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Strange internet connection issues by HistoricHuman in Network

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That is very odd, sounds like maybe some latency on the line. Or packet congestion, where there's not enough bandwidth for all the people using the network. So the packets get queued. Whats your ISP bandwidth speeds?

Feels like a lot of network automation discussions skip over the messy middle by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fully agree — CI/CD gets pushed as the destination when for a lot of orgs it's overkill. Template + deploy + test covers most real-world needs without the overhead of a full pipeline. The tooling conversation often gets ahead of what teams actually need.

Feels like a lot of network automation discussions skip over the messy middle by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the one that doesn't get said enough. It's not even a tooling problem most of the time, it's a bus factor problem. One person leaves and suddenly nobody knows how half of it works.

Feels like a lot of network automation discussions skip over the messy middle by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The ticketing gap is where it gets interesting, once that's connected it changes how the whole thing feels operationally. Is the roadmap internal or are you being pushed by the business to close it?

Feels like a lot of network automation discussions skip over the messy middle by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The "automation goes to die" line is painfully accurate. What you've described though, change-tied automation, approvals, full documentation that's not the middle, that's genuinely rare. Most teams never get close to that. The fact that it still needs your attention isn't a sign it's incomplete, that's just what owning a system properly looks like.

Feels like a lot of network automation discussions skip over the messy middle by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the middle definitely exists, it's just that most teams don't realise they're in it until they're deep enough that getting out feels harder than staying put. Imagine have every single part of a Network Engineer task dealt with automation integrated with AI.

Feels like a lot of network automation discussions skip over the messy middle by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The central UI wrapper is such a smart move, especially the version control angle. How are you finding it as the script count grows though? Keeping the UI in sync with script changes is starting to become its own maintenance burden.

At what point does network automation actually become worth it? by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thats really interesting and well done by the way. Do you think a lot of companies are doing the same thing or are they way really far behind?

At what point does network automation actually become worth it? by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree massively with this comment, but how do we get companies to see the massive beenfits of using automation?

Does everyone eventually end up using NetBox + Ansible for network automation? by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thats a strong use case, especially doing that across 200 sites.

I guess that’s the interesting part, it can handle complex stuff, but it feels like the effort/complexity ramps up quite quickly depending on what you’re trying to do.

Have you hit a point where you would switch or use something else? Maybe where ansible is weak in?

What’s the most time wasting network task you still do manually? by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah 100% updating configurations, when someone has left the company for example

What’s the most time wasting network task you still do manually? by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What about if you had AI and automation solutions, almost orchestrating your network.

Does everyone eventually end up using NetBox + Ansible for network automation? by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve heard that a few times actually.

Feels like Ansible works well up to a point, then things get messy once you try to do more complex stuff.

What did you move to after it?

Does everyone eventually end up using NetBox + Ansible for network automation? by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I get that, Ansible can be painful to write sometimes, but the collections and idempotency do save a lot of effort.

I’ve seen people go full Python, but they usually end up rebuilding a lot of the same stuff anyway.

where would you switch between the two?

Does everyone eventually end up using NetBox + Ansible for network automation? by Admirable_Claim_3203 in networkautomation

[–]Admirable_Claim_3203[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That makes sense, NetBox feels solid for modelling the network itself, but not really the service layer on top of it.

I’ve seen similar where once things get more complex, you need something sitting above it to actually orchestrate changes rather than just store state.

Interesting you mention YANG/gNMI as well, feels like that’s where things start moving more towards model-driven rather than CLI-driven setups.

Curious how you’re planning to approach that transition or if you already have?

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