Building Your Own Wi-Fi Automation Lab PHX 25

Guided lab exercises to install a lab stack on your own laptop for automating configuration and operational tasks.

Solutions to be explored includes:

• Installation of an Ubuntu server on your laptop (instructions included for Windows and Mac) including Docker which will be used for the other exercises.
• Exploring YANG models using various tools (yangcatalog, yang suite and pyang)
• Exploring Grafana, visualizing telemetry from WLC. Including installation of the TIG stack (Telegraf/InfluxDB/Grafana) as containers on the Ubuntu VM
• Exploring Ansible and some simple playbooks you can use as building blocks. Including installation of Ansible on the Ubuntu VM
• Installing and exploring Postman on your own laptop
• Installing VS Code and configuring it for streamlined Ansible automation and Python automation
• Exploring the APIs of MIST
• Exploring the APIs of Meraki
• Day 2 will be dedicated to deeper exploration of one or more of the topics of your choice (Grafana, Ansible, Python, Meraki, MIST). There will be more exercises than you have time to do, so just select a topic to dig into, and do the rest at your own pace when you get home :)

The lab automations and other exercises will be using an Ubuntu VM running on your own laptop. The lab will be set up with Cisco WLCs (9800-CL) that you will use for the automation exercises, but there will also be (optional) instructions included on how to install your own 9800-CL on your own laptop. I will bring a bunch of Cisco APs (both classic and Meraki mode) and some MIST APs to use in the exercises. We are working on getting some relevant gear sponsored for the students but will not promise anything yet.

Prerequisites:

• Bring your own laptop
• Cisco account, with access to download WLC images (9800-CL, at https://software.cisco.com)
• Meraki account (https://dashboard.meraki.com/)
• MIST account (https://manage.mist.com/)
• Lab guide will be sent up-front with some tasks to be performed (like installing Ubuntu, Postman and VS Code)
• Optional second screen/tablet/laptop if you prefer the instructions on a separate screen

Note: This deep dive will obviously not be able to teach you how to master Python, Ansible or Grafana. But all the exercises are presented in a way that give you freedom to try it yourself if you are somewhat proficient in the language. And there will be solutions/suggestions for all excercises, so if you know nothing about any of the topics you will be able to do everything by just copy-pasting the examples, and study/explore them. It will be like a guided taste-menu of Wi-Fi automation.

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