NTAC Network Automation Working Group

["Seesink, Frank" <>]

To the NTAC Network Automation WG:

[This is being sent to both the mailing list and the #i2-network-automation Slack channel.  If you’re not on the latter and are interested, let me know and I’ll help get you sorted out.  I tend to use Slack more, but I realize not everyone functions/operates that way.  So apologies for not posting here more often.  I’ll try to do better.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think Slack offers a more interactive approach to communicating, but that said, if enough folks prefer email, then we can use that.  For now, will try to post these messages in both places ’til the group says otherwise.]

So I just saw the email from Ryan for today’s monthly NTAC call.  And noting the usual agenda and my name on it for the Automation WG, I realized I really haven’t done spit for this group in some time.  So first and foremost, my apologies for that.

Ok, that aside, I’d like to actually try to change that.

Now I had hoped a year ago to be able to have a proper discussion in person, face-to-face, at the spring Global Summit to try and work out a proper charter for this WG to give us some specific direction/focus.  Of course, something happened this past year… can’t quite remember what… that sort of sidelined all that. :-)

In all seriousness, here’s my thought.  As we are far from being done with the pandemic, I do not think it makes sense to wait for in-person meetings to get the ball rolling.  I also don’t believe we’re going to get where we need to be overnight, nor that a “forklift upgrade” approach so to speak is the answer.  So don’t worry.  I’m not going all full-bore here.

My focus will be very simple.  I intend to follow the principles of “kaizen”, a Japanese term meaning "change for the better" or "continuous improvement.”  Or, to put it in the modern advertising slang of Lexus, “the relentless pursuit of perfection”.  (This harkens back to a book my father had in the 80’s on this.  Yes, it’s like all the other things out there, from Total Quality Management (TQM) to 6Sigma to GTD, where folks took it and then went all zealots on it, missing the key point entirely.)  Or, for those familiar with the book ‘Atomic Habits’, think of it in that context.  Much as described in that book, if we only improve 1% a day, that’s not an improvement of 365% (or ~3.5X) but rather > 37X due to compounding!  Now I don’t intend to do something every day, but I do intend to improve things, piece by piece.

What I mean is this.  I’m going to start very small and try to develop this working group little by little.  For starters, we need to have some sense of where we’d like this working group to go.  We need direction.  The end goal here will be a proper charter to determine the goals of this working group.  But let’s start with a few simple questions:

Do you see the Internet2 NTAC Network Automation Working Group as

• a group that is more akin to a birds of a feather group that meets to discuss various topics as they come up—“all of us are better than any one of us” as it were (e.g., similar to the IPv6 WG)?
• a group with a specific end goal (e.g., similar to groups which are spun up to solve a specific issue for the NTAC, then spun back down again)?
• Or both?  That is, while the group remains for discussing various network automation topics, there is a specific task/end goal to pursue at any given time.  Think of it like having a charter that today might be about one thing, but once that is done, the charter is updated to reflect the next thing, to keep the group moving forward. (e.g., how the Security WG was first spun up to work on the DDoS issues going on back in 2015, but with that resolved and I2 offering its DDoS mitigation service, has moved on to RPKI, etc.)

And, if you see this as either of the last two, then what specifically do you envision that end goal to be at this time?

Please feel free to throw out any/all thoughts here.  The term “network automation” is a bit amorphous, much like “SDN”.  Ask 10 people what it means, and you get 11 answers.  So let’s get everyone’s views out in the open, then figure out which definition we’re working from.

In the context of this working group, for example, folks may be interested in such things as

• Getting started in basic network automation at the individual or individual institution level

• Learning/using tools like Ansible, Python with its various modules (e.g., Netmiko, NAPALM, etc.), Jinja2, YAML, Netconf/YANG, etc.
• Focusing on simple scripting of things like backing up configs, making simple config changes, etc., of individual or groups of devices
• Moving on to orchestration with full automation of an entire pipeline/service chain (e.g., think OESS, etc.)
• Building training materials/etc. for the above to help bring others into the fold

Working on common/shared tools and best practices to be used by/among multiple institutions

• This could be for defining a common “language” that everyone agrees to use to work across institutional boundaries

Work on common/shared tools and best practices to be used between I2 member institutions and Internet2

• This could be working with Internet2 to see if there are ways to streamline/automate interactions b/w member institutions and I2 with regard to the various I2 services

Or it might be something else.

Frank Seesink

Senior Network Engineer
ITS Communication Technologies

UNC-Chapel Hill | ITS Franklin, Office 1006

+1 919.445.0844