Automating the data center enables customers to dynamically provision computing resources in the most efficient manner while also meeting business needs by maintaining service level agreements (SLAs). Arista EOS automates complex IT workflows and simplifies network operations while reducing or even eliminating downtime. Arista EOS rich automation capabilities not only reduce the human error element in network operations but also enable IT operators to make the network work the way they want.
Approaches to Automation
Arista offers solutions for a variety of approaches to cloud-like network automation. Addressing the needs of the largest public cloud environments as well as applying those lessons learned in the turnkey CloudVision automation offering.
Featured Video: Arista EOS Programmability
Network Automation with Arista EOS CloudVision®
CloudVision’s abstraction of the physical network to a broader, network-wide perspective allows for a more efficient approach for several operational use-cases:
- Centralized representation of distributed network state, allowing for a single point of integration and network-wide visibility and analytics
- Controller agnostic support for physical and virtual workload orchestration through open APIs such as OVSDB, JSON and Openstack plugins.
- Turn-key automation for zero touch provisioning, configuration management and network-wide upgrades and rollback.
- Compliance Dashboard for Security, Audit and patch management
Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP)
Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) uses standards-based mechanisms to provide dynamic provisioning and rapid replacement of network elements.
- Dynamic provisioning based on user defined template
- Standards based, no need to implement proprietary platforms
- Validate cabling/connectivity
- Maintain compliance and network integrity
- Fully automate network and server provisioning
Provisioning your network can be done dynamically in minutes all without the need to log into any device. Just rack, connect and power on, your path to the Software Driven Cloud Network starts here...
Advanced Event Management (AEM)
Designed with the network operator in mind, Advanced Event Management (AEM) captures critical information about the state of the network at any point in time.
- Increased visibility of critical events
- Actions based on real-time network conditions
- Automate routine tasks
- "Playback" network state
Purpose-built to enhance system up-time through programmatic reaction to network changes and to minimize system outages by simplifying complex troubleshooting tasks.
Smart System Upgrade (SSU)
Accelerate deployment of features and perform network changes with minimal or no downtime. A customizable suite of features Smart System Upgrade (SSU) including:
- Accelerated System Upgrade (ASU), minimizing device downtime
- Intelligent insertion and removal of network elements in the network topology
- Open and programmatic integration to all application and infrastructure components
Move toward a continuous deployment model by minimizing the impact of network changes utilizing the power of Arista EOS.
Extensibility
Arista Network’s Extensible Operating System (EOS) is the choice of the software driven cloud network providing numerous powerful methods to extend functionality and integrate with other systems. These methods include:
- EOS Central, become a member of the EOS community
- EOS SDK, a method of writing native high performance native EOS applications
- eAPI, an easy to use JSON abstraction of the EOS CLI
- Python and Ruby APIs, powerful object models build on top of eAPI
- DevOps, simplifying integration of the network into continuous service delivery model
- ZTPServer, a powerful open source bare metal provisioning system
- Linux APIs, Arista EOS is Linux
With extensibility at every level no other operating system provides so many tools and methods to extend the power of the network.
Automating the data center enables customers to dynamically provision computing resources in the most efficient manner while also meeting business needs by maintaining service level agreements (SLAs). Arista EOS automates complex IT workflows and simplifies network operations while reducing or even eliminating downtime. Arista EOS rich automation capabilities not only reduce the human error element in network operations but also enable IT operators to make the network work the way they want.
Arista EOS and eAPI provide automation with partners both for enhancing native capabilities with tools like Puppet, Chef and Ansible and extending workflow up the stack to include such devices as firewalls, load balancers and compute infrastructures.
Advanced Event Management (AEM), a sub-system of Arista EOS, the world's most advanced network operating system, is a powerful and flexible tool to automate tasks and customize the behavior of EOS and the operation of the overall data center switching infrastructure.
- Event-driven controls bring simplicity to network operations: Exporting massive amounts of data from the switch to a server just to find some small subset of information is inefficient and unnecessarily complex. Why not let the individual network elements do the work of parsing and alerting based on configurable events. By reducing the 'noise' operations staff increase their visibility to critical events.
- AEM allows operators to fully utilize the intelligence within EOS to respond to real-time events, automate routine tasks, and take local automated action based on real-time network conditions for improved network performance.
- According to Gartner Group 80% of mission-critical systems outages through 2015 will be caused by people and process issues: AEM is purpose-built to enhance system up-time and enable distributed systems automation to simplify complex tasks, react programmatically to network changes, and to simplify complex troubleshooting tasks—thus minimizing systems outages.
Zero Touch Provisioning - Network Automation for Cloud Data Centers
- As simple as rack, connect and power-on
- Standards based, no need to implement proprietary platforms
- Advanced scripting capabilities
- Maintain compliance and network integrity
- Fully automate network and server provisioning
- ZTP Applications
Using standards based protocols (e.g. DHCP, T/FTP, HTTP) the network can be rapidly provisioned. Advanced scripting capabilities allow the administrator to tailor boot configurations based on a variety of parameters, meeting the needs of even the most complex data center deployments. Combined with other Arista features, like VMTracer's adaptive VLAN configuration, data center managers can fully automate the bring-up of network elements and virtual servers. Leverage Arista's unique 'hands-off' provisioning to enable the Cloud Data Center.
Applications
- Fully automated deployment of a Virtualized Data Center: Arista switches deployed with ZTP, are downloaded with VMTracer configuration parameters. As VMware vSphere servers boot and instantiate virtual machines, VMTracer automatically configures the VLANS for the VMs. No manual configurations are necessary and the data center has autobooted and is ready for use.
- Using templates with Puppet/Cobbler to configure switches in an HPC cluster: Extending the model of cluster server provisioning, the HPC manager uses templates to quickly deploy additional racks of servers in the HPC cluster. Along with the server templates, the manager adds a template for the Top of Rack (ToR) switches as well. Now as racks of servers are added to the cluster, both network and server platforms are configured and integrated into the existing cluster.
- Using scripting to install Linux extensions to EOS: A service provider writes a shell script that is downloaded to a switch with ZTP at boot time. The shell script downloads an OpenVPN RPM, installs and configures it. Its last function is to send a message to the NOC with its logs and configuration information. After the switch reboots, managers can securely access the switch from the remote NOC for provisioning.
Automation - Literature
AEM - Literature
- .AEM Technical Bulletin
- .Fabric Tech Bulletin
- .AEM Q & A
- .January 2012 Blog-Jayshree Ullal
- .Press Release