Anton Karneliuk

Author Archives: Anton Karneliuk

From Python to Go 014. Templating Configuration Files.

Hello my friend,

Congratulations if you reach this blog post starting from the beginning of our series. I look in the list of topic I’m going to cover with respect Python to Go (Golang) transition and I see that I’ve already written more than 50% of blog posts; so we are over the half! Secondly, from today we start talking solely about practical network and IT infrastructure automation topics, as all the foundational things are already covered, such as data types, code flow control, reading and parsing files, using CLI arguments, exceptions handling to name a few. Today we’ll talk about how we can template text files. With respect to network and IT infrastructure automation that means we look how to prepare configuration of our network devices, Linux servers or further appliances.

Isn’t AI Going to Replace All Software Developers Anyway?

Almost daily I see in LinkedIn posts about how cool AI is in generating code. It is cool, I agree with that. And I myself use Co-pilot for my private projects for already more than a year and ChatGPT for certain things. However, my experience is that at this stage they don’t yet replace engineers Continue reading

From Python to Go 013. Handling Errors And Exceptions.

Hello my friend,

One of the important aspects of writing any application is to ensure that it can operate, as long it is safe, when “something” went wrong during its execution. This “something” can really be anything: it can be wrong user input, it could be temporary unreachable network device or service or API endpoint, it could be missing file or incorrect path. In certain circumstance, for example when we talk about API gateways and web servers, it becomes even more critical. In today’s blog post we’ll see how to handle errors/exceptions in Python and Go (Golang).

How Automation Is Important?

I recently worked on a big project, which involves a lot of moving parts. To make these parts moving smoothly, I needed to analyze and compare data across multiple systems before making a decision. The amount of data is huge, thousands of line of data in every system and it is very easy to make mistake, which will impact users. How can I be sure I don’t miss anything? Scripting and automating! I’ve developed a tool, which requests via APIs data from multiple sources, analyses it based on my criteria and collates final report.

And you can build such Continue reading

From Python to Go 012. Processing User Input From CLI Arguments And Standard Input.

Hello my friend,

Whenever we develop any network and IT infrastructure automation applications, we need to have some options to provide user input. In previous blog posts in these series we already covered how to provide user input via environment variables and files. Whilst these two approaches can cover majority of your use cases, especially if you develop containerized applications running in autonomy, there are still two options we would like to talk today about.

Why To Bother Learning Automation?

For many years I was doing network design and operation without automating it (or at least without structured approach to automate it). And there are still loads of such job positions out there. And I see it based on the audience of my blog: majority of people here for networking knowledge, much less are for automation topics. From pure pragmatic standpoint of writing popular blogs, I should stick to network technologies, especially something fancy as SD-WAN and others. However, from the direction of the technologies development, I see that value (including jobs) comes from intersection of domains: networking, compute, storage, software development, data bases, Kubernetes, observability, etc. I’m of a strong opinion that engineers these days must be aware of Continue reading

From Python to Go 011. Parsing XML, JSON, And YAML Files.

Hello my friend,

This blog post is probably the first one, where we start doing more practical rather than foundational things in Python and Go (Golang). Up till now we were going through all possible data types as well as small steps how to deal with files. Today we’ll bring that all together and boost it with practical scenario of parsing data following the most popular data serialization techniques these days

Which Jobs Do Require Network Automation Skills?

For quite a while I’m trying to hire a good network automation engineer, who shall be capable to write applications in Python, which shall manage networking. The pay is good, so my understanding would be that the candidates’ level shall be good as well. My understanding is sadly far from reality as general skills in software development is poor. I was thinking multiple times, if people who passed my trainings would apply, they could have smashed it (provided they practice). Which means there are a lot of jobs out there, requiring good level of automation and software development skills. But they stay unfulfilled because there are no good candidates. It could be yours.

Boost yourself up!

We offer the following training programs Continue reading

From Python to Go 010. Dealing With Text Files. And Tiny Bit On Regexp.

Hello my friend,

So far the only way to provide user input to your Python and Go (Golang) applications we’ve shared with you in these blog series was the environment. Whilst it is a powerful way, which is heavily used especially in cloud native world, where we utilize Kubernetes, it is not the only way to provide user input. Today we’ll review another mechanism, which is text files.

Is Software Development Not Valuable Job Anymore?

Lately I’ve seen more and more posts on LinkedIn that AI is taking software development jobs away and/or making them less profitable. I’m myself use various AIs as code assistants, so I can see massive massive boost in productivity. At the same time, often AI generates code, which simply doesn’t work regardless the amount of iterations you try it with different prompts. Or it does generates working code, which is far less performance optimized that it can be. Therefore, I’m convinced that software engineers are here to stay for quite a bit. Moreover, network and IT infrastructure automation is a specific domain, which knowledge is even less acquirable by AI now due to lack of structured data for models training. Which means, you shall Continue reading

From Python to Go 009. Interfaces For Data Types In Go (Golang).

Hello my friend,

First of all, Happy New Year! We hope that you had a great festive time with your beloved ones, families and friends. That’s the one of the most important part of our lives and, in our opinion, spending some time off the grid impacts our mental well-being positively and gives us energy to move forward and achieve new heights in professional and business areas.

Talking about the topic of today blog post, we thought it will be useful to show you a concept, which is Go (Golang) specific, as there is no such a need in Python. This concept is called “interfaces”, and it is extremely helpful when you work with external data, which you will face working with external data source, e.g. retrieving data from APIs with JSON/XML encoding.

Disclaimer, we talk about interfaces only in the context of the data types in Go (Golang), as it is also used for class composition (object-oriented programming), so we put it aside for now. We may get back to it later in our blog series.

Automation and AI?

If you follow latest trends, you see that AI in various forms, whether this is agentic AI, Continue reading

From Python to Go 008. Object Oriented Programming Or Build Your Own Network Switch.

Hello my friend,

So far we have covered almost all possible data types in Python and Go (Golang), at least the ones we are going to use ourselves for network automation. One of these data types, which we have introduced in the previous blog post, that is object/class or struct, has without overestimations enormous importance as it opens for us doors into object oriented programming. As doors are opened, let’s enter them.

Festive Time Is Here… Make Sure You Make Most Of It.

Meaning, apart of spending time your family and friends, cooking, eating and dancing, you also study network automation with our trainings!

We offer the following training programs in network automation for you:

During these trainings you will learn the following topics:

  • Success and failure strategies to build the automation tools.
  • Principles of software developments and the most useful and convenient tools.
  • Data encoding (free-text, XML, JSON, YAML, Protobuf).
  • Model-driven network automation with YANG, NETCONF, RESTCONF, GNMI.
  • Full configuration templating with Jinja2 based on the source of truth (NetBox).
  • Best programming languages (Python, Continue reading

From Python to Go 007. (Data)Classes, Structs, and Custom Data Types.

Hello my friend,

Today we are going to talk about the last data type, which in generally exists in Python and Go (Golang), and which we need dearly for all meaningful applications including network and IT infrastructure automation. We are talking about structured, typed data, which is represented in Python in form of objects and classes and in Go (Golang) in form of structs. These structures are truly powerful and once you figure out how to use them, I’m quite confident you will be using it everywhere, where you can.

You Talk So Much About Go (Golang), But You Offer Python In Trainings. Why?

This question I’ve been asked rather frequently recently. Indeed, why do we in each blog post talk about Network Automation Trainings, which gravitate around Python/Ansible duet. The answer is straightforward: whilst Go (Golang) is very powerful as we showing it in these blogs, its usage in many cases is justified only in very high-scale environment. For majority of networks and IT systems, Python is great. It is suffice to say that entire OpenStack is built in Python. And ourselves we use it extensively in many customers’ systems. Go (Golang) is useful as extension of automation skills, Continue reading

From Python to Go 006. Dictionaries and Maps.

Hello my friend,

We continue our journey from Python to Go (Golang), or more right to say with Python and Go (Golang) together. Today we are going to talk about a data structure, which is by far the most widely used in Python when it comes to a network and IT infrastructure automation and management. This data structure is called dictionaries in Python, or Map in Go (Golang).

Black Friday Is Over, Can I Still Buy Your Trainings?

Of course, you can. Our self-paced network automation trainings are the perfect place to start your journey in network and IT infrastructure automation or to upskill yourself further if you are seasoned engineer. There is no such thing as excessive knowledge, therefore we encourage you to join our network automation programs and start your study today:

We offer the following training programs in network automation for you:

During these trainings you will learn the following topics:

  • Success and failure strategies to build the automation tools.
  • Principles of software developments and the most useful and convenient tools.
  • Data Continue reading

From Python to Go 005. Code Flow Control: Loops and Conditionals.

Hello my friend,

In the previous blog post we briefly touched on the conditionals, when we talked about looking for presence of some element in Python list or Go slice. So I thought, it would make sense to introduce now the key concept of the code flow control, which are conditionals and loops. These items are essential for any production code, so let’s see how it works.

Does Automation Come Last?

Surfing through the LinkedIn today I’ve found an interesting picture, which was attributed to Elon Musk and Twitter (or X, how is that called now):

I don’t if that is really related to Mr Musk and Twitter in any capacity, but thoughts it contains are quite important: your first remove all unnecessary steps and optimize everything you can, before you start any automation. That’s very true and in our network automation trainings we talk about how to optimize network operations processes to ensure that they are viable for automation. Join our network trainings to learn how to build viable automation:

We offer the following training programs in network automation for you:

From Python to Go 004. Arrays, Lists, Slices.

Hello my friend,

In this post we will start exploring how to store multiple values in a single variable. There are multiple approaches how this can be achieved both in Python and Go (Golang). The first one we’ll cover is using ordered something of elements. We’ve used word “something”, because in Python this is called list, whilst Go (Golang) use the term slice. Let’s see what is similar and what is not between Python and Go (Golang).

Who Else Deals With Network Automation?

Just this week there was a massive event Autocon2, which is the biggest gathering of network automation enthusiasts from the entire world. People from different industries shared their experience, success stories and challenges. Whilst many of those insights are different, all of them revolve around the central idea that network automation is a must.

We have started doing network automation trainings before it become mainstream, yet we constantly update its content with new things. Start your training today to onboard the training, which is just leaving the platform.:

We offer the following training programs in network automation for you:

From Python to Go 003. Functions, External Modules, And Linux/MAC Environment.

Hello my friend,

We continue our journey in the realm of software development, or how some people call it programming. In the previous blog post we’ve introduced you to variables, which are the storage containers for your data. Today we’ll take a look into functions, which are next essential building of any application.

How Is Automation Important Today?

Interviewing people to various roles at high-profiles companies, I was sadly surprised that there is very low number of people who really understand network and IT infrastructure automation and are capable to write the Python code to do so. And I’m talking about companies, who are genuinely interested in good automation engineers. Don’t waste your chance, start learning network automation today:

We offer the following training programs in network automation for you:

During these trainings you will learn the following topics:

  • Success and failure strategies to build the automation tools.
  • Principles of software developments and the most useful and convenient tools.
  • Data encoding (free-text, XML, JSON, YAML, Protobuf).
  • Model-driven network automation with YANG, NETCONF, RESTCONF, GNMI.
  • Full Continue reading

From Python To Go 002. Basic Data Types (Numeric, Boolean, String) and Variables.

Hello my friend,

We continue our blog series about learning Go (Golang) as second programming language, which you can use for network and IT infrastructure automation. Today we’ll talk about the basic data types and variables both in Python and Go

How To Start Automating?

Any programming language, whether it is Python or Go (Golang), is a tool to implement your business logic. Whilst it is very important to be experienced with the tool, it is important also to understand the wide context of network automation, and this is where our trainings will kick start you:

We offer the following training programs in network automation for you:

During these trainings you will learn the following topics:

  • Success and failure strategies to build the automation tools.
  • Principles of software developments and the most useful and convenient tools.
  • Data encoding (free-text, XML, JSON, YAML, Protobuf).
  • Model-driven network automation with YANG, NETCONF, RESTCONF, GNMI.
  • Full configuration templating with Jinja2 based on the source of truth (NetBox).
  • Best programming languages (Python, Bash) for developing automation
  • The most rock-solid and Continue reading

From Python To Go 001. Get Started.

Dear friend,

As mentioned in previous blogpost, I’ve kicked the new series of blog posts related to Go (Golang programming language) and how to pick that up. Originally my idea was just to explain some concepts, pretty much I’ve done back in past with Code eXpress (CEX) for Python. But then I’ve thought through it further and decided to write a side-by-side guide with Python and Go together, exactly as I’ve done before with multi vendor network automation, when started writing about Nokia SR OS and Cisco IOS XR back in 2016.

Do I Need Both Python And Go?

In our opinion, yes, you do need both. Each of these programming languages shines in some areas more than another. And both of them are applicable to network and infrastructure automation. As such, we recommend to study both, but to start with Python as it is easier and at this stage is wider used than Go. So we encourage you to start with our Network Automation Trainings:

We offer the following training programs in network automation for you:

Go as another automation language 000. The Beginning.

Dear friend,

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged for the last time. Probably it was too long since I’ve blogged. But, here I am back, with some new ideas and fresh perspectives. One of the key new idea is usage of Go, which I’m actively picking up now. And just shortly I will tell you why.

Do You Still Use Python?

We absolutely do. In fact, we not only using it, but also teaching it from the perspective of network automation. In our flagship training Zero-to-Hero Network Automation Training we guide you the whole way from having little to no theoretical knowledge and practical skills to a good level of developing automation software with Python. Python is at heart of many purpose-built network (and not only) automation systems, such as NetBox, StackStorm and many others. It’s ecosystem is vast and there are no signs of it slowing down. Therefore, getting good exposure to Python from Network Automation perspective is a good step to increase your own value and secure your job place looking forward. To be brutally honest, any network engineering role nowadays requires Python and/or Ansible knowledge, so don’t pass by.

Here is what we have to offer Continue reading

C 001. Intro into the IPv4/IPv6 Application Support from the Software/System Point of View.

Dear friend,

Being a long-time network engineer, I’ve seen (and done) it all: talking about about IPv6, designing and implementing IPv6 in production service providers and data center networks, holly wars IPv6 vs IPv4, industries saying they aren’t going to use IPv6 ever, and many others. For some network engineers, it could be even quite an “innovation” project (I clearly remember some senior person told me back in 2018 that introduction of IPv6 is an innovation; quite a statement in the 20-years anniversary of IPv6). But today I want to talk about it from a different angle.

How Is Network Relevant for Software?

In many cases every day we rely on the software, which works over Internet: whatever you need to buy or sell some goods, order a table in your favorite cafe, book ticket to train to visit your friends. Connected world is around us and, if for whatever reason it breaks, our life immediately becomes much more difficult. That’s because the applications rely on the Internet and their capability to provide you the service depends on their capabilities to connect from your smartphone or laptop to the application servers. And this capability is significantly affected by Continue reading

Kubernetes 005. Overview of MicroK8s from Canonical (Ubuntu-folks).

Dear friend,

This year I had a pleasure and privilege to attend KubeCon Europe 2023 and this was the first time I’ve heard about MicroK8s. That sounded interesting and I decided I shall experiment with it and write a blogpost; but it didn’t catch my attention to a degree that I put it on top of my list; instead, I’ve put it to back burner. The last week I was talking to a colleagues of mine, who told me that he needs to test something in his production Kubernetes at home. I was quite interested, what does the one mean by “production Kubernetes cluster at home” and it appeared to be MikroK8s. At this stage I though, I don’t have any more excuses, so I just should sit and write it.

Is Kubernetes Used in Network Automation?

It is, indeed. The last week when we posted a blog about starting programming in C we got an interesting discussion in LinkedIn about Go vs Python with one right-honorable gentleman, who rightfully suggested that one of the main weaknesses of Python is that it requires to install dependencies on the host before you can use application. However, to be brutally honest, many Continue reading

C. Part 00. How I have appeared here after many years in Python?

Hello my friend,

It has been a long, very long break in posting. In fact, it was almost for half a year, which are not proud of in any capacity. However, this was needed to allow my to accomplish a few things in my own study and get back even more loaded, so that I can share more useful information and insights about networking, computing, software development and IT in general.

So, Have You Stopped Doing Automation?

We have absolutely not. In fact, developing software for distributes systems, which requires network connectivity between their components, I see how critical is to have the entire IT infrastructure (including networking) to have done right. By “done right” I mean the IT/network infrastructure, which is stable, predictable and deterministic. And in the fast pace environment, where you scale your infrastructure quick up and down (we are not talking about Kubernetes here), the network automation is the only way to achieve this level of precision and sustainability. So, my dudes, network automation is THE ONLY way how the network can be operated in now and in future. Your software development/business teams will be happy if you do things in your network automated way, I Continue reading

Automation 22. How to Use NetBox Scripts To Add Value To Your Network Source of Truth

Dear friend,

Source of Truth plays crucial role in network automation as this is the basis we are automating our IT and network infrastructure against. It doesn’t mean to be monitoring system in any capacity. At the same time, it may be useful to quickly do some checks against your network infrastructure and to update some metadata in the Source of Truth.

Oh, Are You Talking About NetBox Again?

Yes, we are. NetBox is a leading tool in the source of truth framework. Being open-source, it by far outpaces all other open-source and commercial tools existing worldwide in this area. On top of its wide built-in capabilities, it is highly extensible via plugins and scripts.

The good news is that we covered NetBox in our Zero-to-Hero Network Automation Training, and you can benefit from learning it from the context of network automation with integrations to Python and Ansible tools, which you create during our training.

We offer the following training programs for you:

During these trainings you will learn the following topics:

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