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  • in Misc
  • 8 min read

Next Stop Golang

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Cover photo by Thanos Pal on Unsplash

Since I embarked on the network automation journey, Python and Python-based utilities have always been the go-to tools for the job. I started, as maybe many of you, with Ansible. Then when dealing with its DSL grew more and more tiresome, I began writing my first Python code. And I was happy. I felt like I was learning something fundamental again, not just another niche technology that would never come in handy elsewhere. Although Python had some limitations in terms of portability and speed, it didn't bother me much.

Building a Template for a Network Automation Project

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Cover photo by Alex on Unsplash

Using templates for device configurations is a common practice and it has obvious benefits, such as speed and consistency. Working on many small Python automation projects made me think of employing the same approach. Previously I had to copy and adjust a lot of code-related things such as directory structure, poetry settings, CI/CD pipelines, etc. Templating all of this allowed me to reduce the initial scaffolding overhead to a minimum and jump straight into writing code. In this article, I want to share my experience in building such a template.

How to Run a Python CLI Tool Inside a Docker Container

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Cover photo by Diomari Madulara

Have you ever faced a problem sharing your python scripts with the rest of your team? You need to ensure a lot of things for your script to run on a recipient's machine. This often involves ensuring that the Python interpreter's correct version and all the dependencies are installed among other things. To put it mildly, portability is not Python's strong suit. That's where Docker can come in handy.

  • in Blog
  • 3 min read

August 2020 Update

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It's been a while since my last post and I want to shed some light on what I've been up to and what are my plans for the future of this site. A lot of things happened in 2019 and 2020 in my professional life and the two most important ones were changing job and becoming a CCIE R&S this February (just before the lockdown). Both of these activities were the main reason why I've been silent here for so long (not to mention living through the lockdown with a toddler).

  • in Tutorial
  • 14 min read

How to Automate OpenVPN Server Deployment and User Management

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Recently I’ve been tasked to come up with a VPN solution which must support: - All major desktop and mobile OSes as clients - Clients behind NAT - Mikrotik RouterOS as a client - Site-to-site and remote access VPNs

First, I had to decide whether it will be a dedicated hardware appliance or software running on a VM. The latter was more appealing because of its flexibility and ease of deployment.

Second, I needed to choose the actual software. The following options were considered: - IPSEC implementations such as FreeSWAN, OpenSWAN or strongSWAN - OpenVPN - SoftEther

OpenVPN was chosen because of its huge user base, cross-platform client support, and extensive customization options.