What are the best practices for automating networks in modern architecture?

In modern network architecture, effective automation is crucial. Configuration management tools like Ansible, Puppet, and Chef provide automated deployment, updates, and backups, ensuring efficient network device configuration management. Orchestrating tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, and Kubernetes automate the coordination of diverse network services. Testing and verification tools like PyTest, NAPALM, and Batfish automate the validation and monitoring of network functionality and performance. Compatibility with your network architecture and scalability are paramount, and choosing tools aligned with your goals ensures a secure and efficient automated network environment.

Automatizar redes em uma arquitetura moderna é crucial para garantir eficiência operacional, escalabilidade e seguran?a mas é essencial ter um plano estratégico para iniciar, entendendo os objetivos do negócio, os requisitos de seguran?a e as necessidades de desempenho da rede. Em seguida é necessário uma documenta??o abrangente da infraestrutura de rede existente, incluindo configura??es, políticas de seguran?a e endere?amento IP.

Network-as-code (NaC) revolutionizes network management by treating configurations as code. This approach ensures consistency, reliability, and agility in operations. Utilizing version control, peer review, and automation tools enhances network management. NaC facilitates tracking changes, collaboration, reduces human errors, and integrates seamlessly with DevOps practices. Adopting NaC involves using standard syntax (e.g., YAML or JSON), storing files in a version-controlled repository (e.g., GitHub), implementing code reviews (e.g., Gerrit), testing changes (e.g., PyTest, NAPALM), and automating deployment (e.g., Ansible, Terraform). This holistic strategy optimizes network configuration and deployment processes.

Elevating the effectiveness of network automation demands a strategic design approach. Begin by modularizing your network into manageable units, employing a hierarchical or spine-leaf topology for simplicity. Standardization across devices, protocols, and configurations streamlines automation tasks, enhancing overall efficiency. Moreover, optimizing the network involves trimming unnecessary components and functions, minimizing overhead and latency. Consider embracing network virtualization or software-defined networking (SDN) to achieve this streamlined, high-performance automation framework. This design thinking ensures your network is inherently tailored for seamless and efficient automation from its foundation.

Evaluating the impact of network automation requires a proactive monitoring and measurement strategy. Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) encompassing network availability, reliability, security, agility, and productivity. Utilize tools like Grafana, Prometheus, or Zabbix to collect.

In network management, it's vital to maintain strict separation between different domains such as External, Internal, and DMZ. One should avoid automating the process of changing firewall rules, as this can introduce significant risks. Automated changes open up potential avenues for hacking and exploitation. Instead, it's safer to make these changes manually, thus greatly reducing the risk of security breaches. While manual intervention is preferred for making changes, automating testing and detection is still advisable. This approach ensures that any errors or oversights in manual changes are promptly identified and rectified, balancing security with operational efficiency.

Olhar para os provedores de acesso e qual a topologia de rede da empresa é muito importante para o sucesso destes projetos. Isso inclui modularizar sua rede em módulos menores e mais simples que podem ser facilmente automatizados e gerenciados, como o uso de uma topologia de rede hierárquica ou espinhal.