Ansible for Cisco Catalyst

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

Course Summary

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

Students learn how to design, read, and maintain Ansible playbooks that interact with Cisco Catalyst switches running IOS-XE using the cisco.ios.ios Ansible collection. Core networking automation concepts such as inventories, connection methods, facts gathering, 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 collect data, back up configurations, apply controlled changes, and validate state across Cisco Catalyst networks built on Cisco platforms.

Course Outline

Day 1 – Ansible Foundations for Cisco Catalyst

• 💬 Lecture: Introduction to network automation and Cisco Catalyst use cases

• 💬 Lecture: How Ansible networking differs from server automation

• 💬 Lecture: Ansible architecture for network devices

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

• 💬 Lecture: YAML fundamentals for network playbooks

• ⚙️ Lab: Installing and validating Ansible for network automation

• ⚙️ Lab: Exploring Ansible networking documentation with ansible-doc

• ⚙️ Lab: Creating a static inventory for Cisco Catalyst switches

• ⚙️ Lab: Defining group and host variables for network devices

• ⚙️ Lab: Configuring ansible.cfg for network connections

• ⚙️ Lab: Validating connectivity to Cisco Catalyst devices

Day 2 – Cisco IOS-XE Modules and Network Playbooks

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

• 💬 Lecture: Overview of the cisco.ios.ios collection

• 💬 Lecture: Network connection types and network_cli

• ⚙️ Lab: Using ios_facts and ios_info to collect device data

• ⚙️ Lab: Backing up running configurations from Catalyst switches

• ⚙️ Lab: Understanding idempotency with ios_config

• ⚙️ Lab: Applying configuration changes safely

• ⚙️ Lab: Using save_when and configuration checkpoints

• ⚙️ Lab: Verifying configuration state after changes

Day 3 – Playbook Logic, Control, and Scale

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

• 💬 Lecture: Conditional execution with when and ansible_network_os

• ⚙️ Lab: Writing conditional tasks for Cisco IOS-XE devices

• ⚙️ Lab: Using loops for repetitive network configuration

• ⚙️ Lab: Controlling execution with tags and limits

• 💬 Lecture: Error handling and debugging network playbooks

• ⚙️ Lab: Debugging failed network tasks

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

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

• ⚙️ Lab: Running playbooks across multiple Catalyst switches

• ⚙️ Lab: Coordinating changes safely across devices

Day 4 – Best Practices and Real-World Catalyst Automation

• 💬 Lecture: Designing safe automation for production networks

• 💬 Lecture: Configuration backup and versioning strategies

• ⚙️ Lab: Building automated backup workflows for Catalyst switches

• ⚙️ Lab: Storing and organizing configuration backups 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 network state

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

• 💬 Lecture: Real-world Cisco Catalyst automation patterns

• ⚙️ Lab: Building a complete Catalyst automation workflow

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

• ⚙️ Lab: Validating results and documenting changes

Outcomes

Students who complete Ansible for Cisco Catalyst will be able to:

• Automate Cisco Catalyst switches using Ansible and IOS-XE modules

• Use the cisco.ios.ios collection with confidence

• Safely gather data and back up device configurations

• Apply controlled, idempotent configuration changes

• Troubleshoot and debug network automation playbooks

• Follow best practices for production network automation