Ansible for Aruba Networks

Location: On-Site or Online
Pricing: $1,250 per seat (6-seat minimum)
Length: 4 Days

Course Summary

Ansible for Aruba Networks is a practical, hands-on course designed for network engineers and automation practitioners who want to automate Aruba switching and wireless environments using Ansible.

Students learn how to design, read, and maintain Ansible playbooks that automate Aruba infrastructure using supported Ansible collections and APIs, including integration with Aruba Central for centralized management and visibility. Core concepts such as inventories, connection methods, API-driven automation, data collection, configuration management, conditional logic, and safe change workflows are reinforced through frequent labs and real-world scenarios.

By the end of the course, students are comfortable using Ansible to gather data, back up configurations, automate changes, and validate state across Aruba networks managed through Aruba Networks and Aruba Central.

Course Outline

Day 1 – Ansible Foundations for Aruba Networks

• 💬 Lecture: Introduction to network automation and Aruba use cases

• 💬 Lecture: How Ansible networking differs from server automation

• 💬 Lecture: Ansible architecture for network and API-driven devices

• 💬 Lecture: Control nodes, managed nodes, and network inventories

• 💬 Lecture: YAML fundamentals for network automation

• ⚙️ Lab: Installing and validating Ansible for network automation

• ⚙️ Lab: Exploring Ansible networking modules and collections with ansible-doc

• ⚙️ Lab: Creating a static inventory for Aruba devices

• ⚙️ Lab: Defining group and host variables for Aruba switches and controllers

• ⚙️ Lab: Configuring ansible.cfg for network and HTTP API connections

• ⚙️ Lab: Validating connectivity to Aruba devices

Day 2 – Automating Aruba Devices and Aruba Central

• 💬 Lecture: Ansible collections and Fully Qualified Collection Names (FQCNs)

• 💬 Lecture: Overview of Aruba Ansible collections and APIs

• 💬 Lecture: CLI-based vs API-based automation for Aruba platforms

• 💬 Lecture: Introduction to Aruba Central architecture and workflows

• ⚙️ Lab: Authenticating to Aruba Central using API tokens

• ⚙️ Lab: Gathering device and site information from Aruba Central

• ⚙️ Lab: Collecting configuration and operational data from Aruba devices

• ⚙️ Lab: Backing up Aruba switch configurations

• ⚙️ Lab: Applying configuration changes using Ansible modules and API calls

• ⚙️ Lab: Verifying configuration state through Aruba Central

Day 3 – Playbook Logic, Control, and Scale

• 💬 Lecture: Variables, facts, and precedence in network automation

• 💬 Lecture: Conditional execution with when and platform-specific logic

• ⚙️ Lab: Writing conditional tasks for different Aruba platforms

• ⚙️ Lab: Using loops for repetitive network configuration

• ⚙️ Lab: Controlling execution with tags and limits

• 💬 Lecture: Error handling and debugging network automation

• ⚙️ Lab: Debugging failed Ansible tasks and API calls

• ⚙️ Lab: Using debug, fail, and verbosity flags

• 💬 Lecture: Multi-device and multi-site automation patterns

• ⚙️ Lab: Running playbooks across multiple Aruba sites

• ⚙️ Lab: Coordinating safe changes across switches and wireless devices

Day 4 – Best Practices and Real-World Aruba Automation

• 💬 Lecture: Designing safe automation for production networks

• 💬 Lecture: Configuration backup, audit, and drift detection strategies

• ⚙️ Lab: Building automated backup workflows for Aruba devices

• ⚙️ Lab: Storing and organizing configuration and state data locally

• 💬 Lecture: Writing maintainable and scalable network automation

• ⚙️ Lab: Refactoring playbooks for readability and reuse

• ⚙️ Lab: Converting flat playbooks into reusable roles

• 💬 Lecture: Testing and validation concepts for network automation

• ⚙️ Lab: Adding assertions to validate Aruba network state

• ⚙️ Lab: Failing safely when validation checks do not pass

• 💬 Lecture: Real-world Aruba Central automation patterns

• ⚙️ Lab: Building a complete Aruba automation workflow

• ⚙️ Lab: Combining inventories, variables, conditionals, and API validation

• ⚙️ Lab: Validating results and documenting changes

Outcomes

Students who complete Ansible for Aruba Networks will be able to:

• Automate Aruba switching and wireless infrastructure using Ansible

• Integrate Ansible workflows with Aruba Central APIs

• Gather inventory, configuration, and operational data programmatically

• Apply controlled, repeatable configuration changes

• Troubleshoot and debug Ansible-based network automation

• Follow best practices for production Aruba network automation