Course Information
Through a blend of instructional sessions and hands-on practice, participants will effectively navigate tools and explore the advantages of programmability and automation within the Cisco-powered Data Center. The curriculum covers key topics, including Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI), Software-Defined Networking (SDN) for data center and cloud networks, Cisco Nexus (Cisco NX-OS) platforms for device-centric automation, and Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) for Data Center compute. Participants will delve into the current ecosystem of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), software development toolkits, and pertinent workflows. The course also encompasses open industry standards, tools, and APIs, such as Python, Ansible, Git, JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), YAML Ain’t Markup Language (YAML), Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF), Representational State Transfer Configuration Protocol (RESTCONF), and Yet Another Generation (YANG).
Completion of this course positions individuals for success in the 300-635 Automating Cisco Data Center Solutions (DCAUTO) certification exam.
This course qualifies for 24 Continuing Education Credits
- Channel and Customer Engineers including Network Engineers, System Engineers, Wireless Engineers, Consulting Systems Engineers, Technical Solutions Architects, Network Administrators, Wireless Design Engineers, Network Managers, Site Reliability Engineers, and Deployment Engineers
- Channel Sales Engineers
- Channel Account Managers
- Examine fundamental concepts of Cisco ACI, GUI workflows, and make the case for automation implementation.
- Introduce the Cisco ACI REST API, tools available on the Cisco APIC, and grasp basic API interaction using Postman.
- Comprehend the functions provided by Python ACI libraries and develop scripts for configuring and verifying state on the Cisco ACI fabric.
- Gain knowledge of Cisco ACI Ansible modules, create playbooks applying Infrastructure-as-Code principles to Cisco ACI tenant configuration, and generate health reports using Ansible.
- Understand Cisco ACI Apps Center integration and the benefits of integrating Kubernetes infrastructure with Cisco ACI.
- Learn about API types and capabilities across the Cisco Nexus product family.
- Understand Day 0 operations and how ZTP, POAP, and iPXE achieve these objectives with their respective tooling.
- Understand the features provided by on-box tooling on Cisco Nexus series switches and implement basic solutions to enhance daily operations.
- Utilize Python and Ansible to leverage the NX-API for implementing and verifying configuration states using modern workflows.
- Grasp the paradigm shift of Model-Driven Telemetry and explore a fully established pipeline for data collection and analysis.
- Familiarize with Cisco UCS developer tools and implement management workflows utilizing Cisco UCS APIs, Python, and Ansible modules.
- Review Cisco NDFC product capabilities and learn how its API can be utilized to automate Cisco Data Center operations.
- Understand the benefits of Cisco Intersight and how to implement automation tasks using its REST APIs via Python and Ansible.
- Describe Terraform plans for deploying Cisco ACI setups.
