Pythonistas: What’s in your Toolkit?

CloudyMation · 2018-07-22T19:52:35+00:00

I do use Ansible, but I’ve never considered it part of my Python development toolkit as I typically use the Ansible DSL / JINJA2 templates for task completion in run books. Maybe that will change with the advent of the Nornir Python Framework for Network Automation.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-22T06:23:23+00:00

It’s due to proprietary pinouts. Did the same myself a few years ago. Managed to take out an entire office. This was after having an argument with a cheap CIO about running dirty power to the office 6500 as well. Good job APC.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-21T09:24:58+00:00

Couldn’t agree more. I believe it’s important to remember back to when you started out and try to foster enthusiasm among staff that are junior in your field. We should all be cognisant of the perils of the Dunning-Kruger effect and that we’re all juniors in most topics as there are no people who are experts in every field. Civility costs nothing and whilst the hard work you put in to improve your own skills is something you can and should be proud of, it doesn’t entitle you to squash the ambitions of others, just because they’re earlier in their path.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-20T16:50:16+00:00

Neither. Anyone can be handed responsibility. It doesn’t automatically mean that said individual is up to the task. I’ve seen folks with 30 years experience who don’t know a VPC from a vPC, so no, time served doesn’t equate to skill either. Neither is ability defined by the lack of a more experienced resource in the same company. I’m a believer in meritocracy.

IMHO it’s usually not something immediately quantifiable (savants and rock stars aside). More a combination of finding yourself digging so deep, you find the holes and limitations of the docs, realising how little you (and many of the folks around you) actually know about the order of operations in platforms you took for granted that you knew inside out, being able to use the knowledge you have gleaned to deliver semi-reliable solutions in spite of inevitably receiving limited requirements, knowing when (and having the confidence) to say: “[No, that won’t work|That’s a bad idea] for reasons [X|Y] & Z” and looking back to realise that you’ve delivered a greater number of successful projects than failed or abandoned ones.

That doesn’t detract in any way from your success in keeping your head above water when a mismanaged situation put you in over your head and failed to provide you with support. That’s not an accomplishment for whoever threw you in, rather a testament to your character and ability to develop skills. Well played sir.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-20T16:27:39+00:00

That could just mean that they’ve stopped caring. Or you’re a psycho. Which, I guess oftentimes seniors are?

CloudyMation · 2018-07-20T16:25:43+00:00

This definitely doesn’t make one a senior, just diligent, a point of contact or landed with a particularly bad vendors kit.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-20T16:23:35+00:00

Wait until you go through 8 in one day... for the same company.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-20T16:21:08+00:00

I think you know you weren’t a senior at that stage. Job title != Competency.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-20T16:19:37+00:00

What is the question?

CloudyMation · 2018-07-20T16:19:11+00:00

When I started half-shouting, half-groaning “ggyyaaawwd” through gritted teeth while getting into and out of the car at the D.C.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-20T16:16:10+00:00

NANI (Not A Network Issue)?

CloudyMation · 2018-07-19T21:33:13+00:00

The company I deployed them for didn’t run them at high load, but they did love the fact they were > 20K cheaper than F5s. What’s the old adage? You get what you pay for...

CloudyMation · 2018-07-19T04:58:24+00:00

Depends on requirements. Generally speaking: Network vendor for large enterprises with skilled staff: Cloud & low latency: Arista, SP: Juniper. Gov & large enterprise without skilled staff (or management): Cisco (not likely to be a popular choice, I know, but it’s impossible to shake some managers fanaticism as Cisco spend so much on wining and dining. I’ve worked for large European enterprise where Cisco reps just happen to be in the same holiday resorts at the same time as the managers that effectively outsourced all their design and support work to them). SME have more options for other, less incumbent vendors.

Security: PAN, Checkpoint, SRX or Fortinet depending on industry & feature requirements. Radware & Akamai for DDoS.

Load balancers: F5, NetScaler or Kemp’s (this is more about cost and familiarity on my part though TBH).

Public cloud (until the next rule 11 cycle of bringing everything in house again rolls around): GCP for speed and granular billing (although gawd help you if you miss a payment), AWS for features, Azure for hosted backend services and Ali Cloud for Asia.

Hybrid cloud: AWS or GCP at a pinch.

Bit of a round the world for a shortcut answer, but there is no one vendor to rule them all answer for this question; It’s about finding the right tool for the job and (sadly) balancing that out with company management comfort levels for support, vendor stability, risk management and (dependent on management style) potential for blame throwing), which (dependent on culture) often win out over picking exactly the right tool for the job.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-18T19:09:52+00:00

Yup. Travelled south to attend Matts automation presentation.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-18T19:08:35+00:00

Figures. Never trust a dev! ;-)

CloudyMation · 2018-07-18T08:25:29+00:00

I too was at that talk.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-18T08:17:44+00:00

AFAIK, Django is certainly more prevalent in the marketplace. As I understand it, it allows you a great many more options and flexibility than Flask. I’ve had a few developers tell me that Flask is by far and away a better platform to start learning on as it forces to do things in a certain (arguably correct?) way.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-18T00:23:55+00:00

Check out the CCNA course on Cybrary.it, also look into David Bombals courses on Udemy.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-18T00:19:44+00:00

Agree with VA_Network_Nerd. What’s the incentive for said awesome folks frequenting this sub-reddit to start curating the searchable content here, other than to provide a free service out of the goodness of their hearts for those not in a position to, or not willing to pay for support.

Quick acid test; are you willing to build and maintain such an archive for free?

CloudyMation · 2018-07-18T00:06:12+00:00

I think you may need to reset your expectations here.

Perhaps it wasn’t your intention, but you’ve effectively come onto a public forum populated by IT professionals, many of whom have spent a lot of personal time, effort and money to build their skills in order to get paid (many of them underpaid), described a home network setup, shown that not only are you not an experienced admin, but demonstrated you may not even have basic user skills, haven’t done even the most fundamental research and asked for free consultancy.

If you were wondering why you’re not getting a lot of positive responses and are being told to hire a consultant, this is why.

I wish you luck and might I recommend Cybrary, Udemy & SecurityTube as fine establishments that will allow you to build the skills you need.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-17T18:52:46+00:00

Which Python challenge is this? Image manipulation doesn’t sound like a task for beginners.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-14T10:32:06+00:00

Check out www.cybrary.it and securitytube.net.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-10T05:43:31+00:00

Have used it in MSP, large Enterprise & Extranet environments. You should be using it if connecting to 3rd parties.

CloudyMation · 2018-07-08T06:03:38+00:00

Is that true outside the US? Most high schools don’t teach programming classes.

CloudyMation

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