David, thank you so much for having me! It was great meeting you for the first time and talking to you! I am looking forward to our next meeting (hopefully at CLUS!)

We use Netmiko a lot in service provider land and is the only way to work in scale when you learn to multithread or turn you simple script into a worker microservice that can instantly scale to thousands for really big jobs. I have been looking at Nornir and it's nice that it affords multitasking to a new programmer without having to manage it. We already wrote our own multi processing and scaling solutions to employ Netmiko among other libs and they live in a datacenter behind an API service. The way Python threads share the parent process fits fairly well with the asynchronous nature of network device interaction. Pythons dreaded GIL is not as much of barrier in this specific use case unless you crank up the worker threads too high and/or they are too I/O heavy. Using multiprocessing can multiply your thread use further by essentially running the same script module multiple times in their own separate processor cores and interpreter instance to split the work but is a little harder to build and manage. You have to plan and break up the structure of your modules more carefully to fit that work style to get the best performance. I encourage new programmers to learn to multithread Netmiko as soon as they master doing simple tasks because it's the easiest to understand and implement. You will learn a lot and have a powerful tool at your disposal when you are done. Ansible is cool but it is not always the best tool for the job but is good to know because its popular. YAML is a great config language but when you start mixing programming logic into your business info it can become an ugly mess to maintain/test and is only so flexible. CSVs and spreadsheets make great quick disposable job controls and data sources but are best for human data exchange then digested into a system. Whatever you use make sure to get version control like Git. Netdevs should eventually learn at least the basics of using a database as their storage/data source because that's what SDN config orchestrators really are; databases with worker programs that act on that data wrapped in an API. A DB connection works like Netmikos connection handler and just as simple to learn. Python comes with SQLite3 built-in and is a portable single file database so you don't need a server or VM/emulation to use. You will learn the basics of SQL query languages and how to make you own simple databases to power your dream app. Using a real DB is a trivial step after that and allows you to do datacenter scale jobs like auditing 10K routers in 10 minutes. You can mine that data at will to generate reports for audits or learn insights about your network. DBs make a great I/O device for automation work because of its asynchronous behavior like network devices so it plays nicer with threading and can handle scale built in unless you use Oracle then you are doomed to fail because they ruin everything they touch.

This was a very good interview. Dmitry knows so much, it's difficult to get everything in one interview. Again python scripting is shown importance in network automation. It's fabulous to meet all networking gurus through your videos David. Thanks to you.

Thank you, Sir, for another great meetup!!!

Wow, what an amazing interview. Dmitry is incredibly sharp, easy to understand, and inspiring all at the same time!

Very well done, thank you. The video description also is quite perfect!

Dimitry, you're a smart guy! This everchanging world needs more people like you to meet chanllenges!

David thank you for interviewing one of our industry's mentors and a trail-blazer, Dmitry! You're an excellent interviewer, and the questions asked of Dmitry are questions many of us are asking ourselves and considering the implications of. This is an excellent, propitious video!

Menu: Live Stream on Twitch: 0:32 Dimitry's programming background and how he got into Cisco: 1:00 Are you a Networker or Programmer: 6:32 Nornir: 8:25 Why is Python better than Ansible? 11:16 Why is Nornir better (threading and other options)? 16:25 Is Nornir a Python version of Ansible? 22:27 Can someone start with Nornir? 22:47 Just get started: 28:28 Are certifications important? 30:18 Reasons to get certs: 32:40 Would you still go for CCNA, CCNP, CCIE today? 34:08 What is machine learning and AI? 36:50 Dmitry's details: Twitter: twitter.com/dmfigol Twitch: www.twitch.tv/dmfigol LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dmfigol/ KZfaq: kzfaq.info/love/S8yWZCX-fdxft8yFAffZCg Nornir: nornir.readthedocs.io/en/stable/ Netmiko: github.com/ktbyers/netmiko NAPALM: github.com/napalm-automation/... Pyats: developer.cisco.com/pyats/ Network to Code slack group: slack.networktocode.com/ Note: Travel and conference access courtesy of Cisco.

Thanks for the timestamps, excellent interview

really great to see someone so obviously highly intelligent yet also grounded and humble. Great interview

Hi David.. we never see people like you for getting of best in everything with the free cost channel in this commercial world. You are giving best to us with free cost & always thankful for lot of your hard work. Thank you so much.

great interview, great topics. Thank you guys! You´ve just said all I think about ansible and all the pain I feel when I have to make hard stuff (and debugging it...)

Very good interview, Dimitry is very good I attended one of his presentations last year at CLUS on net dev and Asyncio I used his recommendations for logging into 200 routers in 30-45 minutes to 2-3 minutes which turn help we auto close and auto fix of devices will definitely look into the nornir!!!

Hello David, I'm not sure if you will this message but I just want to say it! * - You have chosen NOT to monetize your KZfaq channel. For this I respect you a lot. Ads are the reason why I have unfollowed guy with big beard and will never ever touch his videos. Is he despred to earn money from KZfaq while feeding his audience with 3-4 advertisments per video? It is really annoyng to learn something while ads interupt my concentration. * - Thank you for choosing NOT monetize your KZfaq channel! I'm just one of the many students who appreciate your decision to NOT feeding us with KZfaq ads, but rather with value content. * - I have BIG respect for you!!! Thank you Dave!

Thank you David for delivering great educational and inspirational materials!

I’m taking Kirk Byers classes right now, and information like this is incredibly helpful. A perspective from someone who has professional experience using Python, Nornir, Ansible

Hi David, Love your work 💓

Great interview David

David, please add Nornir and create GUI interfaces for our scripts in to your courses... Thanks for this video

25:42 Right Ansible version Dmitry , made me chuckle, Ansible is great but troubleshooting is pain ( I know -vvvv switch) , Also once you have this playbook working different version of ansible !!!! .

Hi David Great video

He mentioned an article at about 21:34 for nornir to update Operating Systems. Could you also post that link? Great interview! I am standing this up as I watch this!

I think certifications are a guide and show the level of knowledge you have and from there depends on learning more and expand on the level of knowledge you have. For me I think is a good way to measure a skill and the expansion of knowledge and skills will always depend on the person.

Hi Dmitry!

Ansible assert module takes care of syntax check. Coupled with regex is quite powerful...

David...how about a combination of the two for being a network automation engineer, for ex. get your CCNA or CCNP and then Python programming education and do both! A hybrid of the two. I like networking and programming both but I don't want to fry my brain to get CCIE. Would CCNA and good Python programming skills be enough? Why are you always pushing the CCIE?

David, what are your thoughts on GoLang for Network Engineers?

Glad I viewed this video. I know more Python than Ansible.

I agree with Dmitry that using raw python is better than ansible. However, I now choose Golang hands down. Goroutines will kill python threads any day....even python’s async io.

Hello David, so i am assuming from the courses that you have on udemy that you have spent a fair share amount on stuff like netmiko/napalm as well as ansible, i am curious what is your opinion about this 'rather direct python instead of ansible' subject?

If he codes live, that means he knows what he's doing ;)

Is the link to nomir working? Not working for me. Oh got it, Nornir.

David please what phone do you use, will be very happy to know

What I love about listening to people that are smarter than myself is that I have no clue what they are discussing.

I too, love to hate on Ansible.

First big like