After 6.5 years I've made a decision to leave Cisco as well as network automation. Since today I am having two months off to self-reflect and recharge and I will be joining AWS as a Cloud Infrastructure Architect in July.
I have been working on Networking fundamentals YT video for almost 3 weeks now, it is slowly turning into Networking fundamentals crash course. I explain TCP, DNS, routing, DHCP and many other core topics in relatively brief form.
Very curious how it will be perceived.
It is live. Learn networking fundamentals with my 70 min crash course.
I am covering IP addressing, routing, switching, TCP, DNS, DHCP, BGP, NAT and VPN.
Will be useful not only for net eng, but also for app devs and devops. Essential to know before building a VPC.
Link in 🧵
I’ve built an AWS networking curated learning path for internal folks. But it actually contains a lot of public resources. Anyone interested in becoming good at AWS networking? Should I release a trimmed down version of that list publicly?
Excited to share some good news with you!
Today is my first day in a new role - Network Automation Architect in Global Demo Engineering at Cisco working with my friends
@dschuemann
and
@DeniseFishburne
✅ DEVCOR
✅ ENAUTO
✅ DEVASC
Passed 3 new DevNet exams in 3 days which means I am now DevNet Associate, DevNet Specialist and DevNet Professional certified!
It has been challenging and fun! But I am happy it's over, I need a break from certs.
#DevNet
#DevNetCert
#DevNet500
What a great way to end my network automation journey! It's probably the most impactful thing I've worked on in my career so far. I am proud to have had a chance to build
#DevNet
Expert with such a impressive team led by the man of many talents, great leader and friend
@hfpreston
Let me pat myself on the back and collect social media points.
Today I was promoted to Senior Cloud Infrastructure Architect at AWS Professional Services 🙌🍸
Yesterday's stream results: wrote a Python script which adds ~400 routers to GNS3 topology, adds links to them, starts them and they get correct IP addresses from DHCP.
Is this world's biggest
@gns3
lab?
Recording:
#gns3
#python
#devnet
#netdevops
Today I finally got a card confirming my permanent residence status in Poland🥳
I remember 6 years ago I wasn't convinced I would stay here that long, but Krakow has grown on me and there are a lot of things here I appreciate.
Now I can start my own consultancy if I want to😉
Passed recently released AWS Networking Core learning path and got the badge.
If you want to learn more about networking on AWS, I can recommend going through the official learning path here:
Today is my 5 years Cisco anniversary!
I could say many great things about Cisco, but what I like the most is how many incredible and talented co-workers I've met during this time!
I've just released my AWS Networking Learning Path - curated list of resources to help you become AWS Networking expert.
Started as an internal initiative for onboarding new engineers on my team, I realized that part of it can be externalized so I did.
I have been working on Networking fundamentals YT video for almost 3 weeks now, it is slowly turning into Networking fundamentals crash course. I explain TCP, DNS, routing, DHCP and many other core topics in relatively brief form.
Very curious how it will be perceived.
now that my networking fundamentals video is finally out, I think it is time to dive deep into AWS Networking. I will be recording video about the main AWS networking construct - VPC this weekend.
Come prepared with IP addressing, routing basics and NAT knowledge :)
After 2.5 years of not doing network engineering (was focused on writing software), I had a need to troubleshoot a complex routing churn/loop. Even though I don't remember any protocol details (except of WLLA OMNI), I managed to solve it!
Once TAC engineer — forever TAC engineer.
My last
#CiscoLive
has been amazing. Happy I had a chance to see everyone and to say proper goodbyes. I've got some closure and it feels like a proper end of this chapter of my life.
Can't wait to get back home, rest a little and get ready for my next adventure in AWS.
❤️you all!
My first video is already on YouTube!
I plan to publish educational content, focusing on AWS networking and DevOps, expanding in the future to serverless, containers, software dev and maybe even career related conversations
link in 🧵
The
@gns3
lab is in its final form with 500 routers. Things like adding/deleting/starting/stopping nodes are driven by API. Last recording:
We didn't start on Ansible yesterday, so this is going to be our focus today.
#netdevops
#devnet
#python
Here is me on my last vacation days. I had a rest, relaxed and rebooted.
During the last year I have done a lot of progress towards understanding myself and I managed to find inner peace and joy. 🧘♂️🙏❤️
Ready to get back!
Network automation space is full of expert beginners, many don't fully understand what it means to write scalable and maintainable automation software. It resulted in majority of content (blogs, videos, conf talks) focusing on how easy you can get a quick win with script/playbook
Just got a confirmation that my session BRKOPS-2802 "Automation inside Cisco Customer Proof of Concept" for
#CiscoLiveEMEAR
in Amsterdam has been approved. 🔥
Spoiler: a lot of AWS and scrapli
I hope to see you there 😉
For years I ignored my health and barely did any sports. Today I started playing squash (with an instructor) — I completely sucked at it, but I liked it.
I am a little bit proud of myself.
Not gonna lie, I am sharing it to get some validation on twitter, lol😅
Today was my last (official) day at Cisco and it did feel quite weird after so many years. I am officially jobless now 😅
Will be spending one more month relaxing, but I am looking forward to the next chapter of my life!
#WeAreCisco
After 6.5 years I've made a decision to leave Cisco as well as network automation. Since today I am having two months off to self-reflect and recharge and I will be joining AWS as a Cloud Infrastructure Architect in July.
I am seriously considering starting a network automation community on dogehouse for weekly discussions.
Dogehouse because clubhouse's IOS only exclusivity doesn't appeal to me at all.
cc
@benawad
Passed
@awscloud
Solutions Architect Associate. I liked it and now I feel more confident building my apps inside AWS and will continue learning cloud.
AWS Adv. Networking will probably be next.
Let me collect some likes here before Twitter dies.
Refreshed AWS Advanced Networking Specialty exam is quite challenging, one of the hardest written exams I've tried (and I did many).
Thanks to
@adriancantrill
for the great course, it definitely helped me pass.
It is really hard to go to sleep knowing that in your homeland there is currently an ongoing military confrontation on a nuclear plant which resulted in fire.
It is like you are having a nightmare from which you can't wake up.
Yesterday on the stream I was building the network topology diagram based on LLDP information retrieved with RESTCONF + OpenConfig YANG model. I had 10 routers and it took 1.5 seconds for the whole program.
I didn't expect that RESTCONF was so efficient!
#NetDevOps
@Dixie3Flatline
@Data_Knox
for developers like myself and the extent of my understanding is writing Dockerfile and doing docker build/push/pull/run, does this mean that I can't use an image built with "docker build" in kubernetes?
An intern in my team without any previous professional experience applied machine learning / neural networks to identify malicious access urls in some of our logs and it worked successfully.
How cool is that? ❤️🔥
My letter with
@CiscoLive
Distinguished Speaker pin got lost in the post office, but finally I received it!
Thank you,
@CiscoDevNet
, for supporting me and my proposals and thanks to the attendees, coming to my presentations and giving the feedback!
#CLUS
#DevNet
I will be recording my first youtube videos this weekend. All editing / thumbnails stuff looks very frightening and causing anxiety. On the bright side I want to share the knowledge I've accumulated with people - I have at least 35 video ideas. Starting from AWS Networking.
Just got my vouchers and ready to go triple
#DevNet
certification exams (associate + core + enauto) on Feb, 24 if there are seats.
I am doing my part for DevNet 500.
Are you doing yours?
#DevNet
#CLEUR
There is an opening in my team at Cisco to focus on automation including
#networkautomation
. Remote work is fine and it doesn't necessarily have to be one of the listed countries.
If you would like to work in a great team, you can apply here😉
#netdevops
I disagree with Nick on a number of things, including his take about the books. But I am so sick of this constant public outrage and cancel culture. It would be better if you'd channel your outrage into creating useful content for the community, like Nick does all the time.
In lieu of my comments on reading, I've made a few key observations that I want to share here. I know that I've lost followers and possibly friends. Even for those who detest me now, please read this thread. It is not a series of groveling apologies but rather some advice.
I have been working with Terraform quite a lot lately and I think I dislike it more than I dislike Ansible, which was already very low on my list.
I will gather more data to support my argument before I am ready to share it publicly though.
Discovered this YouTube channel about Python / C++ and binge watched a number of Python vids. It is a gem.
This video might be useful for many people starting out with Python
#python
An announcement which I tried to do on the previous stream, which kept crashing.
I will no longer stream every week, from now on streams will be irregular.
I feel some fatigue from too much IT in my life. I want to relax more and focus more on writing.
Had 4 year work anniversary at Cisco last week. I have never regretted that I gave up my Master's degree, moved from Germany to Poland and joined this company.
I have been having awesome colleagues and managers (shoutout to
@askaccde
,
@abouchot
)
#WeAreCisco
#LoveWhereYouWork
After 8 years of programming in Python, I've started learning Go. Hopefully I will have enough motivation to get to a decent level.
I do believe that Go is more appropriate for building robust network automation controllers than Python.
Yesterday on the stream we added hundreds of devices using
@gns3
API:
Today we will add links and change startup configurations for these devices using API too.
Join me on 12/30 at 8 PM CET / 2 PM ET / 11 AM PT at
#DevNet
#NetDevOps
couldn't release the video this and last week, but planning to release 2 next week. the first one will be about general networking fundamentals and the second one will be about amazon VPC.
teaser
As the year is coming to the end, I would like to recognize a couple of folks in network automation area for their contributions. Thread! 🔥🎉
#Python
#NetDevOps
The session recording of my
#CLUS
presentation about Nornir – Python automation framework has been published:
I had a lot of fun doing live coding, I hope the audience liked it too! Thanks everyone for coming!
#CLUS
#DevNet
#NetDevOps
#Python
#Nornir
If you are interested in flexible and scalable network automation with Python + Nornir, please join me tomorrow at 5 PM
#DevNet
classroom 3 for my DEVNET-2192 session.
I offer:
- minimal slides
- a lot of live coding
- some prepared demo which almost noone has seen
#CLEUR
I updated and published my examples of using scrapli and added my thoughts on why I am using scrapli/scrapli-netconf/scrapli-cfg over netmiko/ncclient/napalm. You can find them here:
I tend to agree. They exist, but there aren't many of them.
There is still a widespread misconception that a neteng doing Python basics can design and build network automation systems, when in reality it's a completely separate job.
I gave up fighting it and quit to pursue cloud
On my way home from
#CLEUR
. Look who I was flying with!
It's Simon
@eskaytwo
from VIRL2 dev team.
Couldn't miss an opportunity to ask this guy a million questions 😅
#DevNet
@LearningatCisco
If you write code in Python, I can definitely recommend watching
@codewithanthony
streams/videos. In particular, his "anthony explains" YouTube playlist has a lot of great stuff which I found very helpful:
#python
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python course made by
@AlSweigart
is free on udemy for one more day:
That said if you liked his content, I'd strongly encourage you to support the author by buying his content😉
#python
On the next stream I'll be building a network automation controller in Python. It'll a web app with latest tech stack: asyncio, FastAPI, RESTCONF. Will be working on it over multiple streams
Join me on 3/8 at 6 PM CET/12 PM ET/9 AM PT at
#DevNet
#NetDevOps
Despite all that ongoing interest in the industry for network automation, I barely see any open roles with a title “network automation engineer” (or similar), especially around me in Europe / Poland. 🤔
#NetDevOps
#DevNet
this video about GitHub actions by
@fasterthanlime
starts weird, but gets surprisingly interesting. By the end, I was scratching my head how we had ended up with this widely adopted mess
Sometimes org hierarchy does not matter. Susie
@susiewee
is not my boss officially, but I consider her as my leader and myself as part of her team.
Thank you for the best party, Susie! Let's continue to rock together!
#CLUS
#DevNet
#python
asyncio &
#NetDevOps
thread
Interaction with network devices is a perfect use-case for Python asyncio - a typical application waits for i/o responses from many devices. Asyncio was designed to focus on i/o heavy apps. It's efficient and enables capabilities, like
1/
Tomorrow on the stream we will compare scrapli performance (asyncio and thread/nornir) vs netmiko/nornir vs ansible on my test lab with 500 routers.
If interested, join me on Sunday 7/19 at 6 PM CET / 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT at
#NetDevOps
The recording of my previous stream "Golang: SSH connection to network devices" is up:
My thoughts on Python vs Go for network automation included.
I used this article as a reference point: (kudos to Egor!)
#Golang
#NetDevOps
#python
asyncio thread
Writing a new app at work, decided to do it using asyncio. Mostly rest calls with aiohttp, mix of serial and concurrent tasks. After initial challenges, it has become pretty straightforward.
Sharing some observations and thoughts. Let's go!
1/
Personal career update: as a consultant, I am currently focusing on AWS networking and helping customers with hybrid network design. Occasionally I look into serverless (lambda/eventbridge/step fn).
no plans for any public content (blogs/streams/podcasts) on these topics... yet
Get started:
-
@TalkPython
course:
- asyncio docs:
- tutorials from listed libraries, e.g. FastAPI:
-
@llanga
asyncio series:
- (
#netdevops
specific) examples on my YT and GH
5/5
Business impact
Network infrastructure is often a necessity not core business. If it works already, what would be the ROI of hiring / upskilling people to do exclusively network automation with sw dev best practices? Hard sell to business.
One of the reasons I quit this field.
Informal survey for a talk I’m prepping for. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
What are your 3 largest barriers with network automation?
This can be barriers to getting started, adoption, operationalizing, upkeep, buy-in, skills.
What stops us? What holds us back?
A year ago on this day I attended my last conference before the quarantine, before our lives had changed significantly. It was
#CLEUR
@CiscoLive
. I miss those days so much 😭I miss the inspiration and energy I get there and I miss all the people.
Not going to lie, seeing all these posts from
#CiscoLiveEMEA
and not being there for the first time in 6 years feels sad.
Presenting at conferences was so fun 👀
Some folks in the community encourage to use this quarantine time to study hard.
I believe it's totally fine if you don't.
I have been having a hard time adjusting to this change and I don't feel guilty that I barely study on top of my work.
YANG Suite has been developed and used internally at Cisco for quite a while. I am glad to see the tool finally being available externally now:
I will also be attending the webinar about it with
@jeremycohoe
1h from now!
#NetDevOps
I've finally published a new blog post "Becoming a better engineer: study tips" where I cover motivation, mentorship, study groups, communities and Internet search.
Hardcore cert prep this weekend for 3
#DevNet
exams early next week.
I am having flashbacks to the last week of prep before my CCIE lab. I almost forgot how intense cert prep could be.
Wishing all candidates attempting exams next week good luck!
#DevNetCert
I am proud that many people from the network community stood up to this popular blogger and his recent blog post and voiced their opinion.
It is a disgusting post.
I am glad I stopped wasting time on Greg's content several years ago but he found new ways to hit the bottom.
This week I will host an exclusive stream where we'll be exploring VIRL2 together with its dev team from
@LearningatCisco
!
Interested in seeing VIRL2 and want to ask any question?
Join us on Feb 20th at 20.30 CET / 2.30 PM ET / 11.30 AM PT at
#DevNet
Recording of the network automation hangout
#10
is available in podcasting players. We covered NetBox 3.0, how to grow from a beginner to advanced network automation engineer and 3d visualization of operational data.
We are skipping this week's episode, see you in 2 weeks on 8/19
As part of Cisco
#DevNet
marathon for Russian customers, organizers gave the following homework: using LLDP information build a network diagram and track changes in the topology.
Here is one of the solutions built by an attendee:
At
#CLUS
I will have a
#DevNet
classroom session about Python network automation framework – Nornir. To make a point how easy it is to start using Nornir, I am seriously considering live coding on the stage. Should be fun 😉
Come to DEVNET-2192 on Monday to experience it with me!
Tomorrow on the stream we will take a look at Nornir 3.0.
If interested, join me on Sunday, 9/20 at 6 PM CET / 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT at
#NetDevOps
#python
Today I have spent many hours writing a grading script in bash for one of DevNet Expert tasks.
I must admit that I hate bash almost as much as I hate ansible. At least it doesn't break every 6 months, like a typical ansible playbook.
Tomorrow on the stream we'll explore pyATS/Genie and see what has changed since my first stream covering pyATS back in 2018 ().
If interested, join me on Sunday, 11/8 at 6.30 PM CET / 12.30 PM ET / 9.30 AM PT at
#python
#NetDevOps
Excited to say my latest course - an introduction to Python for network engineers - is now live on
@CBTNuggets
. This one assumes zero Python knowledge beforehand as we explore the language together, slowly building up from the last lesson🙂I really hope you find it useful! 🎉