Greetings!

In this post, I want to show how I use PyATS/Robot frameworks and TextFSM to create simple tests to check the services/protocols for the Company ‘X’ virtual network.

Services/protocols were configured in DEV environment, the next step is creating automatic tests.

If you have not read the ‘Introduction’ post, it is a good starting point to understand what I will talk about.

In order not to write about the same thing, I leave links to useful resources that I used to understand how PyATS works.

PyATS

pyATS provides the test framework foundation to the whole this ecosystem. It specializes in data-driven and reusable testing, and is engineered from ground up to be suitable for Agile, rapid development iterations.

Being highly-pluggable, pyATS is designed to enables developers start with small, simple and linear test cases, and scale towards large, complex and asynchronous test suites.

https://developer.cisco.com/docs/pyats/#!introduction/pyats-genie

Overview about PyATS and demo.

PyATS uses the ‘Unicon framework’ to interact with devices that are described in the ‘testbed.yaml’ file.

Unicon supported platforms:

https://pubhub.devnetcloud.com/media/pyats-packages/docs/unicon/user_guide/introduction.html#supported-platforms

PyATS ‘testbed.yaml’ has the same meaning like Ansible ‘hosts file’.

https://pubhub.devnetcloud.com/media/pyats/docs/topology/concept.html#topology-concept

https://pubhub.devnetcloud.com/media/pyats/docs/topology/schema.html

Example (ios_testbed.yaml):

testbed:
    name: IOS_Testbed
    tacacs:
        username: cisco
    passwords:
        tacacs: cisco

devices:
    HQ-DIS1:
        os: ios
        type: IOSv
        connections:
            vty:
                protocol: ssh
                ip: 192.168.4.104
    HQ-DIS2:
        os: ios
        type: IOSv
        connections:
            vty:
                protocol: ssh
                ip: 192.168.4.105

Example (junos_testbed.yaml):

testbed:
    name: JUNOS_Testbed
    tacacs:
        username: cisco
    passwords:
        tacacs: Pa$$w0rd

devices:
    vSRX-BR2-FW1:
        os: junos
        type: junos
        connections:
            vty:
                protocol: ssh
                ip: 192.168.4.113

Example (vyos_testbed.yaml)

testbed:
    name: VYOS_Testbed
    tacacs:
        username: vyos
    passwords:
        linux: vyos

devices:
    VyOS-BR1-ED1:
        os: linux
        type: linux
        connections:
            vty:
                protocol: ssh
                ip: 192.168.4.111

Aetest

AEtest (Automation Easy Testing) is the standard test engineering automation harness. It offers a simple and straight-forward way for users to define, execute and debug testcases and testscripts, serving as a basis for other testscript templates & engines.

https://pubhub.devnetcloud.com/media/pyats/docs/aetest/introduction.html

Script Structure**

https://pubhub.devnetcloud.com/media/pyats/docs/aetest/structure.html

To show how ‘Aetest test’ works, I recorded a short video.

The test task is to check the availability of ISP (8.8.8.8) and HQ-S1 (10.255.255.2) from HQ clients using ‘ping’ and ‘traceroute’.

Description:

class CommonSetup(aetest.CommonSetup):

0) Loading testbed
1) Connection to HQ clients which are described in the testbed.yaml file.
2) Setup static IP addresses to the HQ clients.

сlass TESTCASE_1_PING_FROM_HQ_CLIENTS_TO_ISP(aetest.Testcase):

1) HQ-CX – ‘ping 8.8.8.8 –c 5’ to ISP 

class TESTCASE_2_PING_FROM_HQ_CLIENTS_TO_HQ_S1(aetest.Testcase):

1) HQ-CX – ‘ping 10.255.255.2 –c 5’ to HQ-S1

class TESTCASE_3_TRACEROUTE_FROM_HQ_CLIENTS_TO_ISP(aetest.Testcase):

1) HQ-CX – ‘trace 8.8.8.8’ to ISP

class CommonCleanup(aetest.CommonCleanup):

1) Disconnect from HQ hosts

Also, I can run a test and get ‘html output’ using pyATS jobs.

https://pubhub.devnetcloud.com/media/pyats/docs/easypy/jobfile.html#easypy-jobfile

Example,

Robot framework

RobotFramework is generic Python/Java test automation framework that focuses on acceptance test automation by through English-like keyword-driven test approach.

https://pubhub.devnetcloud.com/media/pyats/docs/robot/index.html

https://robotframework.org/

Example of Robot framework for Network Engineers:

Exploring Robot Framework For Automated Testing

https://github.com/permitanyany/robotframework

It can be used in the conjunction with PyATS, for example:

That one Robot test combines two PyATS simple tests (connectivity_check) and (vlans_check).
The first one checks the availability of ISP (8.8.8.8) and HQ-S1 (10.255.255.2) from Company ‘x’ site clients (HQ-CX, BR1-C1, BR2-C1) as well as traceroute from HQ clients to ISP.
The second checks the existence of vlans (10,20,30,40) on the nodes (HQ-ACX and HQ-DISX).

TextFSM

Python module which implements a template based state machine for parsing semi-formatted text. Originally developed to allow programmatic access to information returned from the command line interface (CLI) of networking devices.

https://github.com/google/textfsm

Examples,

http://gratuitousarp.info/a-quick-example-of-using-textfsm-to-parse-data-from-cisco-show-commands/

https://codingpackets.com/blog/textfsm-getting-started/

For (vlans_check) – I have used TextFSM, ntc template (cisco_ios_show_vlan.template ) to parse the output from devices.

https://github.com/networktocode/ntc-templates/blob/master/templates/cisco_ios_show_vlan.template

Network as Code. NaC model.

M3 – Network tests, PyATS/Robot framework/TextFSM, week 16

Greetings!

PyATS

Docs:

Learning labs:

Examples: