Recent
AI: My Welcome
Here we are diving into just one of the time savings samples of what the AI world is able to accomplish these days. This post is going to dig into a simple one that I have been trying to solve for a while and just couldn’t get right - Cloud Init virtual machines. I now am spinning up virtual machines in a few seconds, all with the help of Claude.
Creating Your Own Validation
I recently was presented with a request to look at where there was a request to validate that a Rack would be unique at a Location in Nautobot. I took a look at the data validation engine and wasn’t able to determine a method to make this work there. So here is the solution.
Cleaning Up Python Environment
Recently I updated my Python development environments to use Python UV for managing Python versions and tools on the system. In this post I take you on the journey that I went on to replace pyenv and Pipx.
2025 The ReSwitch
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I’m back over to Hugo for my blog content using the Congo theme. Why? Come take a look.
Services First - A Reminder of Strong Growth
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This post explores why the “Amazon API Mandate” remains relevant for modern network automation. It highlights how adopting a “Services First” strategy—using APIs and Pub/Sub systems like Nautobot—can transform CLI-based workflows into scalable, robust services.
Using Siri Shortcuts to Set Microphone
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Managing audio settings on Mac devices can be repetitive, especially when switching between different microphones for calls, recordings, or meetings. Siri Shortcuts provides a powerful way to automate this process.
Autocon4 Viewpoint
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AutoCon4 and NautoCon@AutoCon are in the books. It was quite the day, and I have to say that it ranks among my best days of the year in Network Automation — right up there with being able to meet up with the Network to Code team earlier in the year. It was great to see many friends from across the community. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep the conversation going in Slack and maintain the momentum.
Network Design with NTP
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It’s been a while since my last post — life and work have both been full. Today, I’m diving into one of the most quietly critical aspects of network design: time synchronization. Specifically, how to design NTP within an enterprise network and how to think about time zones when correlating logs.
We’ll look at two main topics in this post: designing NTP (Network Time Protocol) and managing time zone display in logs.
Fueling Network AI: The Critical Role of Source of Truth Data
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As the AI movement continues to expand its reach into the networking space, the need for an appropriate source of truth for network data becomes more critical than ever. What I have been seeing so far in the industry for networking and AI has been a lot of working on the individual devices one by one. But when looking at leveraging AI for the network, I believe it is best to look at the network as a whole. And that is where the Source of Truth data being stored in Nautobot is going to provide the right information about the network and the relationships between pieces of information - AI thrives on context, and relationships provide that context for more accurate insights and actions.
Containerlab - Popularity Exploding
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Coming out of the 2024 AutoCon2 conference held in Denver the week of November 18th, 2024 - there is one thing that is standing out more so than anything else. Containerlab is a HUGE blowout success. In observing through several of the workshops at the conference on Monday and Tuesday, many were using Containerlab in some fashion. Now, Containerlab has been around for a while, so this isn’t a press release of it. But it is re-affirming what many already know, that this is a great tool to be in the network engineer and network automator toolset.