuration sizes will be proportional (but not equal!) to the NSO model instances in CDB, and hence guides the NSO server memory required, since NSO has an in-memory database.

The CDB size also influences the disk size required, and logs are another significant consumer of disk space.

Number of service instances

The other factor that determines storage requirements is the number of service instances the system will be managing. However, unless the number of service instances is vast, the contribution to storage requirements will be insignificant compared with the device configurations.

Frequency of operation

What is the frequency of operation – what operations will the system operate, and how often will the system carry out each operation? One way to estimate the frequency of operation is to take the total number of service instances and estimate how long it will take to reach that number. If you are aiming for e.g. 10,000 service instances in a year, and orders will arrive during a 10-hour working day, 200 days a year, then that means an average provisioning rate of 50 adds per day, or 5 per hour. Consider some factor for peaks and troughs and take account for some proportion of deletes and modifies.

Interactive or batch operation

Is the focus on minimising the duration of individual operations,i.e. running interactively, or is it on maximising the throughput when running operations in bulk? What are the expected (or desired) response times for individual operations or for a batch of them?

Other factors

Are there any special types of scenarios that will put more load on the system? Any mass operations such as bulk VNF stop-restart, etc.? Any error recovery situations?

How do the operations translate to device operations? Are there central devices that are hit by every operation, e.g. in a star shaped network? This may constrain the operational throughput.

Are there other systems or operators that configure the same devices that are configured by the NSO automation?

Choosing the NSO server size

The requirements that you identify will help guide the selection of NSO server size. Please note, however, that the demands on the server are also driven by the implementation of the service application (or function pack). The automation use cases that you are implementing may have specific complexities that drive the need for more resources than usual. The initial implementation of your service application may also be less than optimal.

In part III of this blog we discuss baseline testing your solution, profiling and optimising the solution implementation, and on-going monitoring of the deployed solution.

Unlocking Performance in your NSO System, Part I

KJ Rossavik — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 09:46:28 GMT

Whether you are a new customer to the NSO product, or an established customer with hundreds of thousands of devices managed by NSO one of the key considerations is how do I get NSO to scale as I need it to in my environment in order to maximize my ROI from automation?

Of course, as you would expect from Cisco, NSO is built to allow you to embrace it in your organization no matter if your scale is 100 devices or 100,000+, or if you are provisioning one service per day or a thousand. Let’s walk through a few scenarios that we run into, operational changes you implement to scale your equipment further, as well as hardware options to get to scale.

This blog post is not meant as a how-to, but rather as a map over the terrain with pointers to areas of interest.

So, let’s begin.

I am ready to take the NSO automation journey but need to know how I should size the infrastructure that NSO will run on.

Welcome! As a new user to NSO we recommend deploying on a single server as you scale your deployment up. This has several advantages for new customers:

A single server simplifies the deployment process
A single server limits the complexity of troubleshooting if you run into challenges while deploying
We see that several customers have been able to scale up to tens of thousands of devices in single server deployments

We find that these advantages can help lower the complexity and therefore the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the product in early stages and help drive your business toward return on investment (ROI) more quickly.

How big should the NSO server be?

To state the obvious: The NSO server needs to be big enough for what you are planning to do with it. But that does not mean you need to have all the resources now for what you are planning to do in three or five years from now. Most automation projects grow incrementally. You start off small, and get some early successes, and then you automate more and more use cases, and bring more and more devices, virtual network functions, controllers, and EMS/NMS systems under management.

One approach could be to start with server resources to last you to the end of the first year, and then plan to re-evaluate periodically, e.g. every six months, and add more resources as the requirements grow. Now, that virtual server hosting has become commonplace, adding resources is simple.

But the starting point must be to define what you are planning to do with it - what operations will be automated for which devices?

Defining scale and performance requirements

We are often asked: “What size of server do I need for a network of X devices?”. But there are many other parameters that define the scale and performance required. These include:

Size of the device configuration
Number of service instances
Frequency of operation

In Part II of this blog post series we dive into more details about scale and performance requirements. We then discuss baseline testing and profiling before diving into architectures that may make your solution more performant.

Cisco DevNet Sandbox for BroadWorks Release 24 availability

jeepraka — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 15:02:29 GMT

As part of the Cisco BroadWorks R24 rollout the DevNet Sandbox system will be upgraded to the latest software release on September 11, 2020. We don't anticipate any disruption to Sandbox test usage at that time.

Please ensure that you have completed any ongoing validation work for the current BroadWorks R23 ahead of that date.

If you still require access to a BroadWorks R23 platform, you can connect with one of our BroadWorks lab partners who offer virtual lab access and support services for prior versions.

Please use this Cisco DevNet Community Forum for questions or issues related to the DevNet BroadWorks sandbox or sandbox support.

NSO external authentication python script example - for demo purpose

faayvaz — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 08:10:51 GMT

Dear All,

Referring to "NSO Access Control - Role-based and Resource-based Access" session, which was presented in Cisco NSO Developer Days 2020 (Virtual) event, I share the external authentication script that was used for the actual NSO demonstrations shared within the presentation and follow-up discussions.

NSO Access Control – Role-based and Resource-based Access On-Demand Session

https://youtu.be/hnoueH0vI8k

Please let me know if you will have any comments/questions on it.

Kind Regards

Fatih Ayvaz

Solutions Architect, Cisco CX

Automation driven Cisco IT deployments

Aseem Srivastava — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 20:46:07 GMT

This is a quick summary of my interlocks with Cisco IT organization and some key takeaways on their drive to increase automation and orchestration in running their cloud enabling network.

Size of Cisco IT deployment

A Large network needs a powerful orchestration engine to automate and coordinate all the different elements. For such a massive scale infrastructure deployment Cisco IT heavily leverages Cisco NSO as the automation and orchestration engine. Multi-vendor and multi-domain capabilities of Cisco NSO play a major role to enable automation and delight the network professionals.

Cisco IT Cloudport implementation leveraging automation with NSO

Typically, the enterprise applications and data is hosted in data centers and accessed by employees and partners from either the campus network or in these times of lockdown remote access VPNs. Increasingly, most enterprise applications are moving to public clouds mostly in the form of public SaaS but also public IaaS.

Essentially Cisco Cloudport enables access to to Cloud Vendors (eg GCP / AWS / Azure) and SaaS application vendors via secure cloud exchange point delivering Carrier and Cloud Neutrality. End user is able to take advantage of colocation facility & cloud economics to access application and services running on the cloud.

Cloud Services Exchange with NSO automation

The visual below showcases how NSO is being leveraged for the Cisco IT Cloudport deployment, primarily two use cases:

Site to site provisioning: Backbone / IP/MPLS backhaul provisioning
Instantiation and activation of network services and applications

Cisco SAE solution architecture

Cisco Cloudport leverages technology that NSO enables in the Secure Agile Exchange (Cisco SAE) solution. Technical information on SAE can be found here:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/Cloud-Services-Platform/csp_5000/sae/solution_guide/b-SAE-solution-guide/b-SAE-solution-guide_chapter_00.html

Cisco NSO based service orchestration
Fully provisioned and flow optimized deployment of infrastructure
Secure cloud connectivity to IaaS Google Cloud, Amazon AWS and SaaS environments.
CNF(Carrier Neutral Facility) based platform to host virtualized network services with a switching fabric to allow scalable and flexible provisioning of services
Out of box deployment and Cisco validated solution

Other Cisco IT NSO Deployment and trials:

Cloud and DC: Compliance config deployment in IOS, NX and XR devices
Cloud and DC: Transition config model to services (AAA, DNS, NTP, Syslog etc.)
Branch Office as a Service Experience & Automation (services such as new office, change VLAN/subnet, capacity upgrade, fleet upgrade, modify QoS etc.)
Administrative and UI Experience (configuration life cycle management, ACL management, topology based config changes, services based compliance assessment, remediation etc.)
Zero-Touch Deployment using PnP service (pnp service validation, home office/CVO config automation)

Benefits that Cisco IT sees with NSO

Transactional & Policy Enforcement:

Only required change lines and to only the devices requiring them
Easy rollback
Allow us to define and enforce policies before configuration deployment
Easy compliance assessment & remediation

Flexibility through DevOps approach:

Allows us to wrap required business logic around orchestration quickly
Strong API support and user customizable components
More flexibility than current tools
True programmable interface to network device
Allow to build our own User Experience (UI)
Good network device specific simulation environment

Strong Partnership & Product Support:

Good breadth of product support (IOS, NX-OS, ASA, Citrix, APIC-DC)
Multi-vendor
Good support from the BU on NED enhancements (2 weeks SLA) :-)

Deployment examples of Cloud ready networks with Cisco Automation

Aseem Srivastava — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 01:46:50 GMT

In my product management role at Cisco Systems the world’s largest networking vendor, I get to hear first-hand the requirements from cloud and network service providers and large enterprise customers.

Situation:

The Pandemic effect

The Global COVID-19 Pandemic has changed the way we access applications and corporate network resources. With people working from home, students remote learning the online usage has risen significantly. The traffic origins have shifted from corporate buildings to home broadband connections. The traffic generated is more distributed in terms of location and number of devices, this is having a big impact on Enterprise IT networks. Data usage is on the rise as expected, there is a spike in usage of cloud-based video conferencing applications, streaming applications, e-commerce, social media and last but not the least gaming.

Implication:

Cloud and network service providers are scrambling to meet the business demand to build out additional network capacity and distributed secure connections within a falling IT spend budget. Network automation with tools like Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) is becoming a basic requirement in running a fast dynamic and multi-vendor network infrastructure environment.

"NSO’s model-driven approach to network automation and service orchestration is enabling Telstra to improve network service outcomes for our customers. Our deployment of NSO is providing our customers with new levels of quality services faster."

- David Robertson, Director for Network Transport & Routing Engineering, Telstra

how Telstra is transforming Read Telstra case study Read Telstra news release

"Cisco Open Network architecture has enabled us to dramatically increase our ability to provide a highly responsive customer experience. The flexibility and open nature of the Cisco solution will equip us with the tools to innovate new services at a rapid pace and keep ahead of our competition."

- Sadahiro Sato, VP of ICT Innovation, SoftBank

Read SoftBank case study

2) Operation efficiency driving full automation of:

Frequently run tasks

Scaled deployment

Configuration and change management

Multi-vendor networks

Audits and network compliance reporting

"Cisco's model-driven approach to network automation and service orchestration is enabling Orange to drastically speed delivery of services across our entire lifecycles."

- Christian Gacon, VP of Wireline Networks and Infrastructure, Orange

Christian’s testimonial Read Orange news release

“Cisco Network Services Orchestrator reduces the risk of configuration errors and the time required for network configuration by as much as 75 percent. It will play a key role in expanding our networks.”

NTT Communications

3) Next Generation Network Development

Cloud and Baremetal deployment of applications

Cloud ready network infrastructure deployment

Enabling NFV, CNF and Containerized environments

“Equinix accelerated its cloud aspirations by using Cisco NSO for self-provisioning of its Cloud Exchange service."

Read Equinix case study

The journey of this network transformation and shift towards the cloud environment is not an overnight one, addressing overall requirement with multiple point solutions/products not aligned to an overall architecture is a recipe for disaster. Cisco NSO orchestration engine is cross domain and helps customers manage and run the network deployment from a point.

Here are some more customers with success stories

https://community.cisco.com/t5/nso-developer-hub-documents/nso-public-references/ta-p/3651999

NSO and Ansible together complement each other’s strengths

Aseem Srivastava — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 17:40:31 GMT

Customers are increasingly integrating Cisco NSO in their Ansible workflow management capabilities:

ØAnsible is good at stitching together pieces into a workflow

ØNSO is good at configuring and deploying network services

NSO-Ansible demo:

https://developer.cisco.com/codeexchange/github/repo/NSO-developer/nso-ansible-demo/

Ansible needs NSO for

❑ Service life-cycle management

❑ Configuration transactions that are stateful

❑ Device management with NSO NEDs(Network Element Drivers)https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/cloud-systems-management/network-services-orchestrator/datasheet-c78-734669.html

❑ Configuration Sync-from / Sync-to between devices

❑ Device Configuration Auto / Partial rollback in case of failure

❑ Commit-queues for faster response times

NSO Modules for Ansible

Ansible can now natively integrate with downstream NSO via the NSO Modules. This provides Ansible a single network interface to all devices via NSO abstraction and services.

This modules has the the following NSO APIs supported from Ansible playbooks :

1) perform query

2) show

3) action

4) config operations against NSO systems

So in summary: Ansible playbooks define procedural steps and uses NSO to define and validate the service and device configuration data.

Enterprise IT automation and orchestration journey with Cisco NSO

Aseem Srivastava — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 05:20:40 GMT

I was recently talking to a large Enterprise customer and they pointed out how complex their network had become over the last few years. They requested that before they hear about Cisco’s routing and switching product portfolio, a discussion on running the network operations and automation would be valuable. This is not surprising as, today, I find most organizations, service provider and enterprise alike, are looking at techniques to deploy in an automatic way network services and infrastructure as a primary requirement.

This customer is not alone, networks are growing rapidly and technologies like IOT, Micro-services, containerized and virtualizated environments will cause the size and complexity of modern networks to increase exponentially.

What’s driving the enterprise customers to automation?

As the customer networks have increasingly become complex, the need to manage the network changes and flexibility to create new services quickly is the key to running these networks.

Key reasons for the customers asking for automation include:

Need for faster and more scalable network and service deployments
Need to manage multi-vendor networks
Increased complexity of managing physical and virtual networks
High cost of network operations

Beyond keeping a handle on transport and connectivity, related concerns like security and network policy compliance are proving to be very demanding for network operators.

Successful automaton initiatives are structured as a series of smaller steps that build upon each other. This is where Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) comes in. NSO delivers automation and orchestration at the network layer and also at the network services tier.

Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) is an industry-leading software for automating services across traditional and virtualized networks. One of the things it is designed to do is manage the network device layer (a router, switch or an application) and at the service layer (eg managed VPN, managed Security service) being able to add, change, and delete service instance without disrupting overall service in an automated way. This improves efficiency in network operations (thus reducing opex) while also improving speed of service delivery and customer experience (thus driving revenue growth).

Cisco NSO Architecture

With Cisco NSO, you can automate the deployment of a more powerful and efficient network. NSO is architected in an easy to understand modular approach. Networks engineers can use NSO’s model driven programmatic interface that allows for control of network elements from device turn-up and configuration to more sophisticated service lifecycle management. The diagram below elaborates on the NSO architecture and how it helps customers overcome some of the challenges described above.

How does NSO automate multi-vendor network deployments?

Device Manager layer

Customers often relate to us the difficulties they face managing a multi-vendor network, with many operating systems and device versions running. NSO supports the process of validating, implementing and abstracting your network config and network operations, providing support for the end to end operation. NSO makes device configuration commands available over a network wide, Command Line Interface (CLI), APIs, web and user interfaces.

Support for multi-vendor networks is achieved through a rich variety of Network Element Drivers (NEDs). The multi-vendor device manager layer uses the network element drivers (NEDs) to mediate access to both Cisco and more than 100 other-party physical and virtual devices.

For more on NEDs and supported NEDs, refer to this link:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/cloud-systems-management/network-services-orchestrator/datasheet-c78-734669.html

NSO provides a centralized configuration database

The Configuration Database (CDB) contains the current synchronized configurations for all devices and services in the network domain. NSO keeps the CDB in sync with the real network device configurations to ensure configuration consistency.

The NSO configuration database and transaction engine is at the heart of the product and helps provides access to devices configurations and historical changes made to the configuration.

NSO can synchronize configuration from the devices for audits and compliance checks. This means that the database will always represent the true state of the network. The database can be imported, exported and queried using XML, XPath, and the CLI and Web interfaces. Programmatic interfaces to the database are also provided.

NSO function packages contain models and code for a specific function. It could be a NED for a specific device, a service model like MPLS VPN, a application Web UI package etc. Function packages can be added, removed and upgrade in run-time.

Service manager layer

The need for more agile service deployment and the ability to flow manage the service layer is achieved with this layer. For NSO to deploy services across network devices, service models are needed. These service models are managed by the Service manager layer. A service model in is defined in the configuration language YANG: the service model defines the black-box view of a service; the input parameters are required when activating the service. This YANG model also interfaces towards all NSO northbound entities,

NSO increases the TTM and lowers cost of service delivery

NSO is responsible for mapping the service model and the parameters into what is the resulting device configuration. NSO features to ensure shorter time-to-market and lower cost of ownership than any other service activation tools on the market. NSO can also perform service audits to detect if any device configuration has changed with respect to the desired service configuration. The diff can be displayed and analyzed, and the service can be re-deployed if needed.

NSO is typically used for provisioning network services like VPNs, ACLs, BGP Peers, etc. NSO can provision services and device configurations as one atomic transaction. NSO also supports service updates and NSO automatically cleans up the network when services are deleted.

Cisco NSO provides a single pane of glass view for the full network infrastructure. Below is an example of the network wide CLI view and a UI based view provided by NSO.

The example in the screen shot above shows how NSO can be used to provision bulk Network Changes – for example pushing a specific ACL on all network elements belonging to a group. This can be achieved by using a UI based interface or using the NSO CLI interface which provides options for both Cisco and Juniper style CLI.

Gains customers are realizing with Cisco NSO

Customers are seeing phenomenal gains with NSO driven full automation. NSO is robust and proven in SP, Enterprise deployments with Industry’s broadest multivendor support. Below are some efficiency numbers driven by NSO deployment with a tier 1 operator. The efficiency gains realized had the aspects of new device onboarding and configuration management improvements. There are noticeable improvements in network service activation and change times. Below are the improvements seen by a tier 1 customer for service onboarding efficiency:

Device on boarding efficiency improvements: ~70%

Improvements in configuration change request times: ~75%

Improvements in Method of Procedure(MOP): ~79%

We are seeing an exponential adoption of Cisco NSO among our Enterprise, Service Provider and Public Sector customer base. The momentum for Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) continues to grow.

NSO 5.0 has been out in the market and customers are providing positive reviews on its functionality. To download your free copy of NSO 5.X with trial NEDs for non-production use, head over to developer.cisco.com/nso

Finally, NSO has an active community of developers and users on DevNet. You can review sample deployment examples and get any questions answered on the NSO community page.

DevNet Sanbox NxOS Devices are not working

colonsims — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 21:02:09 GMT

I received my credentials and logged into to vpn. I was able to telnet into all of the devices except the NxOS devices. I even looked at the vrf routing table and those devices IPs are NOT present.

dist-rtr02#sh ip route vrf Mgmt-intf

Routing Table: Mgmt-intf
Codes: L - local, C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, M - mobile, B - BGP
D - EIGRP, EX - EIGRP external, O - OSPF, IA - OSPF inter area
N1 - OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 - OSPF NSSA external type 2
E1 - OSPF external type 1, E2 - OSPF external type 2, m - OMP
n - NAT, Ni - NAT inside, No - NAT outside, Nd - NAT DIA
i - IS-IS, su - IS-IS summary, L1 - IS-IS level-1, L2 - IS-IS level-2
ia - IS-IS inter area, * - candidate default, U - per-user static route
H - NHRP, G - NHRP registered, g - NHRP registration summary
o - ODR, P - periodic downloaded static route, l - LISP
a - application route
+ - replicated route, % - next hop override, p - overrides from PfR

Gateway of last resort is 10.10.20.254 to network 0.0.0.0

S* 0.0.0.0/0 [1/0] via 10.10.20.254
10.0.0.0/8 is variably subnetted, 2 subnets, 2 masks
C 10.10.20.0/24 is directly connected, GigabitEthernet1
L 10.10.20.176/32 is directly connected, GigabitEthernet1

Anyone knows what's going on?

Modeling Labs are not available as of Aug 10, 2020

kstatinet — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 22:51:29 GMT

If it's a maintenance, it would be nice to see a message on DevNet about planned maintenance. Cisco's phone support in Asia can't answer DevNet questions at all. Frustrating.

Getting "403 Client Error: Failed to license simulation. for url: http://10.10.20.160:19399/simengine/rest/launch" Error

jifanizz — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 22:14:37 GMT

Using the Muti-IOS sandbox and tried tearing down the lab a few times and reserving a new lab...always get this error. I have no simulations running as it was suggested that I ran out of license as there are active simulations. I did check the VIRL server.

Please see below:

[developer@devbox 2-ios-router]$virl up
Creating default environment from topology.virl
Localizing {{ gateway }} with: 172.16.30.254
Localizing {{ dns_server }} with: 4.2.2.3
Localizing rsa modulus 768 with: rsa modulus 1024
Exception raised while running your command
Please open an issue and provide this info:
403 Client Error: Failed to license simulation. for url: http://10.10.20.160:19399/simengine/rest/launch?session=2-ios-router_default_6KDSSD

Sandbox Maintenance Thursday 13th August 2020 - Monday 17th August 2020

jokearns1 — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 11:01:03 GMT

Hi All Sandbox users,

We will performing essential maintenance on our platform from Thursday 13th August 06:00 PST to Monday 17th August 10:00 PST. During that time, the following AO labs will not be accessible:

https://sandboxapicdc.cisco.com. (ACI Simulator AlwaysOn - V4)
https://wlc9800.cisco.com/webui/. (Catalyst 9800 Wireless LAN Controller)
https://sandboxdnac.cisco.com. (Cisco DNA Center AO 1.3.1.6)
https://sandboxsdwan.cisco.com:8443. (Cisco SD-WAN Always On)
https://ios-xe-mgmt-latest.cisco.com (IOS XE on CSR Latest Code AlwaysOn)
https://ios-xe-mgmt.cisco.com (IOS XE on CSR Recommended Code AlwaysOn)
https://sbx-iosxr-mgmt.cisco.com (IOS XR Programmabilty - Always On)
https://n149.meraki.com/DevNet-Always-On/n/ZV4Dxbvc/manage/usage/list. (Meraki Always on)
https://sbx-nxos-mgmt.cisco.com (Open NX-OS Programmability)

We apologies for any inconvenience.

Sandbox Support

#CiscoChat Live: Become a Programming Legend with DevNet

Kelli Glass — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 22:35:11 GMT

Join us live on Thursday, August 6 at 10 am PT (and on demand after) for a deep-dive look into Cisco DevNet certifications.

It's a thrilling time for DevNet. Between the new certifications and the growing community, join us to learn how to make history with the Cisco DevNet Class of 2020!

#CiscoChat Live: Become a Programming Legend with DevNet

Kelli Glass — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 22:33:11 GMT

Join us live on Thursday, August 6 at 10 am PT (and on demand after) for a deep-dive look into Cisco DevNet certifications.

It's a thrilling time for DevNet. Between the new certifications and the growing community, join us to learn how to make history with the Cisco DevNet Class of 2020!

We'll take your questions during the event and after, so post them below in the comments.

CISCO CSP 2100 APIs and Postman

jegarnie — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 09:01:12 GMT

Hi,

In order to ease the use of the CSP 2100 APIs, I've created a new repo which is containing the Postman collection.

Have a look at it: https://github.com/jgarnier/csp_2100_postman, there is details on importing the collection, creating the environment file which will reflect your CSP env, and then playing with APIs.

There is not yet all the CSP APIs in the collection but contributions are always more than welcome.

Have fun and do not hesitate to clone the repo and raise any issues if any.

Thanks,

Jérémie

Deploying NSO in Brownfield Networks

KJ Rossavik — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 14:55:28 GMT

It is very rare to be building a brand-new network from scratch. A much more common scenario is to introduce automation into a pre-existing network, which is already delivering services to customers. With NSO having been deployed in more than 200 customer networks, this scenario has been encountered numerous times, and in this document, we will discuss the challenges this imposes, and some approaches that have been used.

Managing new service instances - “Ships that pass in the night”

The simplest approach is to use NSO only to deploy and manage new service instances. Other pre-existing service instances are managed through other means, either using CLI towards the devices or using another management system. This could be the end state, or it could be a steppingstone towards more complete NSO management of the network and services.

When using NSO to partially manage networks and devices, the two main issues you will encounter are

Synchronization of NSO CDB with the network device configurations, and
Management and allocation of resources.

Configuration Synchronization

When you connect NSO to a network device for the first time, you need to perform a sync-from operation. This will cause NSO to retrieve the running configuration from the device, use the NED in order to parse the configuration into the device YANG model, and store the data in the NSO CDB. NSO will then assume that the configuration in CDB is in sync with the device configuration. The configuration held in CDB is used in order to calculate the configuration changes required for any given operation such as service provisioning or modification/cease.

Whenever NSO initiates a transaction towards a device, the first step in the default transaction process is to check that the CDB representation is in sync with the device configuration. It is the NED’s responsibility to implement the check-sync operation in a way that is suitable for the managed device type, e.g. transaction-id, timestamp, etc. If NSO detects that the device configuration is out of sync with the CDB representation, then the transaction will fail and roll back any changes made so far to other devices included in the same transaction.

In this brownfield scenario, where NSO is only managing new service instances, the assumption is that other service instances are managed through other means, either using CLI towards the devices or using another management system. This means that the CDB configuration is likely to be out of sync with the device configuration at any point in time.

There are a few different cases

The configuration made outside of NSO does not overlap with any configuration that NSO is making, and hence they will not conflict or overwrite each other
The configurations are overlapping

In the first case, since the configurations do not overlap, then you can execute the device transactions in such a way that the check-sync operation is not done, assuming that the system will always be out of sync. Additionally, the “no-overwrite” option can be used in order to detect any out-of-band changes to any of the configuration that is going to be changed in the transaction. Any such conflicts can then be dealt with in a fallout process, where someone can figure out which configuration is the correct one, and accordingly either update the service instance or redeploy the service in order to re-establish the service intent from NSO.

The second case can be dealt with in similar manner, except here everything will be fallout, so this is a much more expensive scenario operationally.

The NSO Developer Days video below explains this in more detail.

See also:

Synchronizing Devices, NSO User Guide, Chapter 3, pp45 in v5.2.2
NSO Developer Days 2018: NSO in brownfield deployments, Tomas Mellgren, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExdryBzvRRo

Allocation and Management of Resources

Most NSO service applications/function packs automatically allocate some types of resources. Resources have different scope – some need to be unique per port, per card, per device or (sub-)network wide. And IP addresses of course generally need to be unique globally.

Allocation of resource in a brownfield network first needs to ensure that it has excluded any resources that are already in use. If the service provider uses an external allocation system, then you need to integrate the NSO service application with this system. The NSO Resource Manager (RM) CFP is designed to be able to integrate with external systems, but it can also be used standalone. If NSO RM CFP allocates resources internally, then you need to mark such resources as used. It now depends on where the service provider maintains such resources, whether they are kept in a manual system such as a spreadsheet. The last resort is to search CDB and use that data to populate the RM CFP with used resources.

Additionally, if the SP is going to create some services with NSO and possibly continue creating other services through other means (e.g. via CLI or other management system), then they need to ensure that they do not allocate overlapping resources. This means that they either need to use the same external allocation system, and/or define non-overlapping resource pools.

See also:

NSO Resource Manager CFP User Guide

Managing Pre-Existing Service Instances

You may also want to manage your pre-existing service instances with NSO. This could involve

For the function pack/service application that you have introduced in “ships that pass in the night” mode, you may want to take over management of pre-existing service instances of the same service type
Managing instances of other service types

How uniform are the pre-existing services?

Imagine that you have deployed a function pack for service type A (e.g. L3VPN), and you have started creating instances of this service type. There are previous instances of service type A on the network, which have been either created manually, or using some other provisioning tool. How uniform are these?

Would it have been possible to create those instances with your function pack?
If not, how many variations are there? In the worst case, every service instance has been custom built for the individual end customer

Most likely there will be service instances that could not have been created with the existing function pack. Options include:

Modify your function pack to cater for the additional options. If the function pack has been created by the service provider, or for the SP by Cisco CX or other SI, then that can be possible. If this is a productised Core Function Pack, then of course it cannot be modified by (or for) the customer.
Re-provision the service instances with the existing function pack, and hence cleaning up legacy to streamline the service portfolio. This may have contractual implications and it may require re-negotiation with the end customers.
Continue to manage certain service instances manually. Even if they could be automated, it is not given that they should. It may not be cost-effective to automate legacy one-off service instances – particularly if there is no or little need to change them going forward. Consider the cost of implementing automation versus the cost savings the automation is going to bring.

What are the pre-existing service instances?

To identify the pre-existing service instances, you need first to know how they were created in the first place. The service provider will probably have record of the service instances

In the provisioning/inventory system that was used to create them originally
In some other service inventory
In a spreadsheet/document
Spread across multiple of these

There is also the chance that the records are inaccurate relative to the configurations that exist in the network devices.

You can also try to discover the services from the network devices, but to state the obvious: You can only discover from the network devices data that exists in the device configuration. Data such as service name and ID and customer name etc. may be stored in description fields, or may be implicitly encoded in VRF name, VLAN ID, etc., or may not be stored in the devices at all.

The network will probably also have orphaned service configurations, or parts thereof. These are service instances that should no longer be in use (but may or may not be), or remnants of ceased service instances.

Migrating pre-existing service instances under NSO management

Hence, migrating pre-existing services into NSO automation is a forensic exercise, where you need to find sufficient data to create each instance, and then provision them e.g. using dry-run in order to see if the configuration generated matches what is on the network.

If the service application/function pack automatically allocates resources, then you need either to

Accept that it will probably allocate different resources from those in the pre-existing service instance, or
Create your function pack in such a way that such resources can be given as explicit attributes for the service creation

For NSO to take ownership of the configuration associated with a pre-existing service instance, it needs to be tricked into believing that it created the configuration. All configuration that is owned by an NSO service instance is tagged with a reference count which reflects how many NSO services depends on this configuration. This ensures e.g. that NSO does not delete the configuration before it is certain that the configuration is no longer in use.

If you don’t update the reference counts then NSO will not own the pre-existing configuration, and if you delete the service in NSO then NSO will put the service back to the state it was before NSO modified it, I.e. back to the pre-existing service.

The NSO Development Guide reference below explains how to deal with the reference counters and has a wider discussion about service discovery.

See also:

Service Discovery, NSO Development Guide, Chapter 10, pp258 in v5.2.2

On-going Discovery and Reconciliation

So far, the assumption has been that you discover any service only once. This is typically done by CX during the deployment of NSO into the service provider network. Once a service instance is under management by NSO then all subsequent changes are done there. From then on, any further service instances of that type are provisioned using NSO. This is the recommended operating mode, and the cheapest.

However, some service providers have organisational and operational constraints that mean that this is not always possible. They necessitate out-of-band changes to service instances under NSO management and even new service instances to be created outside of NSO. This may require the process described above to be applied repeatedly, in order to discover new service instances.

If changes have been made to service instances under NSO management, e.g. changes to an attribute value, then these can easily be identified by a check-sync operation, and then the NSO service instance can be modified accordingly (or otherwise the NSO service intent can be redeployed, overwriting the network configuration)

See also:

Service Impacting out-of-band changes, NSO User Guide, Chapter 5, pp113 in v5.2.2

Reactive Fastmap, Stacked Services and Layered Services Architecture (LSA)

Architectures such as those based on Reactive Fastmap (RFM) or Nano-services add additional complexity. Now the normal dry-run does not work out of the box, since it will show only the configuration after the first iteration of RFM. There are ways of getting around this, however.

It is now common in NSO function packs/service applications to have multiple models on top of each other. While we previously talked about a service models mapping to device models, there are now layers of Stacked Services, possibly in a Layered Services Architecture. Since the purpose of such model stacking is to abstract and hide details towards the bottom of the stack, this makes it harder to provide explicit resource allocation, as these parameters need to be propagated up the model stack to the top model.

See also:

Reactive Fastmap, NSO Development Guide, Chapter 10, pp205 in v5.2.2
Nano services, NSO Development Guide, Chapter 18, pp335 in v5.2.2
Stacked Services and Shared Structures, NSO Development Guide, Chapter 10, pp256 in v5.2.2
NSO Layered Services Architecture User Guide

Automated Service Discovery and Reconciliation

As we have discussed so far, there are a lot of considerations to be made regarding placing pre-existing services under NSO management. The question now is whether it can be automated, but also whether it should be?

As usual, the answer is “it depends”. If you have 10,000 instances of service A, 1,000 of service B, 100 of service C and 10 of service D, then it’s probably cost-effective to automate discovery of service A, but probably not for service D. This is, of course, if service type A is sufficiently uniformly applied, and that you are not dealing with a hundred variations of service A...

Do consider, however, that service discovery is usually a once-only operation, and it could be easier to outsource to an organisation that does this repeatedly, e.g. Cisco CX.

A framework such as the one described by Dan Sullivan in the video below can greatly reduce the cost of automated service reconciliation, but depending on your services, this can still be costly.

See also:

NSO Developer Days 2018: Reconciling out-of-band changes, Dan Sullivan, https://youtu.be/yYzk8aXMCbY
NSO Developer Days 2019: Brownfield Service Reconcile Operations, Dan Sullivan, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KudcsCAE-Sw
NSO Developer Days 2020: Learning to Live with Imperfection, a Service Reconciliation Journey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNwYQGed9TE&list=PLhTPrPcGzO7GZyx5DGpP6sCEiBYPYK24

Cisco ISE API - ERS Active Directory Get-By-Name function

paul.cummings.uk — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 14:17:54 GMT

Hi,

I'm testing some python code to pull user information / account statuses from ISE which is using Active Directory as an External Source. I've successfully used some of the other ISE ERS AD functions to get Admin users, Get Join Point and Get join point details. However I now wish to view detail on a specific user and to do this I'm trying to use the "Get-by-name" api function, passing the ad username to it. Unfortunately I am getting Error 404 not found back all the time (tried multiple user accounts).

FYI I'm using GET with the URL https://1.1.1.1:9060/ers/config/activedirectory/name/fred.bloggs (as an example) with the same Basic Auth which has previously worked with other functions.

On the ISE I'm able to find AD users no problem using the "Attributes" tab in External Identity sources, and all tests pass using the ISE AD Diagnostics tool.

Has anyone got any suggestions please?

Many Thanks

Paul

HyperFlex 4.0 API Introduction Video

jvdmade — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 19:33:27 GMT

In this introduction instruction video, HyperFlex 4.0 API Explorer will be explained and how you can use the HX API Explorer to automate an application.

Where to start with getting an Access Token and how to get datastores showed via API calls.

CURL is a command line tool to easily do API requests. There are some tricks to have CURL easily running on your MAC or Windows machine.

HyperFlex automation python scripts will be showed and explained how to give a demo with it on your own HyperFlex cluster.

You can see the video to download it via the link below:

Sample CSE moderation video

HimanshuVarma06 — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 07:02:02 GMT

The first-ever virtual NSO Developer Days is over!

Nicklas Wagerth — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 15:19:41 GMT

Developer Days 2020 is over. With 1,998 registered attendees it was a huge success! We now have more than 20 hours of on-demand content from our fantastic speakers on YouTube. Soon, you will be able to find this material along with previous Developer Days content on our DevNet site!

We hope you liked the experience we provided this year when we were not able to meet in-person. I like to tell you a little bit about what happened behind the scene before the event. During a couple of months, we basically converted a registration tool into a fully-fledged event platform. I am not going into the details but numerous workarounds had to be put in place by one single person. Our superhero is Emily Raynes from the Cisco event team (GSMM)!

To accommodate the level of engagement she also helped us setting up the Cisco Event App mastering the sync between the web, setting up games, push notifications, polls, and more. Speaking about the game! Yes, the winners are announced in this mail. Just keep on reading!

Apart from all the technical challenges our small team had to work with changing the attendee behaviors, to get the engagement going, which we think is so important for this community. Not only did we trust people to register and log on to the web and find the live stream, but we also trusted people to use the app to engage, find the WebEx links and successfully log on to the app! Yes, I know we had a broken link and some people reported that they did not have the prepopulated password. Overall, I think it went very well. You made it and the very positive feedback that we have received indicates that!

So, the people I especially want to express my gratitude to, are all members of the core-team; Connie Bordanaro, Emily Raynes, and Jan Lindblad! It is amazing what you can do with a team 4! Of course, we have had many people helping us with everything from speaking, moderating, hosting live tracks, recording, posting on YouTube, and much, much more. Everyone counts so a BIG thank you to everyone who contributed and to all of you in the community who attended. Without you, we would be nothing! I also want to thank or ecosystem partners and sponsors for the event!

Finally, to the winners of the game. It was a very tight competition, indeed! Congratulation to the winners!

(I apologize if I said anything else before and Thanks Uwe for correcting me.)

Well-deserved and thank you all for engaging!

Reconciliation IV: Rise of the Robots - The Trailer

sbarvick — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 13:43:10 GMT

In the NSO universe there a number of heroes and just a few villains. The clear uber-hero is FastMap, the one algorithm to diff them all. Other demi-heroes include Yang, Nanoservices, and Netsim. Most villains are vanquished quickly, just a release note in the next release, but one troublemaker comes back again and again, and it goes by the name of Out-of-Sync.

Out-of-Sync has always been with us, but it really found its power half way through the last decade as NSO became deeply embedded in production networks and engineers who ‘had to get the job done’ sparred with the OSS as the source of truth. Reconciliation was born in the midst of these trying times, but it was young and didn’t know its power. Some said it couldn’t beat Out-of-Sync, or it needed too much help from Code, which was unreliable and needed too much testing. Out-of-Sync may have won that round, but Reconciliation had promise and through sheer will and necessity, Reconciliation survived and would be back - better, stronger, and faster.

In the 2018 and 2019 sequels, Reconciliation found Reverse Mapping and together battled Out-of-Sync with less dependence on Code and found a natural ability to integrate into NSO services. There was great rejoicing as Reconciliation and Reverse Mapping spread around the world, pushing Out-of-Sync into the edges of the networks where NSO had not penetrated. But Out-of-Sync was not defeated. It waited patiently to open a second battle front and this time its target would be the OSS and the configuration sent to NSO.

We are now at the fourth installment in the trilogy: Rise of the Robots. In this installment Reconciliation and Reverse Mapping, in an alliance formed with a team of automatons known as GitLab, Jenkins, Compliance and the Robot Framework - pledge to combat Out-of-Sync wherever it arises. With powers forged from Python, they continuously deploy Robots to validate their Compliance scanners and battle with Out-of-Sync as it tries to gain a foothold in the far reaches of the network.

Tune in on June 23 for a Live Track Session at NSO Developer Days to hear how Reconciliation and this diverse team of robots join forces to fight Out-of-Sync and the uncertainty that it brings.

Scott Barvick

CTO, North America

Data Ductus

#NSODevDays

Simulator wont load or connect

PierreForrester3166 — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 14:19:59 GMT

Hi,

This is the first time this week I have attempted to use the DevNet Sandbox, and for some reason within my lab none of the nodes will seem to load at the cml level. I do have a internet connection and my VPN is connected. I also tried using another laptop and still experiencing the same issues

Sandbox, DevNet News

Thanks

Pierre

guestshell run of Linux-commands with piplelines

HUBERT RESCH — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 09:23:55 GMT

Hi,

how to execute linux-commands (which are executeable directly in the guestshell) from IOS-XE

sample :

[guestshell@guestshell ~]$ cat test.txt | grep Smart

Smart Licensing Status: Smart Licensing is DISABLED

[guestshell@guestshell ~]$ exit

from IOS-XE it does not work:

guestshell run cat test.txt | grep Smart

Cisco IOS XE Software, Version 16.09.05

Cisco IOS Software [Fuji], ASR1000 Software (X86_64_LINUX_IOSD-UNIVERSALK9-M), Version 16.9.5, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport

Compiled Thu 30-Jan-20 18:53 by mcpre

licensed under the GNU General Public License ("GPL") Version 2.0. The

software code licensed under GPL Version 2.0 is free software that comes

with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. You can redistribute and/or modify such

GPL code under the terms of GPL Version 2.0. For more details, see the

documentation or "License Notice" file accompanying the IOS-XE software,

or the applicable URL provided on the flyer accompanying the IOS-XE

software.

ROM: IOS-XE ROMMON

BOS-LINZ-DL10 uptime is 10 weeks, 5 days, 14 hours, 50 minutes

Uptime for this control processor is 10 weeks, 5 days, 14 hours, 51 minutes

System returned to ROM by Reload Command at 19:33:22 MES Thu Apr 2 2020

System restarted at 19:36:24 MES Thu Apr 2 2020

System image file is "bootflash:asr1000-universalk9.16.09.05.SPA.bin"

Last reload reason: Reload Command

This product contains cryptographic features and is subject to United

States and local country laws governing import, export, transfer and

use. Delivery of Cisco cryptographic products does not imply

third-party authority to import, export, distribute or use encryption.

Importers, exporters, distributors and users are responsible for

compliance with U.S. and local country laws. By using this product you

agree to comply with applicable laws and regulations. If you are unable

to comply with U.S. and local laws, return this product immediately.

A summary of U.S. laws governing Cisco cryptographic products may be found at:

http://www.cisco.com/wwl/export/crypto/tool/stqrg.html

If you require further assistance please contact us by sending email to

export@cisco.com.

License Type: RightToUse

License Level: adventerprise

Next reload license Level: adventerprise

The current crypto throughput level is 40000000 kbps

Smart Licensing Status: Smart Licensing is DISABLED

cisco ASR1002-HX (2KH) processor (revision 2KH) with 9997044K/6147K bytes of memory.

Processor board ID FXS2307Q3UB

Crypto Hardware Module present

26 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces

8 Ten Gigabit Ethernet interfaces

32768K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory.

33554432K bytes of physical memory.

29401087K bytes of eUSB flash at bootflash:.

30842832K bytes of USB flash at usb0:.

30842832K bytes of USB flash at usb1:.

0K bytes of WebUI ODM Files at webui:.

20971520K bytes of SATA hard disk at harddisk:.

Configuration register is 0x2102

cat: |: No such file or directory

cat: grep: No such file or directory

cat: Smart: No such file or directory

any idea to help a beginner :-)

thanks in Advance

Hubert

Invalid value for confidentialAccessMode in updateLine when replying data received from getLine

stephan.steiner — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 19:33:53 GMT

I think I found another one. For brevity, I'm stripping the soap headers.

First, I'm creating a new line using addLine

<line>
	<callForwardAll>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>true</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName>UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211546_2</callingSearchSpaceName>
	</callForwardAll>
	<callForwardBusy>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>true</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName>UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211546_2</callingSearchSpaceName>
		<destination>1234</destination>
	</callForwardBusy>
	<callForwardBusyInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardBusyInt>
	<callForwardNoAnswer>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNoAnswer>
	<callForwardNoAnswerInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNoAnswerInt>
	<callForwardNoCoverage>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNoCoverage>
	<callForwardNoCoverageInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNoCoverageInt>
	<CallForwardOnFailure>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</CallForwardOnFailure>
	<callForwardAlternateParty/>
	<callForwardNotRegistered>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNotRegistered>
	<callForwardNotRegisteredInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNotRegisteredInt>
	<pattern>8818</pattern>
	<usage>Device</usage>
	<routePartitionName>UnitTest-Partition-0-08062020_211544</routePartitionName>
	<aarKeepCallHistory>false</aarKeepCallHistory>
	<aarVoiceMailEnabled>true</aarVoiceMailEnabled>
	<autoAnswer>Auto Answer Off</autoAnswer>
	<networkHoldMohAudioSourceId>-1</networkHoldMohAudioSourceId>
	<userHoldMohAudioSourceId>1</userHoldMohAudioSourceId>
	<alertingName>Hänsli Meyer</alertingName>
	<asciiAlertingName>Haensli Meyer</asciiAlertingName>
	<presenceGroupName>Standard Presence group</presenceGroupName>
	<shareLineAppearanceCssName>UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211546_2</shareLineAppearanceCssName>
	<voiceMailProfileName>Default</voiceMailProfileName>
	<patternPrecedence>Default</patternPrecedence>
	<releaseClause>No Error</releaseClause>
	<hrDuration>5</hrDuration>
	<hrInterval>10</hrInterval>
	<cfaCssPolicy>With Configured CSS</cfaCssPolicy>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveDn>2010</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveDn>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveVmEnabled>false</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveVmEnabled>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveIntVmEnabled>false</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveIntVmEnabled>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveCssName>UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211546_0</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveCssName>
	<parkMonReversionTimer>10</parkMonReversionTimer>
	<partyEntranceTone>On</partyEntranceTone>
	<allowCtiControlFlag>false</allowCtiControlFlag>
	<rejectAnonymousCall>true</rejectAnonymousCall>
	<associatedDevices/>
	<useEnterpriseAltNum>false</useEnterpriseAltNum>
	<useE164AltNum>false</useE164AltNum>
	<description>This is descriptschion</description>
</line>

When I extract that line again, it has the confidentialAccess tag filled out with confidentialAccessMode being an empty tag, and confidentialAccessLevel being -1

<line uuid="{30EEDC27-D095-9716-5B6B-BD525FBEB83F}">
	<pattern>8818</pattern>
	<description>This is descriptschion</description>
	<usage>Device</usage>
	<routePartitionName uuid="{065C7359-A74D-93C0-FEA8-7AD3FCAED1E7}">UnitTest-Partition-0-08062020_211544</routePartitionName>
	<aarNeighborhoodName/>
	<aarDestinationMask />
	<aarKeepCallHistory>false</aarKeepCallHistory>
	<aarVoiceMailEnabled>true</aarVoiceMailEnabled>
	<callForwardAll>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>true</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName uuid="{210FEAED-7939-627F-B4ED-999D9518E09C}">UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211546_2</callingSearchSpaceName>
		<secondaryCallingSearchSpaceName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
		<destination />
	</callForwardAll>
	<callForwardBusy>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>true</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName uuid="{210FEAED-7939-627F-B4ED-999D9518E09C}">UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211546_2</callingSearchSpaceName>
		<destination>1234</destination>
	</callForwardBusy>
	<callForwardBusyInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
		<destination />
	</callForwardBusyInt>
	<callForwardNoAnswer>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
		<destination />
		<duration />
	</callForwardNoAnswer>
	<callForwardNoAnswerInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
		<destination />
		<duration />
	</callForwardNoAnswerInt>
	<callForwardNoCoverage>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
		<destination />
	</callForwardNoCoverage>
	<callForwardNoCoverageInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
		<destination />
	</callForwardNoCoverageInt>
	<callForwardOnFailure>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
		<destination />
	</callForwardOnFailure>
	<callForwardAlternateParty>
		<callingSearchSpaceName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
		<destination />
		<duration />
	</callForwardAlternateParty>
	<callForwardNotRegistered>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
		<destination />
	</callForwardNotRegistered>
	<callForwardNotRegisteredInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
		<destination />
	</callForwardNotRegisteredInt>
	<callPickupGroupName xsi:nil="true" uuid="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
	<autoAnswer>Auto Answer Off</autoAnswer>
	<networkHoldMohAudioSourceId>-1</networkHoldMohAudioSourceId>
	<userHoldMohAudioSourceId>1</userHoldMohAudioSourceId>
	<alertingName>Hänsli Meyer</alertingName>
	<asciiAlertingName>Haensli Meyer</asciiAlertingName>
	<presenceGroupName uuid="{AD243D17-98B4-4118-8FEB-5FF2E1B781AC}">Standard Presence group</presenceGroupName>
	<shareLineAppearanceCssName uuid="{210FEAED-7939-627F-B4ED-999D9518E09C}">UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211546_2</shareLineAppearanceCssName>
	<voiceMailProfileName uuid="{16C584EA-6A81-4138-9EA1-AF452DE8F75A}">Default</voiceMailProfileName>
	<patternPrecedence>Default</patternPrecedence>
	<releaseClause>No Error</releaseClause>
	<hrDuration>5</hrDuration>
	<hrInterval>10</hrInterval>
	<cfaCssPolicy>With Configured CSS</cfaCssPolicy>
	<defaultActivatedDeviceName/>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveDn>2010</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveDn>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveIntDn />
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveVmEnabled>false</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveVmEnabled>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveIntVmEnabled>false</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveIntVmEnabled>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveCssName uuid="{2E1C3758-939A-0F3C-1986-7824A706B1FC}">UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211546_0</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveCssName>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveIntCssName/>
	<parkMonReversionTimer>10</parkMonReversionTimer>
	<partyEntranceTone>On</partyEntranceTone>
	<directoryURIs/>
	<allowCtiControlFlag>false</allowCtiControlFlag>
	<rejectAnonymousCall>true</rejectAnonymousCall>
	<patternUrgency>false</patternUrgency>
	<confidentialAccess>
		<confidentialAccessMode />
		<confidentialAccessLevel>-1</confidentialAccessLevel>
	</confidentialAccess>
	<externalCallControlProfile/>
	<enterpriseAltNum>
		<numMask />
		<isUrgent>f</isUrgent>
		<addLocalRoutePartition>f</addLocalRoutePartition>
		<routePartition/>
		<advertiseGloballyIls>f</advertiseGloballyIls>
	</enterpriseAltNum>
	<e164AltNum>
		<numMask />
		<isUrgent>f</isUrgent>
		<addLocalRoutePartition>f</addLocalRoutePartition>
		<routePartition/>
		<advertiseGloballyIls>f</advertiseGloballyIls>
	</e164AltNum>
	<pstnFailover />
	<callControlAgentProfile />
	<associatedDevices/>
	<useEnterpriseAltNum>false</useEnterpriseAltNum>
	<useE164AltNum>false</useE164AltNum>
	<active>true</active>
</line>

Then I try to modify some properties, leaving confidentialAccess as it. My code is written in a way to discard empty properties, so confidentialAccessMode is stripped, while confidentialAccessLevel remains (at -1)

So this is the update that trips it up

<line>
	<callForwardAll>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>true</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName uuid="{EC7F0B4B-931D-1403-AF66-0DD33E03846E}">UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211950_2</callingSearchSpaceName>
	</callForwardAll>
	<callForwardBusy>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>true</forwardToVoiceMail>
		<callingSearchSpaceName uuid="{EC7F0B4B-931D-1403-AF66-0DD33E03846E}">UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211950_2</callingSearchSpaceName>
		<destination>1234</destination>
	</callForwardBusy>
	<callForwardBusyInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardBusyInt>
	<callForwardNoAnswer>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNoAnswer>
	<callForwardNoAnswerInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNoAnswerInt>
	<callForwardNoCoverage>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNoCoverage>
	<callForwardNoCoverageInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNoCoverageInt>
	<callForwardOnFailure>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardOnFailure>
	<callForwardAlternateParty/>
	<callForwardNotRegistered>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNotRegistered>
	<callForwardNotRegisteredInt>
		<forwardToVoiceMail>false</forwardToVoiceMail>
	</callForwardNotRegisteredInt>
	<pattern>8818</pattern>
	<usage>Device</usage>
	<routePartitionName uuid="{2C079190-CAC0-264D-B17C-D8AAA367A33A}">UnitTest-Partition-0-08062020_211948</routePartitionName>
	<aarKeepCallHistory>false</aarKeepCallHistory>
	<aarVoiceMailEnabled>true</aarVoiceMailEnabled>
	<autoAnswer>Auto Answer Off</autoAnswer>
	<networkHoldMohAudioSourceId>-1</networkHoldMohAudioSourceId>
	<userHoldMohAudioSourceId>1</userHoldMohAudioSourceId>
	<alertingName>Hänsli Mülier</alertingName>
	<asciiAlertingName>Haensli Blubberli</asciiAlertingName>
	<presenceGroupName>Standard Presence group</presenceGroupName>
	<shareLineAppearanceCssName>UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211950_1</shareLineAppearanceCssName>
	<voiceMailProfileName/>
	<patternPrecedence>Default</patternPrecedence>
	<releaseClause>No Error</releaseClause>
	<hrDuration>1</hrDuration>
	<hrInterval>1</hrInterval>
	<cfaCssPolicy>With Activating Device/Line CSS</cfaCssPolicy>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveDn/>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveIntDn/>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveVmEnabled>false</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveVmEnabled>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveIntVmEnabled>false</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveIntVmEnabled>
	<parkMonForwardNoRetrieveCssName>UnitTest-CallingSearchSpace-08062020_211950_2</parkMonForwardNoRetrieveCssName>
	<parkMonReversionTimer>20</parkMonReversionTimer>
	<partyEntranceTone>Off</partyEntranceTone>
	<allowCtiControlFlag>false</allowCtiControlFlag>
	<rejectAnonymousCall>true</rejectAnonymousCall>
	<patternUrgency>false</patternUrgency>
	<confidentialAccess>
		<confidentialAccessLevel>-1</confidentialAccessLevel>
	</confidentialAccess>
	<associatedDevices/>
	<useEnterpriseAltNum>false</useEnterpriseAltNum>
	<useE164AltNum>false</useE164AltNum>
	<active>true</active>
	<description>gugus gaga</description>
	<uuid>{994D01C0-58CD-FD2A-82A7-78740EA18ED8}</uuid>
</line>

The full response is

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
	<soapenv:Body>
		<soapenv:Fault>
			<faultcode>soapenv:Server</faultcode>
			<faultstring>Invalid value for confidentialAccessMode</faultstring>
			<detail>
				<axlError>
					<axlcode>5003</axlcode>
					<axlmessage>Invalid value for confidentialAccessMode</axlmessage>
					<request>updateLine</request>
				</axlError>
			</detail>
		</soapenv:Fault>
	</soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

Now, assuming axlapi:XInteger is a positive integer, I understand the error... but, then the value returned in the get is incorrect. If it is optional, and no value was set, it should return an empty value again.

This is on a CUCM 11.5.1.15073-1.

RDP 10.10.20.20 Lab vagrant_101 unreachable

llizaraz — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 13:00:33 GMT

The lab Vagrant 101 does has connectivity with PC (10.10.20.20) over VPN.

There is no connectivity to the indicated VM.

PING / RDP / SSH tests were performed, however.

Nexus 9000v using NETCONF issue ncclient in python

Juan Gerardo Hernandez — Fri, 29 May 2020 05:25:53 GMT

Hi Everybody!

I am trying to get the configuration from a nexus 9000v virtualized in my home lab, I am always getting this error.

Exception has occurred: RPCError
Namespace="http://openconfig.net/yang/interfaces"
  File "C:\4_4 Modernizing_Network_infra_NETCONF\get_config.py", line 58, in main
    resp = conn.get_config(source="running", filter=("subtree", nc_filter))
  File "C:\4_4 Modernizing_Network_infra_NETCONF\get_config.py", line 92, in <module>
    main()

This is the complete code, it is one of the lab exercises in Pluralsight site and it is public.

#!/usr/bin/env python

"""
Author: Nick Russo
Purpose: Using NETCONF with Openconfig YANG models to collect switchport
configs on a Cisco NX-OS switch via the always-on Cisco DevNet sandbox.
"""


import xmltodict
from ncclient import manager


def main():
    """
    Execution begins here.
    """

    # Dictionary containing keyword arguments (kwargs) for connecting
    # via NETCONF. Because SSH is the underlying transport, there are
    # several minor options to set up.
    connect_params = {
        "host": "192.168.50.253",
        "port": 830,
        "username": "admin",
        "password": "*",
        "hostkey_verify": False,
        "allow_agent": False,
        "look_for_keys": False,
        "device_params": {"name": "nexus"},
    }

    # Unpack the connect_params dict and use them to connect inside
    # of a "with" context manager. The variable "conn" represents the
    # NETCONF connection to the device.
    with manager.connect(**connect_params) as conn:
        print("NETCONF session connected")

        # To save time, only capture 3 switchports. Less specific filters
        # will return more information, but take longer to process/transport.
        # Note: In this sandbox, it can take ~30 seconds to get all interfaces
        # and several minutes to get the whole config, so be aware!
        nc_filter = """
            <interfaces xmlns="http://openconfig.net/yang/interfaces">
                <interface>
                    <name>eth1/2</name>
                </interface>
                <interface>
                    <name>eth1/3</name>
                </interface>
                <interface>
                    <name>eth1/4</name>
                </interface>
            </interfaces>
        """

        # Execute a "get-config" RPC using the filter defined above
        resp = conn.get_config(source="running", filter=("subtree", nc_filter))

        # Uncomment line below to see raw RPC XML reply; great for learning
        # print(resp.xml)

        # Parse the XML text into a Python dictionary
        jresp = xmltodict.parse(resp.xml)

        # Uncomment line below to see parsed JSON RPC; great for learning
        # import json; print(json.dumps(jresp, indent=2))

        # Iterate over all the interfaces returned by helper function
        for intf in jresp["rpc-reply"]["data"]["interfaces"]["interface"]:

            # Declare a few local variables to make accessing data deep
            # within the JSON structure a little easier
            config = intf["ethernet"]["switched-vlan"]["config"]
            mode = config["interface-mode"].lower()

            # Print common switchport data
            print(f"Name: {intf['name']:<7}  Type: {mode:<6}", end="  ")

            # Print additional data depending on access vs trunk ports
            if mode == "access":
                print(f"Access VLAN: {config['access-vlan']}")
            elif mode == "trunk":
                print(f"Native VLAN: {config['native-vlan']}")
            else:
                print("(no additional data)")

    print("NETCONF session disconnected")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

The issue is that, it works perfectly in the DevNet Sandbox. Of course, the connection parameters are different of course.

    # Dictionary containing keyword arguments (kwargs) for connecting
    # via NETCONF. Because SSH is the underlying transport, there are
    # several minor options to set up.
    connect_params = {
        "host": "sbx-nxos-mgmt.cisco.com",
        "port": 10000,
        "username": "admin",
        "password": "*",
        "hostkey_verify": False,
        "allow_agent": False,
        "look_for_keys": False,
        "device_params": {"name": "nexus"},
    }

This is the image I am testing with Nexus in my home lab.

Nexus 9000v is a demo version of the Nexus Operating System

Software
  BIOS: version
  NXOS: version 7.0(3)I7(3)
  BIOS compile time:
  NXOS image file is: bootflash:///nxos.7.0.3.I7.3.bin
  NXOS compile time:  2/12/2018 13:00:00 [02/12/2018 19:13:48]


Hardware
  cisco Nexus9000 9000v Chassis

This is the Nexus image that Cisco has public access in DevNet sandbox.

Nexus 9000v is a demo version of the Nexus Operating System

Software
  BIOS: version
 NXOS: version 9.3(3)
  BIOS compile time:
  NXOS image file is: bootflash:///nxos.9.3.3.bin
  NXOS compile time:  12/22/2019 2:00:00 [12/22/2019 14:00:37]


Hardware
  cisco Nexus9000 C9300v Chassis

I have enabled netconf already

NX1# show run | sec netconf|username
feature netconf
username admin password 5 $5$BOPMCF$
 role network-admin

Could you please help me what is going on?

AXL Service, 10.5 , AddPhone, A character to numeric conversion process failed

rafiq.jallel565 — Thu, 28 May 2020 09:57:29 GMT

I trying to create the phone which device type is CISCO 7945. It needs MacID as input which is 12 digit number.

I trying to invoke the CISCO AXL API 10.5 in C# and I trying same in SOAP UI to achieve task.but,it fails any helps on this much appreciated.. (refer screen shot)These are the mandatory fields which need to configure while creating the phone in CUCM GUI and its created successfully and now i'm passing in same set of input in SOAP UI which is not working

INPUT

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns="http://www.cisco.com/AXL/API/10.5">
<soapenv:Header/>
<soapenv:Body>
<ns:addPhone sequence="?">
<phone ctiid="?">
<name>123567890123</name>

<description>12345098791234</description>
<phoneTemplateName uuid="?">Standard 7945 SCCP</phoneTemplateName>
<devicePoolName uuid="?">ANIL</devicePoolName>
<ownerUserName uuid="?">1011</ownerUserName>
<securityProfileName uuid="?">Cisco 7945 - Standard SCCP Non-Secure Profile</securityProfileName>
</phone>
</ns:addPhone>
</soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

ERROR

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<soapenv:Body>
<soapenv:Fault>
<faultcode>soapenv:Client</faultcode>
<faultstring>A character to numeric conversion process failed</faultstring>
<detail>
<axlError>
<axlcode>-1213</axlcode>
<axlmessage>A character to numeric conversion process failed</axlmessage>
<request>addPhone</request>
</axlError>
</detail>
</soapenv:Fault>
</soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

notepad pop up

kwebster — Tue, 26 May 2020 18:00:27 GMT

I need to have a notepad with some saved text to pop up with an incoming call hit to our call center. I am aware of the thick client screen pop gadget, I am working on seeing we can change that to fit our needs. I am unsure to change to get this working

Join the Cisco CX lab and practice how to automate your NSO SW package development using CI/CD!

Nicklas Wagerth — Fri, 15 May 2020 09:54:51 GMT

We usually offer an NSO training, as a pre-event activity to Developer Days, to help those with less practical experience get started and get more value out of the user conference. This year we will instead kick-start a new Developer Hub webinar series where we will share NSO experiences and do technology deep dives. In this first session, we will give you a unique opportunity to practice and improve the journey of NSO service package development. We hope that this will be a nice teaser and knowledge bridge to Developer Days in June!

In this hands-on lab, Cisco CX will share experiences and practices collected over many years of development. You will learn how to implement a complete build process for an NSO SW package that can be applied to code delivery and test automation, providing better quality services with less effort. If done right, this can have a huge positive impact on your Time to Market, quality, and OPEX.

If you have not started automating your environment using CI/CD, this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss!

When: June 9th, 2020 (14:00pm - 16:00pm CET)

About the Lab

We use NSO and Jenkins pipeline to demonstrate how to achieve CICD in your project. Anyone with interest in NSO, Automation and CICD is welcome to join. No special knowledge required.

Each build includes:

spinning up the whole new test environment from scratch
selecting the right version of the software
downloading Network Element Drivers (NED´s) and service packages
starting network simulation devices (Netsim)
teardown the test environment
running the automated Test Suite
static code analysis
new SW builds upload to a public repository, ready to be provided to customers
creation of a repeatable CICD pipeline that will continuously build, test and release software packages on every code change
visualising test results via automatically generated reports available to be shared with management and/or “customer”

Hands-on Lab: Learn how to automate your NSO SW package development using CI/CD

Nicklas Wagerth — Fri, 15 May 2020 09:41:08 GMT

In a hands-on lab, Cisco CX will share experiences and practices collected over many years of development. You will learn how to implement a complete build process for an NSO SW package that can be applied to code delivery and test automation, providing better quality services with less effort. If done right, this can have a huge positive impact on your Time to Market, quality, and OPEX.

About the Lab

We use NSO and Jenkins pipeline to demonstrate how to achieve CICD in your project.

Anyone with interest in NSO, Automation, and CICD is welcome to join. No special knowledge required.

Each build includes:

spinning up the whole new test environment from scratch
selecting the right version of the software
downloading Network Element Drivers (NED´s) and service packages
starting network simulation devices (Netsim)
teardown the test environment
running the automated Test Suite
static code analysis
new SW builds upload to public repository, ready to be provided to customers
creation of a repeatable CICD pipeline that will continuously build, test and release software packages on every code change
visualising test results via automatically generated reports available to be shared with management and/or “customer”

Using API’s to automate Cisco Unity Connection Call Handlers

jeremy.worden — Wed, 13 May 2020 19:44:51 GMT

Did a write up on Medium about how I used different API's to perform various tasks.

Check it out here!

#CiscoChat Live: Stay Ready with Training and Certification Resources

Kelli Glass — Tue, 12 May 2020 19:22:51 GMT

Join us live on Wednesday, May 13 at 10 am PT (and on demand after) to learn about all of the ways you can stay ready for your learning goals with Cisco training and certification.

#CiscoChat Live: Stay Ready with Training and Certification Resources

Kelli Glass — Tue, 12 May 2020 19:08:00 GMT

Join us live on Wednesday, May 13 at 10 am PT (and on demand after) to learn about all of the ways you can stay ready for your learning goals with Cisco training and certification.

We'll take your questions during the show and after - so post them below in the comments.

Can You Play Minecraft on a Cisco Switch?

Kelli Glass — Mon, 04 May 2020 21:29:03 GMT

Florian Pachinger, Developer Advocate at Cisco DevNet, will answer this question in this video with IOx AppHosting on a Catalyst 9300! Tell us what you think in the comments.

Cisco Finesse PopUp problem

j.smith@sepidarsystem.com — Sat, 02 May 2020 10:27:24 GMT

We have UCCX and are using cisco finesse. We have deployed popup screen feature on finesse and it is working fine, but we have a problem. It does not create new tab for each call that is handled and every new call over writes the call info with the new call info. How can I have new tab for each call that it handled?

Can't compile cisco-etsi-nfvo package for ncs-5.3.1.1-cisco-etsi-nfvo-4.2.0-bundle/

ron.whitt — Fri, 01 May 2020 20:03:10 GMT

Hello experts,

I am trying to install the ncs-5.3.1.1-cisco-etsi-nfvo-4.2.0-bundle for NSO (version 5.2.0.3, local install under ~/ncs-run)

I can get all the other packages to load and compile, but for the cisco-etsi-nfvo package, there isn't a Makefile under /src.

I tried loading the packages without compiling the cisco-etso-nfvo package, but NSO throws this error:

>>> System upgrade is starting.
>>> Sessions in configure mode must exit to operational mode.
>>> No configuration changes can be performed until upgrade has completed.
>>> System upgrade has been cancelled.
Error: Internal error: {failed,
{recompile_needed,
"./state/packages-in-use/1/cisco-etsi-nfvo/load-dir/etsi-nfv-descriptors.fxs"}}

But... no makefile... no compile.

Any help or guidance would be appreciated. if someone has the makefile, maybe post that and I'll copy it into the build.

Thanks

Register now for NSO Developer Days June 16-17

Nicklas Wagerth — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 13:09:30 GMT

I am happy to announce that we today have re-opened the registration for our 4th Annual Cisco NSO Developer Days event being held virtually Tuesday 16th June to Wednesday 17th June.

Join service provider and enterprise network automation professionals from around the world for an incredible virtual event. The agenda will include a discussion of industry trends and their implications, and user success stories with technical deep dives.

We look forward to meeting and interact with you virtually at Developer Days in June!

OS Upgrade Version 2 using NSO

imrbaig — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 22:55:56 GMT

Do you need to upgrade the OS on your infrastructure devices?

If the answer to this question is “yes” then you may have an easy solution through NSO (Network Service Orchestrator). Cisco Advanced Services has developed a pre-packaged NSO-based OS Upgrade service, that can perform Software upgrades on infrastructure devices.

What are the supported Platforms?

Currently Cisco IOS (Cat 3560, Cat 4900), NX-OS (Nexus 5k), IOS-XE, ASA and STAR-OS (ASR5k) have been validated. More platforms (including multivendor OS) will be validated in future releases.

Available Features:

Open architecture: Generic upgrade platform to support user-configurable upgrade process for any device family.
Batch upgrades: Can upgrade multiple devices in parallel using individual upgrade threads per device.
Multi path upgrade: Ability to upgrade device(s) from any given source version to any given target version e.g from version A->B->C.
Staging Images: Can copy relevant images(s) to device(s) before upgrade maintenance window.
Regional Image server selection: Ability to select relevant images server(FTP, TFTP, SCP, SFTP etc) based on device region.
Configuration Caveats Handling: Can handle configuration issues which may arise during upgrade e.g config loss, pre/post upgrade config modifications etc.
Pre-upgrade Validation-rules: User can define a set of validation rules to perform health-checks on the device prior to upgrade.
Plan of upgrade: User can define the upgrade process with a sequence of commands to execute with success / failure criteria.
Pre / Post Checks: User can define the commands, which can be executed before & after the upgrade to identify any difference in device configs.
Lazy Upgrade: Runs the upgrade process on the device only when it is required. It skips the upgrade action if the device is already on target OS.
Critical BUG Check: validate if there is a critical bug(s) that is associated with the target image. BUG table is maintained within NSO CDB.
Upgrade Report: Generates side-by-side HTML color-coded report highlighting the difference between pre & post health-checks.

For further information please contact the Cisco Advanced Services team, Syed Ziaullah (sziaulla@cisco.com), Solution Architect, Manish Jain (manisjai@cisco.com), Director Software Integration and Orchestration.

Note: Please login to this site if you cannot play the video

JSON-RPC vs Restconf service creation difference

Swapnak — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 16:20:16 GMT

Hi All,

NSO : 5.2.2.1

Same input data when sent using restconf gives a different output vs when sent using JSONRPC

Yang model:

The contents list is ordered-by user

list ip-access-list {
key acl-name;
leaf acl-name {
tailf:info "list name (max size 64)";
type string;
tailf:cli-expose-key-name;
}
list contents {
key content;
ordered-by user;
leaf content {
tailf:info "rules";
type string;
tailf:cli-expose-key-name;
}
min-elements 1;
}
}

User input payload :

"ip-access-list": [
{
"acl-name": "45",
"contents": [
{
"content": "permit ip host 10.122.32.86 host 0.0.0.0"
},
{
"content": "permit ip host 10.122.32.88 host 0.0.0.0"
},
{
"content": "permit ip host 10.81.59.57 host 0.0.0.0"
},
{
"content": "permit ip host 10.81.59.56 host 0.0.0.0"
}
]
}
]

Service output When sent using restconf:

admin@ncs-cfs# show running-config services nx-global-conf-cfs device nx_0
services nx-global-conf-cfs device nx_0
aaa-flag false
banner motd "Robot Test WithCheck\n"
banner start-end-marker ^
snmp ip-access-list acl-name 45
contents content "permit ip host 10.122.32.86 host 0.0.0.0"
!
contents content "permit ip host 10.122.32.88 host 0.0.0.0"
!
contents content "permit ip host 10.81.59.57 host 0.0.0.0"
!
contents content "permit ip host 10.81.59.56 host 0.0.0.0"
!
!
!

Service output When sent using JSONRPC:

services nx-global-conf-cfs device nx_0
base-config domain-name boa
aaa-flag false
snmp ip-access-list acl-name 45
contents content "permit ip host 10.122.32.86 host 0.0.0.0"
!
contents content "permit ip host 10.122.32.88 host 0.0.0.0"
!
contents content "permit ip host 10.81.59.56 host 0.0.0.0"
!
contents content "permit ip host 10.81.59.57 host 0.0.0.0"
!
!
!

If we see the service output when sent using JSONRPC is not as per our expectation of "ordered-by user" 10.81.59.57 and 10.81.59.56 got re-ordered.

Just thinking if JSONRPC input to NSO is getting re-ordered even before it is hitting the NSO yang.

I am looking for, is this known behavior/bug with JSONRPC and the reason for this re-ordering.

How to handle this scenario ?

Thank you.

Network Configuration Compliance Using NSO

imrbaig — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 22:05:45 GMT

Do you have network configuration compliance issues?

If the answer to this question is “yes” then you may have an easy solution through NSO (Network Service Orchestrator). Cisco CX team has developed an NSO-based package that can report and fix non-standard configuration on device(s) in your network.

What are the supported Platforms

Currently out of the box, Cisco ISO, IOS-XE, IOS-XR, Juniper platforms has been validated. More platforms (including multivendor OS) can easily be validated by just defining golden templates for those platforms/vendors.

Available Features:

Open architecture: Generic platform to support reporting and resolving configuration issues. More device vendors can be easily added.
Extensible YANG model: Existing YANG model can be extended to support customizations.
Multiple templates support: Can generate reports for multiple golden templates.
Devices compliant support: Option is available to make device(s) compliant against given golden templates.
Bulk device(s) support: You can identify and fix golden configuration in bulk for same or different devices.

Note: Please login to this site if you cannot play the video

UCCX v12.5 Sandbox Service Issue

SAN J — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 14:40:54 GMT

I've been working with Cisco Sandbox the last few weeks, specifically CCX v12.5 and have noticed that the "Manager Manager" status shows "SHUTDOWN" 90% of the time and I usually reboot the server to fix the issue. This shouldn't be needed but not sure who to contact at Cisco to advise...or if others have noticed the same issue when you initially get your reservation.

DevNet announces new training and testing

Kelli Glass — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 18:23:46 GMT

DevNet offers a next generation learning experience, designed to help developers like you study for your DevNet Associate exam at your own pace, including coding examples. As you're looking to start your journey towards achieving your Cisco DevNet Associate Certification look into our DevNet Associate Fundamentals training course, available here.

And for a limited time, we're offering 50% off any plan you choose (1-month, 3-month, and 6-month plans). If you've already signed up for these courses previously, we're also offering a Renewal Plan for 67% off, priced at $49/month (regular $150). This is a special discounted rate available after your initial subscription expires.

The DevNet Associate Fundamentals training course offers high-quality developer-focused content in an interactive all-in-one learning experience that includes built-in integrated labs. The course gives you access to the materials you need to successfully hone your skills even further in the technical areas of software development, APIs, application deployment, infrastructure, and automation.

And hot off the presses today: Online Certification Testing is Now Available
Effective today April 15, we can deliver Cisco written certification exams using online proctoring from Pearson VUE. The software employs live proctors, augmented with artificial intelligence that uses techniques such as facial recognition and eye movement tracking, to help proctors perform their duties and quickly flag potential security violations.

There are important requirements to note, and if this option is not feasible for a candidate, taking a live, in-person proctored exam will still be an option as soon as it is appropriate to re-open Pearson VUE testing centers. Cisco Learning Credits may be applied. Learn more from this Cisco Learning Network blog from Susie Wee, SVP/GM Cisco DevNet & CX Ecosystem Success, or visit cisco.com/go/onlinetesting.

Good luck with your training and test-taking – we look forward to hearing your stories!

Learn NSO the Easy Way with New Lab and Sandbox

Jason Belk — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 17:02:11 GMT

We have been hard at work creating a better onboarding and learning experience for Cisco NSO. We are excited to announce the release of two major resources:

A multi-domain orchestration platform

Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) is a multi-domain orchestration platform used to manage the configuration lifecycle of physical and virtual network devices. Network engineers can get started right away since the NSO application CLI mimics the Cisco CLI, and allows you to configure network devices at scale with templates, customizable network services and configuration compliance audit and remediation. NSO is also a part of the Service Provider DevNet certification, so you can get practice with it here on the sandbox.

Cisco NSO reservable sandbox

This sandbox is especially exciting because it is the first Cisco NSO dedicated sandbox and it uses the new Cisco Modeling Labs to render the lab topology.

The sandbox includes:

A variety of network devices (IOS, IOS XR, NX-OS, ASA)
Production grade NSO Server (system install with the devices already loaded in)
Developer Linux jump host with a bunch of developer tools and a local install NSO for development and testing
Cisco Modeling Labs server

New Learning Lab: Learn NSO the easy way

The launch of this NSO sandbox also paves the way for a new wave of NSO learning labs and demos. The first lab to be released is “Learn NSO the Easy Way”, and is meant for network engineers who are curious about NSO and want to get a taste of what it has to offer.

The lab takes a user through the process of setting up a local NSO instance, configuring some devices, sending some show commands, creating an NSO service and then deploying it.

Don’t worry, learning NSO the hard way is coming up, but will take a little longer to put together.

Related resources

Visit the DevNet Networking Dev Center to learn how you can integrate with the network through full system management solutions in the cloud, utilize automation platforms and controllers, or directly interact with devices with APIs and Interfaces.
Visit the DevNet Automation Exchange to find shared code repositories for network automation, and guides for teams on their network automation learning journey.

How to retrieve the call when Agents userstate is not_ready.

KomalJagtap26756 — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 09:22:00 GMT

Hi there,

Suppose Agent001 is in Ready(userstate) state while Agent002 is in Not_ready(userstate) state. Agent002 makes call to Agent001,Agent001 answers the call & now they are in Talking(userstate) state.

Agent001 who is in Ready state hold & retrieve working properly. Agent002 who is in Not_Ready state Hold call is working properly but problem is for Retrieve call.

I am passing the requested action for Hold in Finesee as follows:

xml = "<Dialog><targetMediaAddress>"+myExtension+"</targetMediaAddress><requestedAction>HOLD</requestedAction></Dialog>";

And for Retrieve as follows:

xml = "<Dialog><targetMediaAddress>"+myExtension+"</targetMediaAddress><requestedAction>RETRIEVE</requestedAction></Dialog>";

Still this is not working for the Agent who is in Not_Ready state.

Thanks in advance,

Komal

NSO Developer Days Stockholm moving to digital

Nicklas Wagerth — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 13:13:48 GMT

NSO Users,

As you may have seen, we have made the decision to shift NSO Developer Days scheduled for Monday 15th June -Thursday 18th June in Stockholm to an online experience due to concerns about the current outbreak of COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

While we are disappointed that we cannot continue with this event as planned, we believe this is the right decision given the current circumstances. Cisco has some of the best collaboration technology in the world. As we work through the details of this new digital experience, we will continue to share updates.

For more information or if you have questions, please reach out to, NSO Developer Days Team,

Sincerely,
NSO Developer Days Team

Let's Celebrate the DevNet 500

Kelli Glass — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 22:20:10 GMT

Just 16 days after launching the new Cisco DevNet certifications, 500 people worldwide have earned their certifications. We want to congratulate these folks on their achievements and welcome them to the DevNet500. Learn more about who they are and what they had to share about their experience.

DNA Center API Reference Survey - we'd love to hear from you!

jossolom — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 21:46:17 GMT

Hey there, Cisco Community!

The Enterprise Networking User Experience team is conducting a survey of our customers to get feedback on what you would like to see when it comes to getting started with our DNA Center Intent APIs.

This survey is short and should take 2 minutes of your time at the max.

Survey Link

Thank you so much for your time.

Cisco ISE Sandbox Environment For Guest Account

kanikaJerath41434 — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 10:40:50 GMT

I am new to CISCO ISE. Pleas help how can i setup a sandbox environment for creating/updating guest account for user using REST API's.

Thanks in advance!

New NFVO GUI

KJ Rossavik — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 14:29:48 GMT

Did you ever have a look at the NSO NFVO package, for managing VNFs? It's been around for about five years, and is deployed at a lot of our customers. In the last couple of releases (4.1 and 4.2), we have been working on a GUI, so here is a brief demo:

https://cisco.box.com/s/xineecezf0iz0krj9egry8i5l0ohx79b

Here we look at import of VNFDs and NSDs, visualization of them, and also at how to monitor progress of NS/VNF deployment. We also show the NSD editor.

At the moment we are working on a GUI for the resource orchestration feature of NFVO, which enables you to place VNFs and Network Services based on resource requirements (CPU, memory, disk) as well as affinity/anti-affinity and filtering criteria. The Resource Orchestrator lets you say things like: "place my Network Service on the east coast, in a DC that has sufficient resource for the whole NS, but make sure that these two VNFs are co-resided on one host, and this third one is on a separate host, for redundancy"

#CiscoChat Live - Build your Career: CCNA Certification to #NetDevOps

Kelli Glass — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 18:41:09 GMT

Join us live on Thursday, March 5 at 10 am PT (and on demand after) for a deep dive into our new training and certification program. In this upcoming #CiscoChat featuring Joe Clarke, learn how you can make the most out of the new learning portfolio and become a NetDevOps expert – starting with the new CCNA Certification.

#CiscoChat Live - Build your Career: CCNA Certification to #NetDevOps

Kelli Glass — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 18:39:00 GMT

We'll take your questions live during the event and after, so post them below in the comments.

The Power of Your Knowledge – Certified and Multiplied!

Nicklas Wagerth — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 13:29:26 GMT

You need to come to NSO Developer Days this year!

This is not just an event where presenters share about NSO, but a community event - where you can connect with people in a different place than you in their automation journey. Your voice and presence are needed!

We have prepared up an amazing line-up of speakers, topics and labs. We have also put a special emphasis on the content to be practical and include code samples for you to reference after the event.

Regardless of where you are in your career, you will be able to walk away from this Developer Days event with new skills, new energy, and new friends.

- So, are there any other ways for you to up-level your skills and career today?

A good start is to become a DevNet Specialist!

For Developer Days attendees 2020 we will open up a test lab for certification. The new SP Automation Certification is an opportunity for you to put your knowledge to the test. The DevNet certifications are the industry standard way to showcase to your team and yourself that you are an expert in your automation field. This covers more than just NSO, so be sure to read up on all the other relevant SP automation topics the exam covers.

If you take the certification on the first day of Developer Days (or before the event), I will give you a 30% discount on the event attendance fee and get recognition on stage in front of all your peers and leaders.

Find out more about all DevNet Certifications and how to earn the DevNet 500!

New blog articles in For Developers

#CiscoChat Live - Jump to Hybrid Cloud on Tuesday, June 1st at 10am PDT

#CiscoChat Live - Jump to Hybrid Cloud on Tuesday, June 1st at 10am PDT

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The session guides you through common best practices and gives pointers to useful information. After the talk, you should be able to describe and motivate your design choices, as well as recognize questions to be asked next to meet future requirements.

Monitoring NSO: Understanding What’s Going On InsideKristian Larsson, Architect, Cisco

Kristian is the author of the OpenTelemetry exporter package for NSO, which exports metrics and traces from within NSO. Tag along to see how you can leverage observability data to understand the behavior of NSO and services in your environment.

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NSO Scale and Performance TestsAnshu Narang, Software Engineering Technical Leader, Cisco

Help new users of NSO understand what to expect from NSO in terms of Scale and Performance for their use case(s)​. Share NSO Scale and Performance capabilities for​ Reference Use Cases i.e. NFVO (Virtualization) and T-SDN (Physical device configuration) Core FPs.

Technical Deep Dive: Monitoring NSOKristian Larsson, Architect, Cisco

A deep dive into NSO observability and the technical underpinnings of the opentelemetry-exporter package. See how it all works and learn how you can expand and build your own custom visualizations or how to instrument your own services for observability.

Auto Heal Your SystemEswaramoorthy Ramasamy, Software Consulting Engineer, Cisco CX

Auto healing is the highest level of automation anyone can achieve. In this session, we would be covering how auto-healing can be achieved with NSO and Open Source Monitoring tools.

Webinar - Feb 18th - 10am PST - The Integrated NSO and ConfD Transaction Managers

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