Learn the concepts that are required for automating our network.

Fundamentals of DevOps

This module starts with automating network reconnaissance. We'll accomplish this by gathering important information from network devices while building a library of dynamic on-demand utilities and generating living documentation. Starting small, the module exhibits the simplicity and elegance of network automation.
We'll then learn how to automate larger changes that require a high number of repetitive steps. These changes will be executed serially in a specific orchestrated order, making them perfect for an automated solution. After becoming comfortable with these new tools, we’ll be able to fully transform any network configuration management into an automated, intent-based, self-documenting system.
In the end, we'll learn how to migrate to a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline, thereby fully automating the network.

Automate Your Network

## Overview
The final phase of network automation is to **continuously integrate (CI)** and **continuously deliver (CD)** the Ansible playbooks
into the production network. CI is the software development practice adopted for network automation. CI
allows for teams to collaborate on code, integrate their changes often using Git commits and pull
requests, and create automated builds whenever there are changes made to the master branch. 

CD
expands on the CI capability and automatically releases, the automated builds to the network
on a scheduled release. This schedule could be as frequent as hourly, nightly, or weekly. The general
principle of CI/CD is that developers only need to worry about making changes to the code , and about not how to
document, integrate, or release it. The CI/CD pipeline and the automation engine take care of this for
them. This often has the side-effect of removing network operations from the equation. 

# Overview
The final phase of network automation is to **continuously integrate (CI)** and **continuously deliver (CD)** the Ansible playbooks
into the production network. CI is the software development practice adopted for network automation. CI
allows for teams to collaborate on code, integrate their changes often using Git commits and pull
requests, and create automated builds whenever there are changes made to the master branch. 

CD
expands on the CI capability and automatically releases, the automated builds to the network
on a scheduled release. This schedule could be as frequent as hourly, nightly, or weekly. The general
principle of CI/CD is that developers only need to worry about making changes to the code , and about not how to
document, integrate, or release it. The CI/CD pipeline and the automation engine take care of this for
them. This often has the side-effect of removing network operations from the equation. 

Let's take a high-level overview of the CI/CD process and its relevance to network automation.

What Is Network Automation?

Why Automate the Network?

How to Automate the Network

Where to Start with Network Automation

Repository Structure

Network Reconnaissance

Tactical Playbooks

Data Models and Dynamic Templates

Dynamic Intent-Based Documentation

Configuration Management

Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery

Conclusion

Overview of CI/CD

Overview