Batfish Network Automation

Introduction to Batfish

What is Batfish?

Batfish is an open source network analysis tool. It takes configuration files (snapshots) from network devices and then creates a vendor agnostic data model that you can interrogate offline to validate network changes before you make them.

Batfish can also rebuild the control plane and routing table offline so you can query that to see if any network changes will affect the routing table.

It also works for firewall rules and you can query if a network change for example will block access to a key application.

This is really just scratching the surface of what Batfish can do, so let’s install it and start looking at some simple examples.

Also, as Batfish can run offline it makes it great to add into a CI pipeline to validate changes before they are deployed.

Batfish Installation

The latest Batfish documentation can be found here:
https://batfish.readthedocs.io/en/latest/getting_started.html

Batfish runs as a container so you just need a machine that supports Docker, for this Batfish tutorial I will be using Ubuntu 22. It is also recommended that you also install Pybatfish in a virtual environment.

• Install Docker
• Install Batfish
• Create a virtual environment
• Install PyBatfish
• Upgrade Batfish

There are two versions of Batfish, a lightweight version and one that comes with Jupyter notebook. For this tutorial we are going to install the full (allinone) version.

docker pull batfish/allinone

To run Batfish just enter this command

docker run --name batfish -v batfish-data:/data -p 8888:8888 -p 9997:9997 -p 9996:9996 batfish/allinone

PyBatfish

Setting up Batfish for network analysis and configuration validation

Using Batfish to troubleshoot network issues

Ansible & Batfish

Batfish vs PyATS

Batfish Enterprise

Batfish enterprise was the GUI front ended enterprise supported version of Batfish managed and maintained by Intentionet. However it has since been discontinued as Batfish was acquired AWS in 2022 and the future of Batfish Enterprise at this point is unclear.

Leveraging Batfish for configuration management and deployment

Advanced Batfish features for large-scale network management

Case study: Using Batfish to streamline network operations at XYZ Company

Best practices for using Batfish in network automation workflows

A comparison of Batfish with other network automation tools

Batfish Training

Real-world use cases of Batfish Network Automation in action

Frequently asked questions about Batfish and network automation

1. Introduction to Batfish Network Automation
2. Benefits of using Batfish for Network Configuration Verification
3. How Batfish helps in Network Auditing and Troubleshooting
4. Using Batfish for Multi-Vendor Network Environments
5. Real-world use cases of Batfish Network Automation in action.

batfish aws

batfish github

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batfish vs pyats

batfish enterprise pricing

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