Step 1: Explore Lab Structure

Value Proposition: Develop a comprehensive understanding of the lab’s virtual environment architecture, facilitating seamless integration and utilization of Python and pyATS tools, enabling streamlined automation, efficient dependency management, and project isolation for enhanced productivity and consistency across scripting workflows.

  1. On the remote desktop, click the Terminal shortcut on the toolbar, once the terminal opens, on the dropdown icon, select ubuntu.

  2. Ubuntu will run on our RDP Jumphost on top of Windows 10. In addition, the bash Linux shell will appear.

    Note

    It can take a few seconds while the packages required for the lab are installed.

    ../../_images/ubuntu-terminal.png

    Throughout the lab, you will be working from a virtual environment. The virtual environment provides the following significant advantages over running Python scripts globally:

    • Project Isolation: Avoids installing Python packages globally, which could break system tools or other projects.

    • Dependency Management: Makes the project self-contained and reproducible by capturing all package dependencies in a requirements file.

    Cisco recommends you run pyATS scripts from the virtual environment. Therefore, the keyword (pyats) at the beginning of each line indicates that you are working from a virtual environment.

  3. Make sure that you are within the /home/cisco/LTRATO-2001 directory, which contains the necessary lab files, otherwise you can switch to the appropriate directory by executing the following command:

    cd ~/LTRATO-2001

  4. Check the directory structure.

    ls -l

    Check the list of files and refer to the description of each file depicted in the table below.

    Note

    The following files are in the LTRATO-2001 directory and will be used throughout the lab.

    Filename

    Description

    pyats_testbed.yaml

    Testbed file for pyATS (in YAML)

    task2step1.py

    The task for collection of show commands

    task2step2.py

    The initial task for pyATS exploration

    task3step1a.py

    Test to verify log messages (asav-1 only)

    task3step1b.py

    Test to verify log messages (all devices)

    task3step2.py

    Test to verify service contracts coverage

    task3step3.py

    Test to verify routing information

    task3step4.py

    Test to verify reachability between devices (ping)

    task4step1.py

    pyATS job file to run tests from

Section author: Luis Rueda <lurueda@cisco.com>, Jairo Leon <jaileon@cisco.com>