Network Doodles

Welcome to Network Doodles, your go-to destination for mastering networking and network automation. If you write advanced scripts with Python, streamlining operations with Ansible, managing infrastructure as code with Terraform, navigating the complexities of specific vendor solutions, or just starting out. I’ve got you covered.

Managing TLS Certificates Using Ansible and Let’s Encrypt! PART 1:

Part 1: Basics of Using Ansible Core to Request a Let’s Encrypt Certificate Prerequisites Ansible Core installed on your control node. Ansible Vault enabled. Cloudflare account with API token and DNS Zone ID for the zone your using to create the Certificate. you can use this endpoint in postman to retrieve your DNS Zone ID: https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/ Basic knowledge of Ansible and YAML syntax. For this tutorial I will be using Ubuntu 22....

Managing TLS Certificates Using Ansible and Let’s Encrypt! PART 2:

Part 2: Managing Certificates with AWX/Ansible Automation Platform and GitOps Introduction Continuing from Part 1, this tutorial will guide you through managing Let’s Encrypt certificates using AWX/Ansible Automation Platform. We can use the exact same playbook from part 1 with a few modifications. You will also have to make sure you have a few Prerequisites setup a head of time. Prerequisites AWX/Ansible Automation Platform installed and configured. In this part will be using the Ansible GUI version AWX/AAP GitLab - AWX/AAP both require that your playbooks are stored in a central git repository I will be using GitLab....

Managing TLS Certificates Using Ansible and Let’s Encrypt! PART 2.1:

Part 2.1: Deploying Let’s Encrypt Certificates to an ASA Using Ansible with AWX/AAP Introduction Continuing from Part 2 of our series, this tutorial will guide you through Let’s Encrypt certificates using AWX/Ansible Automation Platform to an ASA firewall. There will be a new playbook to apply the certificate to the ASA, but running the playbook will be the same as in Part 2 of our series. You will also have to make sure you have a few Prerequisites setup a head of time....

How to Use NetBox as an Inventory in Ansible Core

Introduction to NetBox and Ansible Core NetBox is an open-source tool designed for network automation and infrastructure management, specializing in managing IP address allocations and data center infrastructure. Ansible Core is a widely used automation tool that allows you to automate software provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment. Integrating NetBox with Ansible Core can centralize your network inventory, making it easier to manage and automate your network devices. This integration leverages NetBox’s API to dynamically pull inventory data into Ansible using a YAML configuration file....

Understanding YAML Files: A Guide for Network Engineers

Understanding YAML Files: A Guide for Network Engineers In network engineering, configuration files play a huge role in managing complex network infrastructures and automation. YAML (Yet Another Markup Language) has emerged as a popular format for configuration files due to its simplicity and readability. This article breaks down the components of YAML files and illustrates their significance for network engineers. What is YAML? YAML is a human-readable data serialization standard that can be used to structure data for easy reading and writing....

STOP HARD CODING PASSWORDS IN YOUR CODE!

Don’t you hate when tutorials show you something and then say, “I’m just doing it this way for the tutorial,” or, “It’s my lab, so they don’t use best practices,” but never show you the proper way? One thing that always bothered me when I was starting out with network automation was tutorials that almost always used plain text passwords with a disclaimer: “This is my lab; don’t do this in production....