About
I’m a veteran Network Engineer who has finally caught on how to put together CS teachings with a Networking degree. Working on doing almost all things via automation.
Self re-taught network/automation engineer. I’ve primarily been digging around within Ansible and Python. I’ve been doing Python networking since 2015 when a speaker came in and talked about how he had put together a NOC for a conference heavily leveraging automation capabilities via Python. Since then I have been going deep down the rabbit hole that is Network Automation.
In 2020 Cisco released the Cisco DevNet certification program. I am one of the first 500 individuals to achieve a Cisco DevNet certification, with passing first the DevNet Associate exam. Later I followed up that certification with the DevNet Professional certification as well.
My Work #
Book #
During the pandemic, I thought what better way to get started than with writing a book about getting started with open source network tools. Get it on LeanPub
Speaking Engagements #
2023 Internet2 Technology Exchange
At Internet2’s TechEx 2023 I gave an overview of Nautobot to the Network Automation community and introduced several of the core Nautobot Open Source Ecosystem Plugins such as Nautobot Golden Config, and the new configuration remediation capabilities built in.
2023 WWT Automation Day - Minneapolis
In this speaking engagement I had the opportunity to talk about Nautobot as the Open Source Network Automation and SOT applications. I gave an overview of what Nautobot brings to the table and incorporated demos of using real world scripts to complete activities leveraging the Nautobot open source ecosystem.
2023 Summer MNNUG
Introduction of Nautobot and the core functionality for the the audience. Drove attendance with the focus on Network Automation that saw individuals drive from 3 hours away!
2022 NANOG86
In 2022 I had the opportunity to complete my first NANOG talk, on automating circuit maintenance notifications. This section will outline my continued source of talks:
2021 Ansible Meetup
Minneapolis Ansible Meetup January 2021 - Ansible Records Ansible - ARA
2020 Interop
Interop Network Automation CICD
2020 Ansible Meetup
Podcasts #
- Packet Pushers - Ansible or Terraform
- Network Automation Nerds - Interview Part 1
- Network Automation Nerds - Interview Part 2
Ansible Content #
In 2019 I worked to develop a Network Automation Course with Ansible for Packet Pushers. This was in my transition time to Network to Code. Note that the course was developed at a time when only NetBox was around. At this point in time I would swap out NetBox in favor of Nautobot.
- Packet Pushers Network Automation with Ansible: YouTube
- Network Automation Course (Packet Pushers): Ignition page.
- Minneapolis Ansible Meetup April 2020 Talk
- First half using NetBox with the NetBox Ansible Collections
- Second half on creating your own custom filters
- Ansible Guest Blog Post - Using NetBox as Ansible Source of Truth
- Minneapolis Ansible Meetup January 2021 - Ansible Records
Telemetry Content #
- How to Introduce Telemetry Streaming (gNMI) in Your Network with SNMP with Telegraf
- Upcoming: DZone: How to Introduce Telemetry Streaming (gNMI) in Your Network with SNMP with Telegraf
NTC Blog Posts I Wrote #
- Network Telemetry for SNMP Devices
- How to Monitor Your VPN Infrastructure with Netmiko, NTC-Templates, and a Time Series Database
- Monitor Your Network With gNMI, SNMP, and Grafana
- Monitoring Websites with Telegraf and Prometheus
- Alerting with Prometheus
Cisco Champion #
2021 - Cisco Champion
