Self Healing Network automation system

Project Title

Self Healing Network automation system

Project Area of Specialization Information & Communication TechnologyProject Summary

Network programmability is a trend, enhanced and inspired by Software Defined Networks that are based on scripting methods and standard programming languages used for controlling and monitoring network elements. In this project, we will adopt some new methods in the configuration of network devices by using automation, reducing time for equipment configuration, and easier maintenance. It will also improve network stability by recognizing and fixing issues and errors in the network.

These methods will represent the future of Computer Networks, allowing the management of an increased number of devices in a unitary way. The simulator used for our project is Virtual Machine (VM) EVE – NG clientless multivendor network emulation software that empowers network professionals. With EVE, we are able to confirm multivendor interaction.

The main focus of automation will be;

1: Troubleshooting basic errors by following specific steps.

2: The auto-configuration of Network Devices and Servers.

3: Designing a script that has the ability to vender less configuration.

4: Configuration backup of Devices.

5: Making a module for the comparison of configuration on the devices.

This python script will be installed on a Linux server that will control the network devices connected to our desired campus network.

Project Objectives

The main purpose of the project is to generate modules of python scripts that will install on the Linux server or google cloud for controlling the network devices in the established habitat. The attributes encompass the designed python script modules are:

1.         Temperature and Heating issues are monitored by controlling the CPU process in preference to networking devices.

2.         Busy attack or DDOS Attack subjects will monitor through the CPU process. Due to DDOS attacks CPU’s process will increase suddenly and the system’s performance decrease accordingly. By shutting down the port which is under attack, the system can be saved from getting crashed, and in addition, it will come by securing from the security thread.

3.         Mainly, due to any fault or attack, Switch cannot take backup of the current configuration or logs. So, for defending this critical scenario, the designed module will create a backup of the current configuration and logs before reboot and it will become automatically saved in a backup file.

4.         Generally, the issue of continuous flapping of BGP-learned routes arises in the IP routing table. Our monitoring self-healing system module will do BGP route damping to avoid this problem.

5.         If we want to replace a new device in a network, our module will compare the new configuration with the previous device configuration to avoid human error.

6.         The issues of OSPF configuration like;

• A subnet number/mask has been mismatched over a broadcast link.
• The Hello/dead interval has been mismatched.
• The authentication type has been mismatched.
• An area ID has been mismatched.

will be eliminated by our monitoring module.

Project Implementation Method

In this project, we use some specific powerful software for our simulators that will help us to achieve our goal. In this regard, we use Virtual Machine (VM) EVE-NG clientless multivendor network emulation software, which allows us to create emulated infrastructure on the fly such as VMware (Vcenter, esx), servers, routers, switches, firewalls, etc.  Meanwhile, we use LINUX operating system and Python programming language for scripting our module. Because Linux has built up a strong set of networking capabilities, including networking tools for providing and managing routes, bridging, DNS, DHCP, network troubleshooting, virtual networking, and network monitoring. Python will help us eliminate the unnecessary steps for our Network. Python allows us to build scripts to automate complex network configurations.

For network automation, we need some open-source tools that will help us to automate our network such as;

• NetBox
• NAPALM
• Nornir

NetBox: It is an open-source application built upon the Python Django framework, designed to help manage and document computer networks. NetBox will run as a Docker container.

It helps us in our project in the following way:

• IP address management (IPAM) - IP networks and addresses, VRFs, and VLANs
• equipment racks - organized by group and site
• devices - types of devices and where they are installed
• connections - network, console, and power connections among devices
• virtualization - virtual machines and clusters
• data circuits - long-haul communications circuits and providers

NAPALM: NAPALM (Network Automation and Programmability Abstraction Layer with Multivendor support) is a Python library that implements a set of functions to interact with different network device operating systems using a unified API.

It makes our script open source and vendor-free because by using this library we can interact with lower-level semantics of device interaction, such as which backend device library should be used (pyeapi, pynxos, netmiko, etc.).

Nornir: It is a pluggable multi-threaded framework with inventory management to help operate groups of devices. Nornir and its plugins will run within a Python virtual environment. It will pull the inventory data from NetBox via the REST API.

After building our stack we run different scripts for our project features.

Benefits of the Project

Network Automation is a modern world requirement, according to a report, 81% of IT pros expect most data center and networking tasks will be automated by 2025. A self-healing network is a dream of every Network Engineer and IT professional making the network more reliable, reducing human error, and ensuring consistency when deploying and configuring devices and services. So, our main goal is to facilitate in these areas business agility, operations speed, and operation expense (OPEX) operations cost reduction. Some main benefits of our project are:

• It reduces the number of human errors because 80% of network failures are due to human error.
• It also simplifies network management because some network management processes are done manually so they could not be performed regularly. When the network is automatic, configurations are constantly carried out across the infrastructure with less effort, making management simpler, faster, and easier to scale.
• It also makes our network more dynamic.
• Network automation supports monitoring tools that alert admins to performance issues, high resource utilization levels, and errors on the network.
• This can also provide deeper insights into performance, utilization, security, and resource allocation.
• It also leads to a lower risk of performance issues, equipment failure, data breaches, and regulatory compliance violations.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

On the very first stage of our Final year project, we prepared our project idea and presented it to our instructor. After improving the proposal and objectives of the project we prepared for the first presentation of FYP. We presented our idea of “Making life easier for Engineers”. Aiming to automate the core networks and Server devices, we defended our proposal and got accepted by the committee.

In the second stage, we started learning skills related to our FYP and we have gone through the latest research journals related to our project. Three months are allocated for this phase;

• Python language basics and data structures

• Network automation libraries i.e. NetBox, NAPALM, Nornir, pyeapi, pynxos, netmiko, etc.
• Learned about Linux and Dockers.

In the 3rd stage, we designed a topology in a Virtual Environment and started integrating python script with Cisco, Juniper, and Huawei devices. We did an analysis of the derived results.

In the 4th stage, we did troubleshooting the errors and issues in the project.

In our final stage, we are near to completing multiple modules of the python scripts that are capable of meeting all the objectives of our project. These modules can be installed on any server which is capable of monitoring and healing the network device issues automatically.   

Final Deliverable of the Project Software SystemCore Industry TelecommunicationOther Industries IT Core Technology OthersOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and InfrastructureRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	61653
EVE-NG - virtual Images pack of Cisco, Huawei, & Juniper Vendors	Equipment	1	14699	14699
VMware workstation pro	Equipment	1	36954	36954
paper work and miscellaneous expenditures	Miscellaneous	1	10000	10000