🚀 docker_network_automation

🇨🇴 Español

A universal Network Automation / DevNet / NetDevOps Docker image built to keep tooling consistent, portable, and production-ready — for both commercial and open-source NOS.

✅ Python Network Automation + ✅ Ansible (pipx) + ✅ Multi-vendor Collections + ✅ Troubleshooting tools

📦 Docker Hub: andersonmavi30/docker_network_automation 🦊 GitLab mirror: gitlab.com/andersonmavi30/docker_network_automation

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🎯 Project Goals

• Provide a single Docker image with common network automation tooling.
• Keep dependency isolation clean:
  • Ansible via pipx
  • Python libraries in /opt/venv
• Support multi-vendor automation workflows across commercial vendors (Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Aruba/HPE, Dell, Allied Telesis, Extreme, Huawei, HP/H3C) and open-source NOS (VyOS, Cumulus Linux, SONiC, FRRouting).

Note: As of v3.0.0 this image focuses on network switching/routing. Firewall vendors (Fortinet, Palo Alto, Check Point) were removed and will live in a dedicated image.

🧰 What's Inside

🐍 Python automation stack (requirements.txt)

Includes libraries for:

• HTTP/API: requests, httpx
• CLI/SSH automation: netmiko, scrapli
• Network abstraction: napalm
• Orchestration: nornir
• NETCONF: ncclient, scrapli-netconf
• gNMI (SONiC / modern telemetry): pygnmi
• CLI parsing: textfsm + ntc-templates (500+ multi-vendor templates)
• Source of truth: pynetbox
• SNMP: pysnmp
• Testing: pytest

🤖 Ansible (installed via pipx)

• Ansible is isolated from the Python venv.
• Collections are installed from collections.yml.

🏷️ Supported vendors — commercial (Ansible collections)

Vendor	Collections	Platforms
Cisco	cisco.ios, cisco.nxos, cisco.asa	IOS/IOS-XE, NX-OS, ASA
Arista	arista.eos	EOS
Juniper	junipernetworks.junos	Junos
Aruba / HPE	arubanetworks.aoscx, arubanetworks.aos_switch	Aruba CX (8360, 6300, 6400...), ArubaOS-Switch / ProVision (2530, 2930, 5400R...)
Dell	dellemc.os10, dellemc.os9, dellemc.os6	SmartFabric OS10, legacy OS9, legacy OS6 (N-series)
Allied Telesis	alliedtelesis.awplus	AlliedWare Plus (x220, x330, x530, x950...)
Extreme / Huawei / HP-H3C	community.network	EXOS (exos_*), CloudEngine (ce_*), Comware (comware_*)

🐧 Supported NOS — open source (Ansible collections)

NOS	Collections	Notes
VyOS	vyos.vyos	Open-source router/firewall (rolling + LTS)
Cumulus Linux	nvidia.nvue	NVIDIA Cumulus 5.x via NVUE REST API
SONiC	dellemc.enterprise_sonic	Enterprise SONiC; community SONiC via gNMI (pygnmi)
FRRouting	frr.frr	Open-source routing stack (BGP, OSPF, IS-IS) — used under the hood by SONiC, Cumulus and VyOS

Plus community.general for general-purpose modules.

🔌 Netmiko / Scrapli device types (quick reference)

For pure-Python SSH automation, use these device_type values:

Vendor / NOS	Netmiko device_type
Cisco IOS/IOS-XE	cisco_ios
Cisco NX-OS	cisco_nxos
Cisco ASA	cisco_asa
Arista EOS	arista_eos
Juniper Junos	juniper_junos
Aruba CX / ProVision	aruba_os / aruba_procurve
Dell OS10	dell_os10
Huawei	huawei
HP Comware / ProCurve	hp_comware / hp_procurve
Extreme EXOS	extreme_exos
Allied Telesis AW+	allied_telesis_awplus
VyOS	vyos
Cumulus / FRR (Linux shell)	linux

🛠️ Network & Linux utilities

Includes tools like: curl, wget, git, jq, ssh, ping, dig, traceroute, nc, tcpdump, iproute2, rsync, vim, nano, less, yq.

🗂️ Repository Structure

• Dockerfile → image definition
• requirements.txt → Python dependencies
• collections.yml → Ansible Galaxy collections
• .github/workflows/docker.yml → CI/CD (build, smoke test, publish to Docker Hub)
• README.md → project documentation

⚡ Quick Start

1) Pull the image

docker pull andersonmavi30/docker_network_automation:3.0.0

2) Run interactive

docker run --rm -it andersonmavi30/docker_network_automation:3.0.0 bash

3) Validate tools

Inside the container:

ansible --version
ansible-galaxy collection list | head
python -c "import netmiko, napalm, nornir, scrapli, ncclient, pygnmi, textfsm; print('OK')"
yq --version

4) Mount your workspace

docker run --rm -it \
  -v "$PWD:/workspace" \
  -w /workspace \
  andersonmavi30/docker_network_automation:3.0.0 bash

5) Build locally (optional)

docker build -t andersonmavi30/docker_network_automation:3.0.0 .

Publishing to Docker Hub is automated: pushing a git tag v* triggers the GitHub Actions workflow, which builds (amd64 + arm64), smoke-tests and pushes the image with semver tags (3.0.0, 3.0, latest).

🧪 Example Use Cases

Run an Ansible command (generic example)

Requires your own inventory and credentials.

ansible -i inventories/lab.yml all -m ansible.netcommon.cli_command -a "command='show version'"

Parse CLI output with Python + ntc-templates

from netmiko import ConnectHandler

with ConnectHandler(device_type="aruba_os", host="10.0.0.1",
                    username="admin", password="secret") as conn:
    # use_textfsm=True parses the output with ntc-templates automatically
    interfaces = conn.send_command("show interfaces", use_textfsm=True)
    print(interfaces)

Query SONiC via gNMI

from pygnmi.client import gNMIclient

with gNMIclient(target=("10.0.0.2", 8080), username="admin",
                password="secret", insecure=True) as gc:
    result = gc.get(path=["openconfig-interfaces:interfaces"])
    print(result)

Typical /workspace layout

inventories/
playbooks/
group_vars/
host_vars/
scripts/
templates/

🔀 Workflow for changes (branch + PR/MR)

All changes go through a feature branch — never commit directly to main:

# Create a feature branch
git checkout -b feature/my-change

# Make edits, then verify
git status

# Commit
git add .
git commit -m "feat: describe your change"

# Push branch
git push -u github feature/my-change

Then open a Pull Request (GitHub) or Merge Request (GitLab) with:

• What changed
• Why
• How it was validated

After merging, clean up locally:

git checkout main
git pull github main
git branch -d feature/my-change
git fetch --prune
git push gitlab main   # keep the GitLab mirror in sync

🚀 Releasing a new version

git tag -a v3.0.0 -m "Release 3.0.0"
git push github v3.0.0
git push gitlab v3.0.0

The CI workflow builds and publishes the image to Docker Hub automatically.

🧬 Works Great With Labs

PNetLab / EVE-NG

Older Docker/kernels may fail to build due to seccomp/kernel syscall limitations.

Recommended workflow:

1. Build on a modern host.
2. Push image to Docker Hub.
3. Pull/run in PNetLab/EVE-NG.

docker pull andersonmavi30/docker_network_automation:3.0.0
docker run --rm -it andersonmavi30/docker_network_automation:3.0.0 bash

Containerlab

Use this image as an automation jumpbox to manage lab nodes. VyOS, FRR and SONiC VS images work great as lab targets.

🔧 Customization

• Add Python libraries: edit requirements.txt and rebuild.
• Add Ansible collections: edit collections.yml and rebuild.

🧯 Troubleshooting

No space left on device during build

docker system df
docker builder prune

UID/GID conflicts

The Dockerfile already handles pre-existing UID/GID values to prevent build failures.

🔒 Security & Best Practices

• Runs as non-root user (netops) by default.
• Ansible installed via pipx.
• Python libs installed in /opt/venv.

🗺️ Roadmap

• Add sample playbooks and inventories per vendor.
• Add more smoke tests during CI (per-vendor Ansible module checks).
• Dedicated firewall image (Fortinet, Palo Alto, Check Point).

📄 License

MIT License (see LICENSE).

🤝 Connect

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anderson-martinez-virviescas-b5b79b106/