Apstra Network Deployment with Jeremy Schulman

Jeremy Schulman, Head of Customer Enablement at Apstra, reviews how to deploy a network with the Apstra Operating System. This takes a manual process that takes hours of configuration and automates it.

In his presentation at Networking Field Day 13, Jeremy Schulman demonstrates how Apstra’s Operating System (AOS) significantly simplifies network deployment by automating processes that would traditionally require extensive manual effort. Schulman begins by showcasing the initial steps of validating the physical layer and cabling before deploying configurations to the network switches. He highlights how AOS can automatically execute extensive Manual of Procedures (MOP) for BGP neighbor setups, which are traditionally manual and time-consuming tasks for network engineers, especially when performed during off-hours.

Schulman continues to demonstrate the automation of further configurations using Ansible scripts to provision external routers and DHCP servers. Through detailed steps, he showcases how AOS extracts blueprint data, applies configurations, and validates the deployment by bringing up BGP neighbor relations and confirming their functionality through telemetry data. The automation extends to the server level, where servers register with AOS as they boot up, acquire IP addresses via DHCP, and automatically associate with the right network blueprint, ensuring a seamless and mistake-free configuration.

The demonstration further emphasizes the power of AOS in correlating application load with network load, which Schulman illustrates using a Docker container example. Each container gets its own IP address, and AOS uses BGP and LLDP for network topology mapping, providing unprecedented visibility into network and application correlations. This allows for sophisticated tracking of network resources and simplifies troubleshooting for network engineers. Overall, AOS advances network deployment from a manual, error-prone activity to an automated, efficient, and highly reliable process.