Today I completed the Understanding Cisco Network Automation Essentials (DEVNAE) learning path on Cisco U. as part of the latest Rev Up to Recert offering:

While I was able to skip through the majority of sections thanks to the pre-assessments, there was still a significant amount of material to cover which was split between videos, pages to read through and hands on labs.

Here is an overview of the curriculum:

Topics I needed to cover included Understanding YANG Models and Orchestrating Network Services with Cisco NSO - both of which provided great hands on labs where I got to play with:

• Cisco YANG Suite
  • Created a device profile for a CSR router
  • Retrieved YANG models, stored in repository and organized in YANG Sets
  • Expanded and observed ietf-interfaces module tree structure
  • Read filtered device config by building and running NETCONF RPC requests
  • Built and ran RPC to configure a new loopback interface on the router
• Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO)
  • Started NSO local instance on Linux VM and launched NSO CLI
  • Viewed device configuration data in different formats
  • Configured a device from NSO CLI
  • Verified device inventory and performed new device onboard
  • Configured device group and verified group membership
  • Configured multiple features on multiple devices at once
  • Synchronized device configurations from and to the network
  • Configured and applied device templates with variables
  • Troubleshoot NED to device communications
  • Created/compiled/deployed a service package and applied to multiple devices at once

This is all relevant to the DevNet Expert Lab, and tops my CE credits up by 16 to a current total of 31, so is time well spent. Bring on the next Rev Up to Recert!