ABSTRACT
Network Automation is the game-changer in Network Management in most organizations and across the world. This is bring about change and shift in the way network configuration, design deployment, and monitoring have been done in the previous years. The emergency of a Software- defined network is shifting the Network vendors to produce devices that can be integrated and run as infrastructure as a code. This emergency and evolution of technology will assist an organization to reduce operational costs and provide a customizable way of architecture the Network for the novice ways while reducing the complexity of managing the Network Infrastructure. Network management is one area that the approach of Network automation using infrastructure as a code is taking high precedence. While leveraging on Network automation, Network engineers and Information Technology Support Team will be able to interact with systems in a friendly way while managing. This study focused on a Network management tool that is meant to assist Network engineers and helpdesk to deploy, manage and configure network switches in a multi-vendor environment. The Network Management is proof of concept to showcase how automation can simplify network complexities in a multi-vendor environment to present a solution to the existing challenge of manual configuration and specialized skills geared towards a particular vendor in the Networking industry. Hence it fits in the gap analysis that was established in the literature review as it was identified the existing solutions reviewed could not provide centralized configuration management for the multivendor environment.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ABSTRACT ii
DEFINITION OF TERMS vi
ABBREVIATION/ACRONYMS vii
LIST OF FIGURES viii
LIST OF TABLES ix
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Research problem 1
1.3 Research questions 2
1.4 Objectives of the study 2
1.5 Justification of the research 2
1.6 Scope of the research 3
1.7 Assumptions 3
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Levels of Network Automation 4
2.2 Building Infrastructure as a Code 5
2.3 Alternative approaches to Network Management 5
2.4 Challenges facing Network Management 5
2.5 Automation Hierarchy 7
2.6 Existing Solutions for Network Management 8
2.7 Conceptual Model 9
2.8 Conclusion 10
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design 11
3.2 Research Type 12
3.3 Research Method 12
3.4 Sampling from Population 13
3.5 Data Collection Techniques 13
3.6 Data analysis 13
3.7 Development methodology 14
3.8 Ethical considerations 15
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 System analysis 16
4.1.1 Feasibility Study/Analysis 16
4.1.1.1 Economic feasibility 16
4.1.1.2 Technical feasibility 16
4.1.1.3 Operational feasibility 17
4.1.1.4 Schedule feasibility 17
4.1.2 Requirement elicitation 17
4.1.2.1 Functional requirement 17
4.1.2.2 Non-Functional Requirements 19
4.1.3 System modeling 19
4.1.3.1 Use case diagrams 19
4.1.3.2 Context diagram 22
4.2 System design 22
4.2.1 Conceptual design 22
4.2.2 Database Design 24
4.2.3 User interface design 24
4.3 System implementation 26
4.3.1 Hardware Resources 26
4.3.2 Software Resources 26
4.3.3 Programming Approach and Tools and Technologies. 26
4.3.3.1 API development Framework 27
4.3.3.2 DataBase 27
4.3.3.3 Front End 27
4.3.3.4 Python Netwmiko Library 27
4.4 System testing 27
4.4.1 System Walkthroughs with Network Administrators. 27
4.4.2 Module testing 28
4.4.3 Regression testing 28
4.4.4 Integration testing 28
4.4.5 System testing 28
4.4.6 User acceptance testing 28
4.4.7 Test cases 29
4.5 Prototype evaluation and results 36
4.5.1 Functional evaluation 36
4.5.2 User testing results 37
4.6 Discussion 38
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Contributions of the study 39
5.2 Implications for practitioners 40
5.3 Limitations 40
5.4 Future Works 40
5.5 Conclusion 40
REFERENCES 42
APPENDIX 44
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Software-Defined Network: is a network architecture design with capabilities to be programmed
and to be centrally controlled using a software application. Network Automation: This is the approach of automating manual tasks with the
end goal being a simplification of the complexity of management of network infrastructure
Virtual Local Area Network: This refers to the logical separation of Network devices by use of
grouping into subnets
IP : Refers to a set of standards and rules that dictate how data is sent on the Network
Local Area Network : refers to a group of computers connected on a network that
spans abuilding.
Network: A connection of two computer devices or systems using communication media
ABBREVIATION/ACRONYMS
IP – Internet Protocol
GNS3 - Graphical Network Simulator 3 CLI – Command-line interface
SSH – Secure Shell
HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol SAS – Software as A service
LAN – Local Area Network
VLAN – Virtual Local Area Network O&M – Operation & Management
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2. 1 Showing risk on Network Change 6
Figure 2.2 Source © 2019 Enterprise Management Associates showing challenges facing network automation 7
Figure 2.3 Showing The Automation process(Source: ACG Research, 2020) 8
Figure 2.4 shows the conceptual framework 10
Figure 3. 1 Figure shows DevOps development life Cycle 15
Figure 4. 1 Shows Network Super Admin use case diagram 20
Figure 4. 2 shows the IT helpdesk Use Case 21
Figure 4. 3 Context Diagram 22
Figure 4. 4 High-Level Diagram Network Design 23
Figure 4. 5 Low-Level Network Diagram inside a virtual Simulated Environment 23
Figure 4. 6 Above showing User interface design -Login screen 25
Figure 4. 7 above shows User interface design device configuration interface 25
Figure 4. 8 Prototype login page 31
Figure 4. 9 shows the user landing page to Network Management Tool. 32
Figure 4. 10 below shows the Device management section where users can onboard devices 32
Figure 4. 11 Device Management section shows Vendor management where different vendors are configured to the system for this case this is Cisco, Arista, and HP-Aruba 32
Figure 4. 12 shows the device onboarding section 33
Figure 4. 13 shows the listing of all interfaces and parameters that can be configured. 33
Figure 4. 14 Figure showing VLAN configuration Section 34
Figure 4. 15 .The flowchart showing how network Management tool Work 35
Figure 4. 16 User Experience results 37
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Content analysis for Interview 14
Table 4.1 Showing entities of different tabless used 24
Table 4.2 Showing Test cases 31
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1.1 Background
Network Automation which relies on a Software-defined network is a process of using software to automate a particular Network task by understanding, interpreting, and creating logic. This improves efficiency and the capabilities of manual tasks while limiting the error rate providing a space for focusing on the scalability of the task with less effort. (Ratan,2017, p 7). Networking is essential in any organization as it provides interconnectivity and communication in an enterprise environment and the outside world Devices that are majorly used in networking are Routers switches and firewalls. Every Network device vendor has a different syntax of commands for Network Management. Each vendor plays a role in the network. (Patricia & James, 2014, p 29) States that to make changes in network behavior, it is necessary to access each router in the network and issue a set of commands to the operating systems in the language that has been defined by the vendor of the network equipment. The overall objective of this is to change the device's results. In such a closed environment networking devices, cannot easily interact with other components existing in the network.
1.2 Research problem
Network Automation refers to the process and procedure of automating tasks that are executed manually such as configuration, management deployment. A survey carried out by (Wenfeng, Yonggang, Chuan, Dusit & Haiyong, 2017, p 29) states that during provisioning of a network device in the environment, there is a need to have proper configurations for synchronization and to achieve coherence in network operation. The existence of heterogeneity of network vendors and configuration management has facilitated the decentralized architecture typically involving a certain level of manual processing. As the end goal is met, it is worthwhile to note that the manual configuration process is tedious and subjected to errors which in turn increases the amount of time require t to troubleshoot a network that has misconfiguration. With this manual and decentralized architecture and existing network designs, it proofs hard to attain automatic and dynamic reconfiguration in the Networking field. The emergence of Network automation is the solution in such given circumstances This provides a way in which the network can be programmatically configured using a Software-Defined Approach. There is a need to reduce the time for deployment and provisioning of network devices. Network Automation has been a problem for many since skilled talent remains a challenge even though we have tools that can be used. This has led to increased cost of Maintaining deploying and management of the network as an organization is seeking consultants service to maintain the network to shift risks associated with network downtime.
1.3 Research questions
The research questions included:
1. What are existing approaches are being used for Network Management?
2. What are the challenges facing the automation of Networks?
3. What are the benefits realized by adopting network automation?
1.4 Objectives of the study
1.4.1 Overall objective
This study aimed to provide a Network Management Prototype to assist manage and configuring Network devices in a multi-vendor environment by interacting with a user- friendly interface.
1.4.2 Specific objectives
1. To research and establish existing network configuration approaches that have been adopted to configure the network and deployment of new services.
2. To research and establish challenges facing Network automation and benefits that can be realized by automating the network
3. To design a prototype for Network configuration Tool for Configuration deployment for Local Area Network switches.
4. To implement and test the developed prototype for the Network Configuration
1.5 Justification of the research
Software-defined network and Network automation will be beneficial in such cases, as it can take care of all the preceding aspects and perform the tasks in parallel. Hence, if it takes 30 minutes of manual effort for one router, and in the worst-case scenario the same minutes for automation to perform the same task, then leveraging on parallel execution it is possible to attain a result in all 1,000 routers being upgraded within the same 30. minutes. (Ratan, 2017.pg7). This has been attributed to the fact that the network is becoming big and complex to maintain. The use of scripts can be a solution, but this exposes the code to users. By employing A web framework, will ensure that scripts are used by multiple end-users using just the browser. This provides the programmer the ability and independence to script on their preferred platform (such as Windows or Linux), and people can use the scripts on their choice of browser. They don't need to understand how the code has been written, or what functional call or used in the backend, and of course, this ensures that the code is hidden from being directly visible to end-users. (Ratan,2017. pg. 109).
1.6 Scope of the research
The Scope involved 3 networking Vendors. Cisco, Aruba, and Arista. Since the images for emulation were readily available for use and they are supported in the Simulation environment. The scope encompassed the switch LAN functionalities. For configuration parameters, VLAN configuration was the point of focus on the LAN section. Interface configuration.Static route configuration on switches
1.7 Assumptions
1. The assumptions included: Network stability will provide optimal routing in the simulated environment.
2. All other vendors can be provisioned in the simulated environment for testing.
3. The system developed will require optimal resources during deployment and testing.
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