Introduction to Ansible for Networking (Ansible 102)

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

Course Summary

Ansible for Networking 102 is an intermediate, hands-on course designed for engineers who want to apply Ansible confidently to real network infrastructure. This course focuses on network automation workflows rather than server automation, with a strong emphasis on Cisco IOS-XE platforms (including Catalyst 8000V) using the cisco.ios.ios Ansible collection.

Students already familiar with basic Ansible concepts will deepen their understanding of how Ansible interacts with network devices, how the module system works, and why Fully Qualified Collection Names (FQCNs) are essential for modern, collision-free automation. The course balances operational automation with an introduction to extending Ansible through modules, collections, and Python-based tooling.

By the end of the course, students are comfortable designing, reading, and troubleshooting network-focused playbooks and can confidently use Ansible to gather data, back up configurations, make controlled changes, and validate state across Cisco networks using Cisco platforms.

Course Overview

This course builds practical, job-ready skills for automating network devices using Ansible. Through guided lectures and hands-on labs, students learn how Ansible networking differs from traditional host automation, how to safely manage configuration state, and how to structure automation for long-term maintainability.

Real-world Cisco IOS-XE scenarios are used throughout the course, reinforcing best practices for production environments and day-2 network operations.

Attendees

• Network Engineers

• Network Automation Engineers

• DevOps Engineers working with network infrastructure

• Python Developers supporting network or infrastructure automation

Areas of Study

• Ansible architecture with a networking focus

• Cisco IOS-XE automation using the cisco.ios.ios collection

• Fully Qualified Collection Names (FQCNs) and the Ansible module system

• Network inventories and connection methods

• Writing reusable, safe, and idempotent network playbooks

• Static and dynamic inventory concepts

• Multi-vendor patterns and conditional execution

• Testing, validation, and rollback strategies

• Extending Ansible with Python, modules, and ansible-runner

Course Outline

Day 1 – Ansible Foundations for Network Engineers

Getting Started with Ansible

• 💬 Lecture: Ansible architecture and networking use cases

• 💬 Lecture: How Ansible networking differs from server automation

• ⚙️ Lab: GitHub Codespaces as the Ansible control environment

Ansible Basics

• ⚙️ Lab: Methods for installing and validating Ansible

• 💬 Lecture: Static inventories for network devices

• ⚙️ Lab: Building a network host inventory

• ⚙️ Lab: Gathering facts and validating connectivity

• 💬 Lecture: YAML essentials for networking playbooks

• ⚙️ Lab: Running a first network playbook

• ⚙️ Lab: Configuring ansible.cfg for network automation

• ⚙️ Lab: Variables, loops, and vars files in playbooks

Day 2 – Writing Practical Network Playbooks

Modules and the Ansible Module System

• 💬 Lecture: Fully Qualified Collection Names (FQCNs) and why they matter

• 💬 Lecture: Understanding the Ansible standard library vs. collections

Core Automation Modules

• ⚙️ Lab: Reliability considerations with raw, command, and shell

• ⚙️ Lab: Modules for file and data handling (copy, file)

• ⚙️ Lab: Using get_url and uri for automation workflows

• ⚙️ Lab: Managing configuration files with lineinfile and replace

Introduction to Networking with Ansible

• 💬 Lecture: Ansible and network device communication

• ⚙️ Lab: Exploring switches with Ansible

• ⚙️ Lab: Using network_cli connections

• ⚙️ Lab: Conditional logic with when in network playbooks

Day 3 – Networking, Roles, and Collections

Network Automation at Scale

• ⚙️ Lab: Automating Cisco IOS-XE and other popular Cisco platforms

• ⚙️ Lab: Backing up configurations across multiple vendors

• ⚙️ Lab: Error handling in network playbooks

• ⚙️ Lab: Rolling back configuration changes

• 💬 Lecture: Networking vendor collections

• ⚙️ Lab: Vendor-specific network modules

• ⚙️ Lab: Simplifying playbooks with network-agnostic modules

Dynamic Inventory

• 💬 Lecture: Ansible dynamic inventory concepts

Roles and Collections

• 💬 Lecture: Designing Ansible roles for networking

• ⚙️ Lab: Creating and using roles

• 💬 Lecture: Extending Ansible with collections

• ⚙️ Lab: Installing and using Ansible collections

Day 4 – Testing, Abstraction, and Extensibility

Testing and Validation

• ⚙️ Lab: Ansible Lint for network automation

• ⚙️ Lab: Building and testing roles with Molecule

• ⚙️ Lab: Assertions and validation tests

• ⚙️ Lab: Failing safely with the fail module

Templating (High-Level Overview)

• 💬 Lecture: Jinja templating concepts

• ⚙️ Lab: Using the template module

Authoring Plugins and Modules

• 💬 Lecture: Action plugins and module plugins

• ⚙️ Lab: Writing a basic Ansible module

• ⚙️ Lab: Publishing a module inside a collection

Programming with Ansible and Python

• ⚙️ Lab: Using the script module

• 💬 Lecture: ansible-runner and Python integration

• ⚙️ Lab: Running Ansible programmatically with ansible-runner

Outcomes

Students who complete Ansible for Networking 102 will be able to:

• Confidently automate Cisco IOS-XE devices with Ansible

• Understand and apply FQCNs and the Ansible module system

• Safely gather data, back up configurations, and apply changes

• Build reusable, maintainable network automation content

• Extend Ansible using Python, modules, and collections

This course is designed so students leave comfortable working with Ansible for networking in real environments, not just theory or demos.