How to use Python and Netmiko for network automation with a simple example

Python is a popular programming language that is widely used for a variety of purposes, including network automation. You can read the latest blog post about network automation with Python here. One of the key tools for network automation in Python is Netmiko, a library that is designed to simplify the process of connecting to and interacting with network devices using SSH.

In this blog post, we will look at how to use Python and Netmiko to automate tasks and workflows on network devices. We will start by looking at the basics of using Netmiko, including how to connect to a network device and execute commands. We will then look at some more advanced use cases, such as transferring files and working with device configurations.

To get started, you will need to have Python installed on your machine, as well as the Netmiko library. You can install Netmiko using the following command:

pip install netmiko

Once you have Netmiko installed, you can start using it to connect to and interact with network devices. To do this, you will need to create a Python script and import the Netmiko library. Here is an example of how to connect to a device and execute a command:

from netmiko import ConnectHandler

device = {
    "device_type": "cisco_ios",
    "host": "192.168.1.1",
    "username": "admin",
    "password": "password",
}

net_connect = ConnectHandler(**device)
output = net_connect.send_command("show version")
print(output)

There are many examples for using Netmiko. You can dive deep in this GitHub repo. Telcobox will be covering it more in the future. Thanks for reading.