Python Network Automation Labs: cron and SNMPv3

Abstract

Eventually, you want to learn Python so you can write code to automate mundane tasks at work. After writing your code and developing your scripted application, you will want to run the scripts without you being in attendance. There is the Windows Task Scheduler on Windows systems, and on Linux, you have cron to help you schedule your script to run at 2 a.m. or to run periodically until you tell your Linux system to stop. You can write and schedule scripts to run automatically once you get comfortable with Python and Linux. You will also want to explore more about how Python works with SNMP so your company can consider SNMP monitoring using an in-house script; you may want to find out how Python interacts with SNMP in general. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to clone the GNS3 project, use cron to schedule tasks on Linux, and interact with routers and switches using SNMPv3. Along the way, we will borrow a Python community member’s publicly shared code to explore SNMPv3 with Python and learn what it can do for us. This chapter aims to give you more exposure to different scenarios while practically applying Python to network automation scenarios.