Introduction to Python

0:12Hey, guys, and welcome to the CBT Nuggets course

0:15on learning Python for network engineers.

0:18So first, let's start by addressing who exactly

0:22is this course designed for.

0:24Well, the clue is in the name.

0:26It's designed for you, the network engineer.

0:29But why would you as a network engineer, the type of person

0:32who deals with access control lists, who configures routing

0:35protocols and VLANs, why exactly would someone

0:38like you want to learn a programming

0:42language like Python?

0:43Well, I'm sure you've already been keeping up

0:45with the latest news.

0:46Without doubt, the biggest buzz within the networking industry

0:50is the concept of network automation.

0:53Network automation is absolutely everywhere.

0:56And the significance of this change

0:58was really hammered home when Cisco announced its DevNet

1:02certifications.

1:03When this happened, people really

1:05started to take notice and realize that this was not

1:08a fad, it was not just hype, and it was not going away.

1:11Now, quite understandably, many within the networking industry

1:15were a little bit uncertain about this news.

1:18Networking is a really hard profession.

1:20It's not easy, as you know.

1:22How on Earth are you going to remember

1:24all of that crucial networking information,

1:26and then squeeze in a whole new profession?

1:29Do you have to be a developer now?

1:31A developer and a network engineer?

1:33Well, that's two separate professions.

1:35How much time in the day does someone really have, honestly?

1:38Well, here is the good news when it comes to network automation.

1:42Network engineers can learn the Python programming language

1:46to effectively do their network engineering

1:49job more efficiently.

1:51So the focus still is the network.

1:53Your network and information doesn't just go out the window.

1:56It doesn't just become antiquated and old hat.

1:59Certainly not at all.

2:00This is still going to be of primary importance.

2:03But what about this Python stuff.

2:05How much do we really need to learn?

2:06Do we have to become experts in programming?

2:09Well, again, this is the good news.

2:11You really don't have to learn an awful lot of Python

2:14to get a lot of mileage within the realm of network

2:19automation.

2:20So pretty much if you're just starting your career

2:23as a network automation engineer and you have some programming

2:26experience, well, this course certainly

2:29should help you solidify this information,

2:31and maybe help build upon this knowledge,

2:34and help give you ideas how to apply

2:36this knowledge to the network.

2:38But here's the thing.

2:39Even if you have no knowledge of programming whatsoever, i.e.

2:44zip, nada, none, then my goal for this course

2:47is to be able to help you get from ground zero

2:50up to learning the fundamentals of Python.

2:53And like I say, even a small amount of Python

2:56can go a long way in the network automation space.

2:59So ultimately, throughout this course,

3:01we're going to be discussing Python concepts such as lists,

3:04and dictionaries, and loops, and a whole lot more.

3:08But what my goal here as a network engineer primarily

3:12is to try to teach these concepts,

3:14not from the traditional programming point of view,

3:17my goal is to help you understand these concepts

3:20and see how they can be applicable to the network.

3:23Because it was only when I saw how

3:25it could be applied to the network,

3:27that was when my enthusiasm for the programming language

3:30really accelerated.

3:31Suddenly it felt like I had this big new superpower

3:35to be able to manage the network.

3:37And let's be honest, that sounds like fun.

3:39Now quite frankly, some concepts can't really

3:41be taught from a network-centric point of view.

3:44Sometimes we will fall back into more classical programming

3:48examples, but ultimately, we're always

3:50going to be trying to tie that information up and bring it

3:53back into the networking world where

3:55we can so you can really get a sense of the applicability

3:58here.

3:59So that is the rough goal for this course.

4:01But what about network automation generally.

4:03Why did this take off?

4:04Why is it such a big deal?

4:06Why can't you go on Twitter or LinkedIn

4:09without hearing a constant buzz about network automation

4:12from your colleagues?

4:14Well, at a glance, being able to program your networks

4:17is going to make your efficiency skyrocket.

4:20You know those mundane tasks you hate to do, perhaps

4:23maybe like documenting the network, how many devices do

4:26we have, and what are the serial numbers, and what

4:28are the IP addresses.

4:29And gather them all together and put them

4:31into an Excel spreadsheet.

4:32Wouldn't it be cool if you could just write a little program

4:35and then within 10 minutes, sit back, enjoy a coffee,

4:39and have a computer go and gather all that information

4:42all at once, put it into a spreadsheet,

4:44and send it off to your boss.

4:45Well, by learning Python, this is exactly the type of thing

4:48you will be able to do, no problem at all.

4:51And related to an increase in efficiency,

4:54we're also going to see an increase in speed.

4:57So it's not just about you being able to put your feet up

4:59and maybe go do another task at the same time

5:02as your program is executing.

5:03Simply put, what may take you three weeks to do manually,

5:07a program may be able to do within 10 minutes.

5:09Similarly, if you happen to make a mistake within the network,

5:13you can reverse those changes much faster as well.

5:16And if you know-- as a network engineer

5:18if you melt down that network, it

5:21can be a pretty stressful event.

5:23So if you can have an undo button, which

5:24can go out and pull the network back to a safe state,

5:28well, that's probably a good thing for your blood pressure.

5:30So tying in with that concept as well is we're

5:33going to see an increase in reliability.

5:36Teams that implement automation have much more stable networks.

5:40They have less downtime.

5:42And quite honestly, it really does encourage

5:45network development and growth.

5:46What do I mean when I say that?

5:48Many networking teams almost adopt a posture of fear.

5:52They don't want to make a change because if a change goes wrong,

5:54well, it might be hard to recover and re-converge

5:57the network.

5:58However, with automation, being able to make these changes much

6:01more reliably as well as having the option to easily roll back

6:06upon misconfiguration, it gives you a lot more freedom

6:09to try to optimize the network as opposed to just leaving it

6:12in a still stagnant state that you know

6:14is pretty safe, but not really optimal or efficient.

6:18And again, how much Python do you

6:19need to know to be able to do these types of things?

6:21Well, the good news again, I say, really not that much.

6:25And now lastly, almost selfishly,

6:27it's going to be really good for your career.

6:30Programming skills are really in demands,

6:33and the ability to be able to apply these skills to automate

6:36out networks so that they can be deployed faster, rolled

6:39back easier, more stable, save the company money,

6:42all of these things make you a valuable employee

6:45because if you can leverage the power of Python

6:48to be able to do the workload of 10,

6:5120, 30 regular network engineers, then

6:53you can imagine that companies will pay you a lot of money

6:56to be able to do that.

6:57So I really do think this is going

6:59to be a great journey for you to embark on.

7:01There is so much upside and it really is a lot of fun.

7:04Now, if you are like me and you come from a networking

7:07background and you know nothing about Python, then just like me

7:10I expect you to find some of the concepts

7:12a little difficult at first.

7:14This is plenty normal.

7:15It's no different than when you first learned how to subnet.

7:18The key here really is just simply practice.

7:21So throughout this course, I'm really

7:23going to try to make it as hands-on as possible for you,

7:26so that you're getting your hands dirty,

7:28you're typing up code, and you're

7:29beginning to see the applicability

7:31of what you're doing and how it actually

7:33pertains to the network.

7:35So suffice to say I'm really excited to get going with you.

7:37And I hope this has been informative for you,

7:39and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:12Hey, guys and welcome back.

0:14So, let's talk about this strange concept

0:17known as programming.

0:19When I first heard about programming, in my head

0:22I had this image of a lot of green text on a black terminal,

0:26and a lot of ones and zeros flying around and just

0:28a lot of magic happening.

0:30It just seems so esoteric and just so strange.

0:33But once you understand the concepts behind programming,

0:37everything becomes a lot clearer.

0:39Now, the first thing that you will

0:41notice when you began programming

0:43is that computers are pretty stupid

0:45and they are very, very literal.

0:47You know the way we as humans communicate with each other?

0:50This is not the way that programming works.

0:53You might hear a good song and say it's kick-[garbled],

0:55but to a computer, kick-[garbled] is committing an assault

0:57on someone's backside.

0:59Same way if you say a song is pure fire.

1:02Pure fire to a computer would be an emergency.

1:05That would be something is actually burning down.

1:07Computers are really, really literal.

1:09So, if I had to ask you, how do you make a cup of coffee?

1:13And I asked you to write down the steps of what you do.

1:15So, you might say, you know, you boil water.

1:18And then you say you put coffee in the cup.

1:20And then you pour boiled water into the cup.

1:24And then maybe you add some milk because you

1:26don't like it too hot.

1:27And then you add sugar, maybe, if you've

1:29got a sweet tooth like me.

1:30And then you drink the coffee.

1:33Now these are perfectly reasonable instructions

1:35you could give to a friend who doesn't really drink coffee,

1:38and they could take these instructions,

1:39go into your kitchen and probably

1:41make a pretty decent cup of coffee.

1:43OK, maybe not decent, but still a cup of coffee.

1:45But if you gave these types of instructions to a computer,

1:48you would have to be way more explicit.

1:51The computer would want to know where is the water coming from?

1:54How were you going to boil the water?

1:56What are you going to use?

1:58How are you going to get the water into the kettle?

2:00How can you tell if the water is boiled or not?

2:02Where did you get the coffee from?

2:04How do you know it's coffee and not tea?

2:06How do you know that the water has boiled?

2:08Add milk to cup.

2:09Add milk to which cup?

2:11The same as the coffee's in?

2:13Add sugar.

2:13Add sugar where?

2:15To the cup?

2:15To the table?

2:16Drink?

2:17Who's the drinker?

2:18And how do you drink it?

2:19What does it even mean to drink?

2:20Now, this all may sound a little crazy because you

2:24as a human don't think this way, but honestly, it's

2:27this type of literalism that you really

2:30have to kind of adapt to when you're dealing with programs.

2:33Again, the good news is, is that this is something

2:36you can definitely get used to and it really

2:38is quite fun to learn.

2:39So, that is a more broad overview

2:42of programming in general.

2:43But what about this language right here, Python?

2:46Well, some brief details about Python

2:48is that it is what's called an interpreted language.

2:51And you'll get to see what this means as we progress

2:54throughout this course.

2:55It's also called a high-level programming language.

2:59What does this mean?

3:00Well, is good news for me and you.

3:02It makes our job a lot easier.

3:04There's a higher level of abstraction.

3:06Python hides away a lot of the lower-level details of what's

3:09really going on under the hood.

3:11Now, ultimately, this makes Python a very readable

3:14programming language.

3:16Now, that doesn't mean that all Python code,

3:18you can just read it like you could read a book.

3:20But in the world of programming, Python code

3:23is vastly more readable than something like say,

3:26assembly language or Java.

3:29So, this makes a really good fit for us

3:31as network engineers who maybe don't

3:33have the classical programming background.

3:36Now, another great feature about Python

3:38is that it is so, so flexible.

3:41And this is something you're going to find out hopefully

3:43within this course is that with Python, you can do an almost

3:47limitless amount of things.

3:48And one of the reasons why this is possible

3:51is number one, the way the language has been designed.

3:53And two, because Python has a huge, huge community.

3:58So, how does a community actually

4:00help us as Python programmers?

4:02Well, basically, what people do is,

4:04they write their own Python code to create Python tools

4:08and modules.

4:09Here's an example.

4:10Someone in the Python community created

4:13a module called IP addr.

4:15Now, this is very useful for us as network engineers

4:18because with this module, you can just

4:21feed it a particular sub net and this module will automatically

4:25tell you the host range, the network address, the broadcast

4:29address, and many, many more.

4:31Ultimately, what this translates to

4:33is that, people have already done

4:36so much of the heavy lifting for us,

4:38we don't have to code all this ourselves.

4:40We can just make use of the great work of the wider Python

4:44community.

4:44And like I said, the community is so large.

4:47There are so many useful modules like IP addr

4:51which is going to make your job much, much easier.

4:53And in fact, you don't have to write the tools.

4:56If you just learn how to use the tools then

4:58you can really improve your efficiency

5:01in managing your network.

5:02Now, there's an important thing to note with Python.

5:05Is that there are two main branches of Python.

5:08First one is Python 2.

5:10You might still see this.

5:11And the second one is Python 3.

5:14Crucially, within the year 2020, i.e.,

5:17last year, Python 2 has been completely deprecated.

5:21There is no longer support for this.

5:23The difference between Python 2 and Python 3

5:25is that Python 2 was an older implementation of the language.

5:29There were some slightly different rules,

5:31some of the syntax was different,

5:33but you might still see some Python 2 code out in the wild.

5:36In fact, even if you happen to install maybe Ubuntu,

5:40by default, Python may actually be used in Python 2.

5:44This is something you want to watch out

5:46for because what we are going to be focusing on

5:48is the new Python 3.

5:50And when I say, new, Python 3 has been it

5:52for many, many years.

5:54But on this day in 2021, Python 3

5:56should really be the only type of Python you are using.

5:59And it's going to be Python 3 which

6:02we are going to be exclusively focusing on within this course.

6:05But how on earth do we set up Python 3

6:08and make sure it's not Python 2?

6:09Don't worry, we'll figure that out in the very next Nugget.

6:12So, I hope this has been informative for you,

6:14and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:12Hey, guys, and welcome back.

0:14So in this Nugget, what we're going to be discussing

0:16is how we can set up a programming environment

0:19within a Linux system.

0:21Now, I'm also going to be walking

0:23through how we can set up our environment for a Mac OS system

0:26as well as a Windows system.

0:28But I really would advise that you use a Linux system

0:31because so many of the tools with a network automation

0:34are tailored to be run on Linux.

0:36Now, Mac OS is also a Unix-based system

0:39so it's pretty close to just using Linux.

0:42So you could probably get away with using Mac OS

0:44but ultimately, if you can, I really

0:47would stress to try to use a Linux environment.

0:50So as you can probably tell from the top of the screen,

0:52this is not actually a native installation

0:55on the baremetal of my computer.

0:57Instead, this is just a Linux virtual machine.

1:01But quite frankly, this is a really great way

1:03to use your automation in my opinion, at least for lobbying,

1:07because virtual machines are easy to snapshot

1:09and roll back, so on and so forth,

1:11they're very, very to manage.

1:12And like I said, you get the benefit of a full Linux system.

1:16So what I'm going to do here is to walk you

1:18through the basic installation, which

1:20we need to do to get our Python environment up and running.

1:23So let me just log in to this Ubuntu machine.

1:26Now, this is an absolute fresh installation

1:29as virtual machines.

1:29There's nothing on this at all.

1:31OK, so we've now logged in.

1:33What I'm going to do it as just escape here.

1:35Hit on whatever that, click Next, and Next, Next

1:39and this is all done now.

1:41So the very first thing which I'm going to do

1:42is go to the bottom left of the corner here, click this.

1:45And what I'll search for is terminal and to Enter.

1:49So now we have a Linux terminal, let me just full-screen this.

1:52And what I'll do here to make us a little bit more

1:54readable is go to Preferences, I'll go to Unnamed,

1:58and then I'll go into Custom Font, click on this

2:00and it'll just increase the font size.

2:02It's a little bit easier for you to see.

2:04So I'll say 18 that's nice and large, click Select.

2:06OK.

2:07Now the version of Python that we are going to be using within

2:10this course is going to be Python 3.9 so let's get this

2:14installed on our system, so what I'm going to say is 'sudo apt -

2:19add' and I'll say 'repository' and do a space and then say

2:23'ppa : deadsnakes' which is a strange name,

2:28and then we'll do 'ppa' OK, perfect.

2:30So what I need to do is to type in my sudo password,

2:33which is my administrator password OK

2:35and I'll just hit Enter.

2:37OK, so forget that's a lot of money to install here.

2:39Now what I'm going to say is 'sudo

2:42apt install Python 3.main' and then hit Enter.

2:47Say 'Y' for yes, hit Enter again and that

2:50should now install Python 3.9.

2:52OK, so let's clear the screen.

2:54So if we say 'Python 3.9 - - version' hit Enter,

2:59you can see that we have Python 3.9 and this Python 3.9.6

3:03we've actually got here.

3:04Now what we want to do is to install something

3:06called an IDE, this is an Integrated Development

3:09Environment.

3:10Basically, this is a program designed for code development.

3:14In real terms it's like a text editor,

3:16but it's designed for codes.

3:18You'll get syntax highlighting top completion

3:21and many, many more features.

3:23Now, the IDE which I'm going to recommend,

3:25you install as one called VS code, Visual Studio code.

3:29And the way we can get this is say 'sudo snap

3:32install' and we'll say '- - classic code' hit Enter

3:36and that should begin installing.

3:39Just give this maybe a minute or so.

3:41And as simple as that, Virtual Studio

3:43code has now been installed.

3:45So what we can do here is just type the word 'code'

3:48and thus should launch Virtual Studio code within Linux.

3:51And from there if we just full-screen this

3:54and we just double click here at the site,

3:56that should open up a new file.

3:57And if we click Select Your Language, what I'm going to do

4:00is select Python so let's click Python.

4:04And down the bottom here, that's going

4:05to offer us do we want to install the recommended

4:08extensions for Python, so we'll just say Install.

4:11And you'll notice that it says here that it's installing.

4:14Now here's the thing, it says 'No Python interpreter is

4:16selected.'

4:17You need to select one.

4:18So what we'll do here is click Select Python Interpreter,

4:21and what we are going to do is select Python 3.9.6 here so

4:26click on this.

4:26And now if you just reload the window, let me just

4:29zoom in a little bit here, you can

4:31see that down the bottom left here we're actually now running

4:34Python 3.9.6.

4:36Perfect, so we now have Visual Studio code

4:39installed within Ubuntu and we have

4:42Python 3.9 running with a nut.

4:44Now the next thing that we are going to install

4:46is something called Git.

4:48You may have heard of the website called GitHub.

4:51Well, we will be using Git in conjunction

4:53with GitHub as a way to manage your code

4:55and we'll see more of that later on within our scale.

4:58But for now, I'm going to have to install Git,

5:00so I'll say 'sudo apt install' and I'll say 'git'

5:04and then hit Enter, and that's going to install.

5:06If I just see 'Y' for yes to accept,

5:08hit Enter again, perfect.

5:10And if we now say 'git - - version,' Perfect.

5:13So Git has been installed.

5:15Now, just for posterity, if you want

5:17to know what Ubuntu Image I'm actually using,

5:20let me just show you that.

5:21If we go to our browser and let's go to Google,

5:24and if I just search for download Ubuntu

5:27and click the top link here, I'll accept all.

5:30This is the version which I'm running, Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 LTS.

5:36LTS is the stable version, that's Long Term Support.

5:40So this is the version I recommend that you download,

5:43either you put it onto baremetal onto your laptop directly

5:46or your PC, or you do as I've done

5:49here is download this image and create a virtual machine.

5:52Now down here, that's going to tell you the recommended system

5:55requirements to download this operating system.

5:58The main point here is 4 Gig RAM,

6:00that's the minimum you want.

6:02That or more.

6:03And again 25 Gig of free hard drive space.

6:07Once again, you really probably want a little bit more

6:09than that given that we won't be installed

6:11until throughout this course.

6:12But ultimately, the good news is that if you

6:15can get as far as this, then you are ready to begin programming

6:19with Python and Linux Ubuntu.

6:21Let's see how we can do similar setups on different operating

6:25systems.

6:25And that's what we'll be doing next.

6:27I hope this has been informative for you,

6:28and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:12Hey, guys, and welcome back.

0:14So in the previous Nugget, we had just

0:15walked through a very basic set up of our Linux environment

0:19using Ubuntu.

0:20In this Nugget right here, we're going

0:22to be focusing on setting up our environment for a Mac OS.

0:26So let's walk through the installation of first Python,

0:29and then we'll go through the installation of VS Code then.

0:33So what I'm going to do here is go to my Safari browser

0:35down here and just open this.

0:37And let me just fullscreen this.

0:39So what I'll search for is download Python 3.9 Mac OS.

0:44So if I click on this top line here, download Python.

0:47So clearly here, we can see the link for download Python 3.9.6.

0:52Now depending on when you're watching us,

0:54this might not be the latest link.

0:56So if you want, you can just scroll on down a little

0:58bit here.

0:59And you can look for a specific release.

1:01So we had 3.9.6, so there is 3.9.6, and we've also got say,

1:04for example, 3.9.5.

1:05But as long as you've got 3.9, you should be pretty OK.

1:09OK, so we can get down to 3.9.6.

1:11If I click Download here and scroll on down--

1:14OK, so I'm going to choose Mac OS 64-bit Intel

1:18installer, because I have an Intel machine.

1:20Let me just click this.

1:21Do I want to allow downloads?

1:22I'll say allow.

1:23And it's just going to download at the top right,

1:25you can see up here.

1:26Perfect.

1:26So if I click on this link here and I just right click and Show

1:30In Finder.

1:31Now that's going to open this up here.

1:34So all I'm going to do here is double click this,

1:36and it tells me it's going to install

1:38Python 3.9.6 for Mac OS.

1:40Let me just click Continue here.

1:42Now you want to read through all of the stuff, wink wink,

1:45that nobody actually ever does, and just click

1:47Continue OK, history and license, same again.

1:50Click Continue.

1:52And I'm going to click Agree.

1:54So finally, again, you can choose the installation

1:57location if you want to.

1:58I'm just going to leave it at the default, and click Install.

2:01So now I need to enter my password,

2:03so I'll just pop this in.

2:04And I'll choose Install Software.

2:07So now it's preparing to install.

2:08It's going to access my files and my downloads folder,

2:11I'll say OK.

2:12Now it's going to write these files.

2:14And you should give this maybe a minute or two just

2:16to finalize and complete.

2:18OK, perfect.

2:19So if we just click on this Python launcher here,

2:22it's going to show us where our actual interpreter is.

2:25So it's in user local bin Python 3.

2:28So now what we want to do is to install VS Code.

2:31So again, let's go back to Safari.

2:33Let's go to Google.

2:34And we'll search and download VS Code for Mac.

2:37So if we click this top link up here

2:39and I choose this link here for Mac, course.

2:42We'll say Allow.

2:43Again, at the top right here, we can

2:45see that we are downloading.

2:46So again, give this a little minute just to finalize.

2:49OK.

2:50So if I click Show Downloads, again,

2:52let's right click this here.

2:54And Show In Finder.

2:55OK, so let's just double click on this to unzip it.

2:57That's going to expand this out.

2:59Give it a little second.

3:00So if I just right click this and choose Open,

3:03that should now launch VS Code.

3:06OK, so it's going to verify.

3:07We're going to say Open.

3:09And now we have VS Code installed.

3:11Let me just fullscreen this temporarily.

3:13I'll just zoom in a little bit.

3:15OK, so I'll just double click up here to open up a file.

3:17And again, I'll choose Select A Language.

3:20I'm going to search for Python once again.

3:23Now again, it's going to say, do you

3:24want to install the recommended extensions for Python?

3:27We're going to say install here.

3:28So that's now installed.

3:30Now it's going to prompt you to install these command line

3:33developer tools.

3:35Now, I'm actually using a virtual machine.

3:37This is not a native installation of Mac OS.

3:40When I try to install these tools,

3:42it's just giving me an error.

3:43You should not have the same type of problem.

3:45So if you go on and just choose Install,

3:47there should install just fine.

3:49But for now, what I'm going to focus on

3:51is selecting the Python interpreter.

3:53So let me go over here and select this.

3:55I'll just cancel you.

3:56So this is the path which I want to select here.

3:59That's the path that we saw earlier, user local bin Python

4:013.

4:02That's just going to be a Python that we want.

4:04And we can see it in the bottom left here,

4:06we have Python 3.9.6.

4:08Perfect, so let's just close this down.

4:10Now, like I say, because I'm actually

4:12operating on a virtual environment,

4:14I'm a little bit limited in what I can demonstrate here.

4:16I'm trying my best.

4:17But ultimately, if you have a regular Mac OS system,

4:21then you shouldn't be experiencing the issues I have.

4:23Effectively, if you want to be able to install Git,

4:26you should be able to install Git view brew, the brew package

4:29manager.

4:29So if you just type in brew install git and hit Enter,

4:33that should run through the installation.

4:35And hopefully, you should all Git up and running.

4:38But again, I do stress that I recommend everyone instead uses

4:42an Ubuntu machine, either a regular machine

4:45or a virtual machine, since that's really

4:46what'll give us parity across what I'm doing on the lesson

4:50and what you're doing watching at home.

4:51But nevertheless, if you want to use a Mac machine,

4:54this is how you can get Python installed, VS code.

4:57And like I say, by using brew, you

4:58should be able to install Git just as well.

5:01Okeydoke, so I hope this has been informative for you,

5:03and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:12Hey, guys and welcome back.

0:14So in the previous Nuggets, we had

0:15seen how we could install our environment within a Linux

0:18environment, as well as within Mac OS.

0:22And this Nugget right here, we're

0:23going to be focusing on using Windows.

0:25Now, I will say, off the bat, is that Windows as the operating

0:29system which I use--

0:30I have Windows 10.

0:31But here's the thing, I'm really going to strongly recommend

0:34that you don't use Windows for your network automation.

0:38Simply put, there are just far too

0:40many network automation libraries that are just

0:42not going to work on Windows.

0:43You're going to have to use a Mac or a Linux environment.

0:46But here's the thing-- you can actually

0:48set up your environment in such a way

0:50that you're kind of using Windows, but logging remotely

0:53into a Ubuntu virtual machine.

0:56Now this is the setup that I actually use myself.

0:59So I want to walk you through it,

1:00because I do think [INAUDIBLE] needs compromise.

1:02So the plan is here is we're going to create an Ubuntu VM.

1:06And from our host machine, we are

1:07going to be able to log in remotely

1:09and manage it from our Windows system.

1:12Now, like I say, this is the preferred method in which I

1:15use, but just be aware that actually there's

1:17another solution that you could use called

1:19Windows Subsystem for Linux, otherwise known as WSL.

1:24This effectively does a similar thing.

1:27It gives you an Ubuntu terminal within your Windows machine.

1:30Now, the reason why I'm not recommending you

1:32do this type of installation is not necessarily

1:36because it's bad--

1:37in fact, it's really good.

1:38The issue is that once the newer version, WSL2,

1:41because if you want to use nested virtualization

1:44within VMware--

1:46say, for example, you want to automate topologies using

1:48Cisco's CMLP, which is their virtualization product allowing

1:53you to create virtual networks, well, you

1:55can't run VMware with nested virtualization

1:57at the same time as WSL2, because WSL2 requires Hyper-V.

2:02Now you can find workarounds.

2:03That's where you can use the old version of WSL, just WSL1.

2:07But honestly, I find that the cleanest way to do this

2:10is just to install the Ubuntu VM, and log in remotely.

2:14That way we're going to have no problems at all running VMware

2:17with any type of nested virtualization within that,

2:20whether we're using GNS3, whether we're using EVE-NG,

2:23whether we're using CMLP.

2:25These are all technologies that we

2:27can use to create virtual topologies, topologies which

2:30we can practice automating.

2:31So let me just walk you through the actual set

2:34up that I have within my environment here.

2:36OK, so the first thing we're going to do,

2:38as you can see here, is go to Google.

2:40And we'll search for download Ubuntu, as we've seen before.

2:43Let's actually walk through this installation then.

2:45OK, so let's Accept All and visit site.

2:47And what I'm going to do is to download this version here,

2:5020.04.2.0.

2:52We're looking for, long-term support.

2:54That is a stable build.

2:55So download this, and just click Save,

2:58and now that should begin downloading

3:00for you-- that's ISO file.

3:01OK, so that is now completed downloading,

3:03I'm going to right-click, and then

3:05choose Open Containing Folder.

3:07And here's SSMH here.

3:08So I'll just cut out, and I'm going to go to my D drive.

3:12And I've created this folder called Example-Ubuntu.

3:15Let me just paste this image in here

3:16so it's nice and clear of what it is.

3:18OK, perfect.

3:18So now let's go to VMware.

3:21And what I'll do is create a new virtual machine here.

3:24Now, where do I want to install?

3:25Let me browse to this location.

3:27So I'll go into example-Ubuntu.

3:29Click this image here that I've just downloaded

3:31and choose Open.

3:32Next what I'll choose is Next.

3:34And then I'll just fill in some details.

3:36So I'll just say my name as ipvzero.

3:39Username, just keep it as ipvzero.

3:41And the password will be super secure.

3:43It'll be password123.

3:45So again, confirm-- password123.

3:48And choose Next.

3:49Now it's going to tell me the location where it's going

3:51to save this virtual machine.

3:53By default it's going to install on the C drive,

3:56though my C drive happens to be running a little bit low so I'm

3:59going to move it to the D drive.

4:01So I'll Browse here, go into my D drive,

4:03and I'll just go down to my Example-Ubuntu.

4:06So the same folder where my actual ISO resides.

4:09So choose OK, and then I'll say Next.

4:11In fact, I'll go back and I'll just

4:12change the name of the machine.

4:13I'll just call this Example Ubuntu Machine.

4:16I'll choose Next.

4:18Maximum desk size, let's make it 30.

4:20And we'll leave it as split virtual desk

4:22into multiple files.

4:23And we'll choose Next.

4:24If you want to add in more things, like, say, for example,

4:27crank the RAM up.

4:28You can customize the hardware, and you can maybe move the RAM

4:31up to whatever you want.

4:32I'll move it up to six.

4:33Network adapter is going to be NAT.

4:35Processors, I'm going to leave at two.

4:37So that will do us.

4:38So what I'm going to do now here is just click Finish,

4:41and this is going to run through the installation pretty much

4:44itself.

4:45If you give it maybe, say, 10, 15, 20 minutes,

4:47depending on how fast your machine is,

4:49this virtual machine should pretty much be set up for you.

4:52So what I'll do right now is pause the video

4:54and come back when we're ready to rock.

4:56OK, so now Ubuntu should be installed for you.

4:59What we're going to do now is to install

5:01VS Code within our Windows host machine.

5:04So let's just minimize this.

5:05Let's go back to Google, and we'll just

5:07search for Virtual Studio Code.

5:09OK, so let's click on Download here,

5:11and we'll choose Windows this time.

5:13So let's save this.

5:14So the setup is now installed.

5:16Let's just open this.

5:17Double-click it.

5:17And we're going to accept the agreement.

5:19Click Next.

5:20And again, choose the installation

5:22of where you want the program to be installed, or just leave it

5:24at the default. Click Next.

5:25We'll leave the folder as Virtual Studio Code.

5:28Click Next once again.

5:29And what I'll also do is create a desktop icon,

5:32and let's select these "Open with Code"

5:34actions, and just click Next.

5:36And then just choose Install.

5:37So that should begin extracting the files,

5:39and the installation should complete pretty shortly.

5:42OK, so we'll make sure at launch Virtual Studio Code has

5:45been ticked, and click Finish.

5:47OK, so my Visual Studio Code installation

5:49is going to look a little bit different from yours.

5:51That's because my old settings have actually been cached.

5:54So when I reinstall Visual Studio Code,

5:56my old settings just come back to me just like that.

5:59But really, that is not a problem at all.

6:01What you're going to do here is we'll

6:02go to File, then Preferences, and then Extensions.

6:06Now, as you can see, I've already

6:07got some things installed.

6:08So if I clicked Python and click on this here,

6:11you can see that has already been installed.

6:13But if it hasn't for you, just click the Install button.

6:16My option here is Uninstall.

6:18So you would just choose this, but the thing

6:20I really want to point out to you

6:22is something called Remote SSH.

6:24So let's just choose this, and it tells us right here

6:27we can open any folder on a remote machine using SSH

6:31and take advantage of VS Code's full feature set.

6:34That means that we can just run our development environment

6:38live on our Windows machine.

6:40So this is a Windows installation of VS Code,

6:43and we can use this Windows VS Code installation to log

6:47in to a remote machine, i.e.

6:49the Ubuntu VM that we had just created.

6:52And we can do this using SSH.

6:54So like I say, it already says I have mine installed here

6:57because I don't have the installation option.

6:59I've only got Disable and Uninstall.

7:01If you haven't already installed this, then one of these buttons

7:04will say Install.

7:05All we need to do is just click that button

7:08and wait a little second, and Remote SSH

7:11will be available for you.

7:12OK, so let me show you how we can use this Windows

7:16installation of VS Code to connect to this remote Ubuntu

7:19machine then.

7:20So let's go to our Ubuntu machine.

7:21OK, so I'll just log in here with my password, which

7:24was password123 I believe--

7:26again, super secure as per usual.

7:29OK, now just like we saw with the Linux installation,

7:32let's just skip through this part here.

7:33So what we're going to do is go to our terminal.

7:36OK, now unlike the Linux installation,

7:38we're not going to be installing VS Code on this machine,

7:41but what we do need to have is to have SSH enabled,

7:44so let's just make sure we can log in via SSH.

7:47So what I'm going to say first is sudo apt updates,

7:49then I'll type in my password, password123.

7:52Hit Enter.

7:53OK, now what I want to say is sudo apt install ssh-server.

7:59Hit Enter.

8:00Oh, and that's a mistake.

8:01I should actually say openssh-server.

8:04Apologies about that.

8:05Try again.

8:06That was a little bit better.

8:08Push Y. Hit Enter.

8:10And just give this a minute or so just to install.

8:12OK, so now that we have SSH enabled

8:15on the VM, what we want to be able to do

8:17is to log in to this machine, so we need

8:19the IP address of this machine.

8:20So we'll say ip addr.

8:22And hit Enter.

8:23And we can see the IP address right here.

8:26So it's 192-168-31-146.

8:30And my username is ipvzero.

8:32So we want to login as ipvzero to this address,

8:36and we want to do that from the Windows

8:38installation of VS Code.

8:40So let's go back to our Visual Studio Code then.

8:42Now what I'm going to do is on the left-hand side here,

8:45we have this option here saying Remote Explorer.

8:47Let's click on this.

8:48Now again, I already have these cached connections

8:51because of my old installation.

8:53It's just came back to me, effectively.

8:55What you want to do here is go up to Remote Explorer,

8:58and we're going to choose SSH targets.

9:00Now again, I've got some previous targets saved.

9:03You won't have them; don't worry about it at all.

9:05What we're going to do is click the plus sign here,

9:07and we're going to add in your new host.

9:10So I'm going to say it as SSH and then the name of the user.

9:14So my username on the Ubuntu machine was ipvzero,

9:18and the IP address we found out was 192-168-31-146.

9:24So we'll hit Enter.

9:25OK, select the configuration file.

9:26Just choose this one here.

9:28So now the host has been added.

9:30Let's right-click this and Connect to Host in New Window

9:34here.

9:34So let's open this up, and it's going

9:36to say select the platform.

9:37We're going to choose Linux.

9:39It's telling us the fingerprint up here.

9:41We'll just accept this by saying Continue.

9:44Now we need to enter the password,

9:45and my password for that VM was password123.

9:48Hit Enter.

9:50And at the bottom right, it says setting up host.

9:52It's installing VS Code server.

9:54OK, great, so this looks good.

9:56So if we look down here--

9:58let me just move this over and drag this-- down in the bottom,

10:01we actually have a terminal here.

10:02And this is the terminal we've effectively logged in.

10:05What's happened right now is we're working

10:07within our Windows environment.

10:08This is the Windows installation of VS Code.

10:11But we also have access to this terminal of that VM,

10:15of that Ubuntu machine.

10:16So say, for example, if I just create a folder just saying

10:19Testfolder, and I cd into this test folder.

10:23And I create a file just called thisisatestfile.txt.

10:29And I just nano this, and I just say, just

10:32testing that this works.

10:34Push control autosave, Control X.

10:37So now if I actually minimize this,

10:38and I go to my actual VM--

10:40look at this, let me clear the screen.

10:42If I do an ls, see that?

10:44We now have this new test folder that's

10:45been created remotely from the Windows machine.

10:48So we can see the end to this, ls.

10:50There's that file, and we can cat this file, and there we go.

10:54So this means that we can work within our Windows machine.

10:57Just open up VS Code as per normal,

11:00and we can remotely install things and activate things

11:03and run code from within this Ubuntu virtual machine.

11:06We don't have to worry about any type

11:08of clashing between Windows and these new network

11:12automation tools.

11:13We're going to bypass that completely.

11:15Everything is going to be installed, even though we

11:17are effectively operating from a Windows environment-- super,

11:20super cool, super, super handy.

11:22So this is the actual setup, which I use personally.

11:25It's what I'm going to recommend that you use.

11:27And for the record, you could do the exact same thing on Mac OS.

11:31You could just create a virtual machine

11:33within Mac OS using VirtualBox or VMware.

11:36Install VS Code within your Mac.

11:38And again, use that remote SSH extension to just log in

11:42to the Ubuntu VM.

11:44This means that you and I are using the exact same operating

11:47system.

11:47It's going to minimize any type of clash

11:49and any type of weird little errors or issues.

11:51This will make things as easy as possible, in my opinion.

11:54Okey doke, so I hope this has been informative for you,

11:56and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:12Hey, guys, and welcome back.

0:13So in the previous Nugget, we had just

0:15walked through the installation of our Windows setup

0:18and how we're going to integrate an Ubuntu VM, a remote machine,

0:22into this Windows environment.

0:24And to do that, we installed the Remote SSH extension.

0:30Similarly, we also installed the Python extension

0:33within VS Code.

0:34This gave us access to things like Pylance,

0:37which is going to help us out with things

0:39like auto-completion.

0:40Now, because we are ultimately working towards an end

0:43goal of automating networks, what I want to do

0:46is just highlight some of just a few little extensions

0:49I use pretty regularly to help me do just that.

0:52So outside the Python extension, outside the open SSH extension,

0:57the next extension I want to get here is one for Cisco IOS.

1:02Basically, it is a way to get nice syntax highlighting, which

1:05is going to be pretty useful for us.

1:07So again, like I said in the previous Nugget,

1:09my old extensions and my old settings

1:12have already been cached.

1:13They've already been installed.

1:15You won't have them, but let me show you how you can get them.

1:17So let's go up to File here, and then choose Preferences,

1:21and then Extensions.

1:22Now, you can probably see it's already installed.

1:24But what I'm going to search for is Cisco IOS

1:27syntax and click this here.

1:30So as you can see here, it is already installed for me.

1:32I can only disable or uninstall it.

1:34If you haven't got it installed, the option

1:36will simply be to install.

1:37You just click it, and then it's going to install.

1:40Now, once you've installed this little plugin here,

1:43basically if you take any file and append it with the .ios

1:48extension, then we're going to get Cisco-specific color

1:52highlighting.

1:53That is going to be very, very useful

1:55when we're trying to create templates of our configuration.

1:58Now again, this might not make sense quite yet--

2:01how do you templatize a configuration?

2:03Again, don't worry about that at all.

2:04We'll certainly get to that in due time.

2:06Just know that this type of thing is going to make your job

2:10a little bit easier in the future when we get to it.

2:12So let me just quickly show you how this works then.

2:15OK, so what I've got here is an EVE-NG topology.

2:18This is basically a network emulator

2:21you can use to build virtual networks.

2:23Same type of thing as GNS3 or Cisco's

2:26CML-P. Again, the details of this are not too important,

2:30but right here I have a virtual router.

2:33What I'm going to do here is just click on this

2:35to open it up.

2:36And what I'm going to do here is just issue a show run.

2:39So let me just full-screen this right now,

2:41and I'll scroll up to the top here.

2:43So let me just copy all this right here and scroll

2:45right down to the bottom.

2:46OK, so let's just copy here, and let's go to VS Code.

2:50And let me create a file called, config.txt.

2:54So what I'll do is go to File, click Open File,

2:57scroll on down, and go to config.txt.

3:01So if I just paste this in here, and I go up here

3:04and click Save.

3:05So look at this, here is the configuration here.

3:07Now, it looks quite fine.

3:09But as you can see, we have no highlighting at all.

3:12This isn't inherently a problem.

3:14But you'll realize, later on, when

3:16you're trying to templatize configurations, what

3:19you want to do is to eyeball commonalities

3:21amongst configurations.

3:23Basically, we'll be comparing different types

3:26of configuration to one another.

3:27And quite honestly, using highlighting

3:30is going to make this a lot easier as opposed

3:32to just looking at black and white text.

3:34So like I said, the extension here is .txt.

3:37But now that we have Cisco IOS syntax plugin installed,

3:41if we just change this extension to .ios, watch what happens.

3:45Let's save this file as config.ios and hit Enter.

3:50And look at this.

3:51We now get nice coloration through the configuration.

3:55Now, this makes things way, way, way easier

3:57when we're trying to compare across multiple configurations

4:00to try to derive commonalities.

4:02So that is the first plugin I'm going

4:04to suggest to you, on top of, of course, Python,

4:07as well as Remote SSH.

4:09Now, the other one is going to be-- if we go to Extensions,

4:13let's go to Preferences, and again, Extensions.

4:17And again, this is already going to be installed for me,

4:19but I'm going to search for something called Better Jinja.

4:23So I'm going to click on this.

4:24Again, as you can see here, this is already installed for me.

4:28For you, you can just click the Install button.

4:30And then within maybe 10 seconds or so, Better Jinja

4:33will also be installed for you.

4:35Now, it's very reasonable that you

4:36don't have a clue what Jinja is quite just yet.

4:39That's perfectly OK.

4:40We'll certainly get to that in depth in due time.

4:43All you need to know is that this is the templating language

4:46that we are going to be using to build

4:48our templatized configurations.

4:50And again, all this plugin does is it gives us

4:52nice syntax highlighting.

4:55So say, for example, if I go and create a new file here,

4:58and let me just save it as example2,

5:01and I use the .j2 extension, then we're going to get this

5:05nice highlighting.

5:06So if I just say things like-- and again, this

5:08won't make any sense for you-- for network in networks,

5:12you can see that we're actually getting different coloration

5:15for different keywords.

5:16And again, this doesn't have to make any sense at all to you

5:20just now.

5:21Just know that this extension is going

5:22to make your life a little bit easier when we come to this.

5:25So as we are setting things up, this

5:27is definitely an extension I would

5:28recommend that you install.

5:30And for now, really, that kind of does it.

5:32I would recommend you have the Python installation, which

5:35is going to give you things like Pylance,

5:37i.e. your auto-completion.

5:38We're going to install Remote SSH so we can remotely

5:42manage our Ubuntu server.

5:44We're going to install Better Jinja, which

5:47is going to give us nice syntax highlighting for our Jinja

5:51templating language.

5:52Again, don't worry about that.

5:54We'll get to it later.

5:55And fourth, we want to get Cisco IOS Syntax.

5:58This is going to give us an easier way to save our files

6:01with the extension, .ios, and get Cisco-specific syntax

6:05highlighting, making your job of templatizing

6:08your configurations with Jinja much, much easier.

6:11So go ahead and make sure these are all installed,

6:14and you will have a pretty solid environment

6:16to go about learning how to automate

6:18your networks with Python.

6:19So I hope this has been informative for you,

6:21and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:12Hey, guys.

0:13Now remember we talked about installing Git

0:15within our environments.

0:17Now if you're unsure of what Git is, then don't worry.

0:20We'll get to this later on in more detail within this course.

0:24But what you might have heard of, probably more likely,

0:26is GitHub.

0:27This is a large website on the internet where people

0:30store a lot of their codes.

0:32And this is where I'm going to be storing

0:34a lot of the examples that you're going to be

0:36seeing throughout this course.

0:38Basically, you're going to go to my GitHub repository

0:41and then clone what is called the Repository.

0:45Now the way we can transfer the code which

0:47I've saved onto to GitHub onto the local machine

0:50is to use Git.

0:52So Git is something we are using on the command line

0:55to get the code which is stored remotely on GitHub.

0:58Now as of right now, I don't really

1:00have any kind of code saved for this course at all.

1:03What's going to be happening is that I'm

1:05going to be slowly adding to this as we

1:07progress throughout this course skill by skill.

1:10But nevertheless, let's follow the process

1:12to see how we can do this.

1:14So what I'm going to do is to go to my terminal here.

1:17Now remember, this is actually a remote session

1:20through this new Ubuntu virtual machine.

1:22Now this virtual machine doesn't actually have Git installed.

1:25So let's quickly install it.

1:26So what we'll say is sudo apt update as we saw before.

1:29And hit Enter.

1:31Type in my password of password123.

1:34Hit Enter.

1:35And the update shall begin.

1:37And now what I'm going to do is install Git.

1:39So what I'll say is, sudo apt install git.

1:42And I'll say, yes.

1:43Hit Enter.

1:44And that will just run through the installation here.

1:47OK.

1:47So we know how to have Git installed

1:49within a remote Ubuntu virtual machine.

1:52What we want to do is to use Git now

1:54to pull back the information from the remote GitHub

1:57repository where I'm going to be storing all of these examples.

2:00So what I'll do here is go to my web browser.

2:03And this is just a browser on my normal Windows machine.

2:06And what I'll search for is ipvzero GitHub.

2:08This is my own GitHub here.

2:10Now the repository we want to go to

2:12is this one here, CodeSamples.

2:14Let's click on this link.

2:15And you see this big green button here.

2:17Let's click on this.

2:18If we highlight this here and then copy it,

2:22now this link has been copied.

2:24So let's take this to our Visual Studio code then.

2:27And let me just clear the screen.

2:28Now the way we can copy this is just by saying,

2:31if I'm doing ls, what you can see, the folder structure.

2:35Now when I say Git clone, and I paste this in and just hit

2:39Enter, this is going to clone the repository.

2:42And now we're going to have a new folder called CodeSamples.

2:45If we do an ls, look at this here.

2:47We now have CodeSamples.

2:49So if we cd to go enter this directory and we do an ls,

2:53you can see a bunch of different folders.

2:55Now the folder where I'm going to be storing

2:57the examples pertaining to this course

2:59is going to be in this one here, Intro_Python_Net_Eng.

3:04So if we cd Intro, this directory here, and I do an ls,

3:07for now I've only got one Python file.

3:10So what t can do here is just open this file here.

3:13So let's go into CodeSamples.

3:15We'll go into Intro_Python_Net_Eng.

3:18And let's open hello.py.

3:20And we have a really simple Python script here.

3:23We just have two print statements here,

3:25"welcome to CBT Nuggets.

3:27And have fun automating!"

3:29Now how to use Git and GitHub more in-depth,

3:31how you can store your own code remotely on GitHub,

3:35that is something we will certainly get to a little bit

3:37later within this course.

3:39But for now, just understanding how to install Git

3:42and to pull down example code from GitHub using git clone,

3:46this is going to provide you a really easy way

3:48to access all of the scripts we're

3:50going to be writing together throughout this course.

3:52And no just one more thing, just before I forget actually,

3:56remember we were talking about installing

3:58useful plug-ins, useful extensions, should I say.

4:01If I get down to Preferences here and go to Extensions--

4:04this is certainly not mandatory, but I would recommend you

4:07install one called Monakai Pro.

4:10This is effectively the theme which I'm using.

4:13So like I said, mine is already installed.

4:15I would suggest you search for this installer

4:17and use this as your theme, the reason being,

4:20is that it's going to give you the exact same color

4:22highlighting as I have.

4:24So that's just totally optional.

4:26But it's going to make it a little bit easier for you

4:28to eyeball what you're writing on your screen

4:30and compare it to what you're seeing on my screen.

4:33So just what I remember there when I looked at that code,

4:35Monokai Pro is a really nice theme.

4:37And it probably will make your life a little bit easier just

4:40so that we have total parity.

4:41But for now, we have used Git to pull our GitHub repository

4:45down.

4:45And that is how you're going to be able to easily get

4:47copies of all the codes.

4:49And like I said, as we progress throughout this course,

4:51these examples are just going to keep growing and growing.

4:54So I hope this has been informative for you.

4:56And I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:12Hey, guys, and welcome back.

0:14So what I want to talk to you about in this Nugget

0:16is a really useful utility that you

0:19can use for free to be able to easily access Cisco devices

0:23that we can run our steps on as tests.

0:26What am I talking about?

0:27Well, I'm talking about the Cisco DevNet sandbox.

0:30Now, the really cool thing about the Cisco DevNet sandbox

0:33is that we do have two options.

0:35The first option is that we can book a topology,

0:38and this requires a VPN client to get

0:41your own private session.

0:43However, what we can also do, the second way,

0:45and this is what we are going to explore,

0:47is to check out the always-on sandboxes.

0:51Just like it sounds, these sandboxes are always on.

0:54You don't have to book them.

0:55You don't have to have a VPN.

0:57Simply put, an internet connection to access them

1:00is all you need.

1:01The only thing you have to realize here

1:03is that they are a shared resource,

1:05so there might be a little bit of limitations

1:07about what you can actually do.

1:09But generally speaking, these are

1:10going to be more than enough to give us access to some devices

1:14that we can test our Python scripts against.

1:17So let me show you how you can easily

1:18access these devices then.

1:20So if you search for "cisco devnet sandbox,"

1:24and we click this top link here--

1:26so I'm going to click Get Started with Sandbox.

1:29Now, to log in, you're going to have

1:31to use some type of account-- maybe a Google account

1:33or a Facebook account or a Cisco ID.

1:36What I'm going to do is to log in with my GitHub,

1:38so I'll just click this.

1:40So what I'm going to do is search for an IOS XE device.

1:44So if I just search for XE, if we look here,

1:47and let me just zoom in a little bit,

1:49you can see here we have an option

1:51to reserve some sandboxes.

1:53Now, when you see the Reserve button,

1:55these are the type of sandboxes you're

1:57going to have to book for a particular time,

1:59and you're going to have to log in with a VPN connection.

2:02But you can certainly explore this.

2:04If you want to have more access to a device,

2:06maybe you could have eight devices at once, but for ease

2:09of setup, what I'm going to recommend

2:11is that you just check out the always-on sandbox.

2:14How do we access this?

2:15Well, it's really quite simple.

2:17Let's check it out.

2:17Let's click on an always-on one.

2:20So down the left-hand side here, we're

2:21going to see the login details here.

2:25So here, as the login address here,

2:27this is basically the IP address.

2:28It's just like going to youtube.com.

2:31This is how we're going to access the sandbox,

2:33so if we want to access it over SSH,

2:35we're going to go over port 22.

2:37What's the user name?

2:38Developer.

2:39And the password login is going to be C1sco12345

2:43with a one for the i here.

2:45So let's actually copy these details over

2:47and try to log into a device.

2:49So again, no VPN.

2:50Just an internet access.

2:51Let's copy this here.

2:53Right click, copy here, and let's

2:55go back to Visual Studio Code.

2:57So let me clear here, and in fact, let

2:59me just move this over a bit so it's a bit clearer.

3:02So I'll just say CD to take me back to my home directory,

3:05and I'll just say SSH, and the username was developer@,

3:09and I'll paste in the address.

3:11Hit Enter.

3:12Do I want to accept this fingerprint?

3:14I'll say, yes, and now, I'm going to type in that password

3:17of C-1-S-C-O-1-2-3-4-5, as we saw on the website.

3:22Hit Enter, and look at this.

3:24We have access to a Cisco device.

3:26We can do a show run, if I can type show run.

3:29There we go.

3:30So we can also do some configuration.

3:32So let's say conf t, and I'll create a loopback of loopback,

3:36let's maybe say 56.

3:38And I'll create an IP address of 56.56.56,

3:42and I'll make it slash 32 mask.

3:45And I'll also add a description on this as a test loopback.

3:50So if I do a show run once again,

3:52you can see that we have created this loopback on this device.

3:56So what we are going to do throughout this course

3:58is to use these always-on sandboxes,

4:00and we're going to try to configure changes and pull

4:03information using Python.

4:06And like I said, all it requires is an internet connection.

4:09Now, there are more than Cisco XE devices.

4:12We also have Cisco XR devices as well as Nexus devices,

4:16and throughout this course, we'll

4:17be using all of these sandboxes.

4:20So there you have it--

4:21really easy access.

4:22Almost no setup.

4:23Just find the login details, have an internet connection,

4:26and off you go.

4:27So I hope this has been informative for you,

4:29and I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:12Hey, guys, and welcome back.

0:14So to round off the central skill

0:16of this course, how about we rate and execute

0:19our first Python script.

0:21OK, so let's create your first script then.

0:23So we'll go to File, click New File and we'll say Save As.

0:27And let's just put in our Home directory for simplicity,

0:30and let's just save this as example1.py.

0:34We want the py extension because it's going to be a Python file.

0:37And all I'm going to say is 'print'

0:39and then open my parentheses, and then

0:42within inverted commas, I'm going

0:44to say what I want to print to the screen.

0:46So if I say, "My name is John and I love Python,"

0:51so if I just save this.

0:53And now I go back to my terminal here, we do an 'ls.'

0:56we now have this new file here called example1.py.

1:00So how on earth do we execute it?

1:02Well, it's quite simple.

1:03We just say python3 and then follow up

1:06with the name of the file.

1:08So we say example1.py.

1:10If we hit Enter, bam, there you go.

1:12You've just created and executed your very first Python script.

1:16So let's add a little bit more to it.

1:19We'll say 'print' and we'll do, "...And I also love automating

1:25networks."

1:25And let's save this.

1:27Let's clear the screen, arrow up, re-run the script,

1:29hit Enter.

1:30And bam, there we go.

1:32Not so scary is it, really?

1:33Now of course, there is a lot more to Python programming

1:36than what we just saw here.

1:38But I do believe that you're going

1:39to be pleasantly surprised that it's not

1:41quite the scary subject that you might have built it

1:44up to be in your own head.

1:45I know when I first started programming with Python,

1:48I for sure was a little bit intimidated.

1:50But don't worry, we're going to be taking things step by step,

1:53nice and slowly, and we will gradually build upon our skills

1:56so that with time and a little bit of practice,

1:58we will begin to be able to automate

2:00our networks effectively.

2:01Okedoke, so I hope this has been informative for you,

2:04and I would like to thank you for viewing.