Course Introduction
AIOps Part 4 focuses on open-source automation and observability platforms, helping network engineers evolve from standalone scripts to reusable, monitored, alerted, and analyzable operations workflows. The course begins with a complete lab environment and uses Ansible Inventory, Playbooks, Vault, Galaxy, and Roles for bulk network configuration, change validation, and credential protection. It then introduces Nornir Inventory, Tasks, and plugins to build Python-native automation workflows.
For metrics, the course builds two monitoring stacks: Telegraf, InfluxDB, and Grafana; and SNMP Exporter, Prometheus, and Grafana. Topics include SNMP, Model-Driven Telemetry, gRPC, gNMI, gNOI, dashboards, and email and DingTalk alerts. For logs, Elasticsearch, Kibana, Filebeat, and Docker Compose are used to collect and analyze Cisco ASA and NGINX logs through indexes, Discover, filtering, and visualization. The final section uses NetFlow and ElastiFlow for traffic collection, parsing, and dashboard analysis.
The course unifies configuration management, metrics, logs, and traffic data through containerized deployment, TLS, collection, storage, queries, visualization, and alerting. It is designed for learners who want to build modern network automation and observability capabilities.
Companion Git repository: https://git.qytang.com/qytadmin/opensourcesoftware
Preview video duration: 33 minutes 55 seconds
Course Curriculum
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01
- 1.1
Lab Topology and Network Device Preparation
Configure Cisco C8000v, ASA, management networking, and access credentials.
- 1.2
Rocky Linux and Containerized Lab Environment
Prepare Rocky Linux, DNS, certificates, snapshots, and the open-source software runtime.
- 1.1
-
02
- 2.1
Ansible Overview and Installation
Understand Ansible architecture, modules, and network collections, and complete installation.
- 2.2
Ansible Inventory and Environment Configuration
Configure ansible.cfg, hosts, YAML inventory, group_vars, and SSH parameters.
- 2.3
Playbooks and YAML
Master plays, tasks, modules, variables, and YAML data structures.
- 2.4
Bulk Network Configuration with Ansible
Configure IOS XE and ASA interfaces, routing, and security policies at scale.
- 2.5
Configuration Change Inspection and Validation
Compare configuration diffs before and after execution and validate results.
- 2.6
Processing YAML with Python
Use Python to read, modify, and generate YAML data for automation.
- 2.7
Credential Protection with Ansible Vault
Encrypt passwords and sensitive variables and use them safely in playbooks.
- 2.8
Ansible Galaxy and Roles
Reuse collections, roles, and directory conventions to structure larger automation projects.
- 2.9
Nornir with Vault
Integrate encrypted credentials into Nornir-based Python automation.
- 2.10
Nornir Architecture and Inventory
Understand Nornir initialization, inventory, groups, defaults, and plugins.
- 2.11
Nornir Tasks and Integrated Practice
Orchestrate filtering, concurrent tasks, device connections, configuration, and result handling.
- 2.1
-
03
- 3.1
Telegraf, InfluxDB, and Grafana Architecture
Understand the data flow between collectors, time-series databases, and visualization platforms.
- 3.2
InfluxDB Time-Series Database
Learn measurements, time series, Flux queries, and Python operations.
- 3.3
Telegraf Collection with SNMP and gRPC
Configure SNMP inputs and gRPC telemetry inputs for IOS XE and ASA.
- 3.4
Deploying the Monitoring Stack with Docker Compose
Deploy collection, storage, and visualization components as containers.
- 3.5
Grafana Dashboards and Alerts
Configure data sources, dashboards, email and DingTalk alerts, and embedded views.
- 3.6
Model-Driven Telemetry
Understand MDT architecture, dial-out and dial-in modes, and YANG data paths.
- 3.7
gRPC Telemetry Practice
Stream IOS XE operational metrics such as CPU through gRPC and visualize them in Grafana.
- 3.8
End-to-End Automation with gNMI
Use gNMIc for capability discovery, subscriptions, retrieval, and configuration operations.
- 3.9
gNOI Operations and Certificate Management
Use gNOI for network device maintenance and certificate lifecycle operations.
- 3.10
SNMP Exporter, Prometheus, and Grafana
Generate SNMP modules and configure Prometheus, rules, Alertmanager, and Grafana.
- 3.1
-
04
- 4.1
Elasticsearch, Kibana, and Filebeat
Understand log collection, index storage, querying, and visualization components.
- 4.2
Containerized EFK Deployment with TLS
Deploy EFK with Docker Compose, certificates, and security settings.
- 4.3
Cisco ASA and NGINX Log Collection
Use Filebeat modules to collect, parse, and ingest network device and web logs.
- 4.4
Indexes and Data Views
Create ASA and NGINX indexes and Kibana data views.
- 4.5
Discover, Queries, and Filters
Control time ranges and use query syntax and filters to locate log events.
- 4.6
Log Visualization and Dashboards
Create charts, tables, dashboards, and embedded views.
- 4.1
-
05
- 5.1
NetFlow Versions and Device Configuration
Compare NetFlow versions and configure flow records, exporters, and monitors.
- 5.2
Containerized ElastiFlow Deployment
Configure ElastiFlow, certificates, ports, and Docker Compose services.
- 5.3
Traffic Dashboards and Analysis
Import saved objects and analyze sessions, protocols, and traffic trends through dashboards.
- 5.1
Course Video
Watch the public preview here or open it on the original video platform.
Major Automation Operations Course Update: Open-Source Automation Software Overview
6 MIN
Watch on the Original PlatformNetDevOps Open-Source Automation Tools Course Introduction
12 MIN
Watch on the Original PlatformEnd-to-End Network Device Automation with NETCONF, RESTCONF, gNMI, gRPC, and gNOI
9 MIN
Watch on the Original PlatformgNMI Configuration Operations and gNOI Certificate Maintenance
7 MIN
Watch on the Original Platform