NFD23 - IPFabric
NFD23 kicks off with IPFabric.
The presentation performed by the CEO Pavel Bykov, CEO and Co-Founder and Daren Fulwell, Product Evangelist was on point to share the mission of IPFabric and some of its most impressive features.
IPFabric in short: a tool to create network snapshots that include configurations and state. Based on the snapshot it runs many validation tests on interface, protocols, configurations and more. From the snapshot it generates network diagrams and provides a query mechanism to filter by protocol, VLAN and more.
Inline diff
Inline diff is a powerful tool for troubleshooting, showing all configuration changes between snapshots
Inline configuration diff are ready to use in @IPFabric web GUI, just like code diff in a GIT repository #NFD23 Watch live https://t.co/x9JDTBWleS pic.twitter.com/3zjLCvFJL4
— Gian Paolo (@gp_ifconfig) September 29, 2020
API
API first: even the GUI uses API!
All functions of the GUI including verifications and validations are API based. That's the way to do it, well done @IPFabric #NFD23
— Gian Paolo (@gp_ifconfig) September 29, 2020
If you want to learn more about the API Jeremy Schulmann posted a video with many details.
What do I look for when evaluating a network automation product API? Checkout my latest video showcasing @IPFabric! https://t.co/BYntQ2OLBG
— Jeremy Schulman (@nwkautomaniac) September 24, 2020
From the point of view of network automation, it makes sense to use IPFabric to collect network information instead of spending time to create and maintain discovery scripts.
Time spent on scripts to collect information from the network is not spent improving design and architecture. @IPFabric can collect information from multi-vendor networks and present them in tables easy to read by humans or via API to feed automation scripts.#NFD23
— Gian Paolo (@gp_ifconfig) September 29, 2020
Integrations with popular automation tools already exist, more will come.
Diagrams
Diagrams created by IPFabric are not just cool visualizations but a real tool for design and troubleshooting
No more spending hours on Visio for network documentation that gets stale after the first change? That's ok for me! @IPFabric #NFD23 https://t.co/OoUc2LilD0
— Gian Paolo (@gp_ifconfig) September 29, 2020
An example discussed during the presentation included a Multicast Distribution Tree with RPF check
Visualization of the multicast distribution tree for a specific source in a multi vendor network. Just two clicks on the GUI. Impressive! @IPFabric #NFD23 pic.twitter.com/NRKwMeMzMP
— Gian Paolo (@gp_ifconfig) September 29, 2020
Configuration and state consistency check
IPFabric provides out of the box many consistency checks including MTU, QoS configuration, VLAN on trunks and more.
As mentioned during the presentation, technical debt is hard to pay back, network engineers can leverage the best tools to reduce them.
Wrap-up
From my experience using IPFabric website is like having a new member in the team of Network Engineers.
All the time usually spent to update network diagrams, asset management, troubleshooting configuration consistency and more is now automated, saving time to improve the network design and implement new features.
I strongly advise to TRY IPFabric on your network to see yourself what it can do. You'll thank me later.
Presentation video
Links
IPFabric website, twitter, YouTube and Slack channel.
Recordings are available on VIMEO and YOUTUBE.
DISCLOSURE
I'm a user of IPFabric and I joined the IPFabric Ambassador program. I received no monetary or others forms of compensation for this blog post. All the opinions expressed here are my own, this is my personal blog, not my employer's.