Automating "Network Ready for Use" Testing

Automating “Network Ready for Use” Testing

This tutorial will showcase an approach using the “pytest” open-source tool to validate operational states of the network. The content will consist of a presentation and instructor live Python coding. The presentation will cover motivation for NRFU automated testing, introduction of pytest core-concepts, and discussion of network testing approaches. The instructor will live code each aspect of using pytest that covers: defining custom pytest CLI options, loading per-device test-cases, using pytest CLI options for filtering tests, and generating HTML visual based reports. The audience is expected to have a working understanding of Python, however this tutorial is not a hands-on coding workshop.

User-Story:

As a network engineer I need to ensure that the network is ready for use - whether it is for a new buildout, making changes, or fixing issues. Right now I am manually running all the “show commands” and visually inspecting the output. Doing this process manually is often difficult due to the number of checks I need to perform and managing all the complex data relationships that makeup network services. As a result, mistakes are made and I am concerned I am not testing everything that I need to. I need software to automate these tests and give me a pass / fail report. In the event of failures the report needs to give me the information I need so I can take corrective actions.

Further reading:
https://docs.pytest.org