QuickStart Automation Use Cases

Welcome to the QuickStart Automation Use Case Overview Module. 

The use cases outlined within this section are intended to be completed on Itential's Trial infrastructure and lab. For more details about accessing this infrastructure and lab, please visit www.itential.com/get-started

This module will review the core values of Itential and provide a short overview of the Itential Automation Platform (IAP). The information contained in this article is also available in Itential Academy in an e-learning format. Click the link below to access it:

Itential Cloud Workshop - QuickStart Overview

The goals of the QuickStart Automation Use Cases are to:

• Provide a Trial experience of IAP using real use cases against real devices
• Provide hands-on exposure of IAP's low-code platform
• Prove rapid time-to-value for network automation use cases

Core Values

As we dive into the Platform and use case, we hope you’ll see these core values represented in various ways.

Itential Architecture

Speaking of diving into the Platform, let’s cover some basics of the architecture. This is a high-level diagram of tools within the Itential Automation Platform (IAP) as well as the Itential Automation Gateway (IAG).

We’re going to begin at the top of our diagram and work our way down - starting with Automation Studio.

Automation Studio is where you go to design and build your automations. The tools there include Workflows, Forms, Templates, and Transformations.

• Workflows are used to define the steps that an automation needs as well as execute integrations via adapter tasks.
• Forms (JSON Forms) are used when you gather input from users during an automation.
• Templates can be used to execute commands (Command Templates), model data (Jinja2), or parse text (TextFSM).
• Transformations (or JSON Schema Transformations) are used to perform data manipulation so you can use data that you've learned from one system into another.

Configuration Manager is used to manage configuration from various network elements such as traditional devices (routers, switches, firewalls, etc.), Cloud, and SD-WAN. With Configuration Manager you can:

• Perform Configuration Backups
• Group Devices
• Define Golden Configurations
• Measure Configuration Compliance

Operations Manager is used to expose your network automations. You can setup various triggers for consumption of your automations. Those triggers include Manual Execution, Schedules, APIs, and Events. Within Operations Manager you can see analytics and audit of executed automations (Jobs).

The Pre-Builts Collection is where you'll find best practice Itential assets for IAP. 

• Adapters - Over 150 open source integrations into various systems.
• Automations - Modular workflows that include all the elements for a particular use case.
• Transformations - Data transformations that can be reused across a variety of Automations.

To power the applications, we go through a variety of layers such as our Automation Engine, Data Transformation, Event Messaging, and Data Federation.

Connecting into systems are critical for automation and orchestration. That is handled by IAG and Adapters. IAG can interact with devices, Terraform, Ansible, and even your own scripts.

QuickStart Use Case Walk-Through Instructions

If you do not yet have an Itential Cloud Trial instance, simply go to the Itential Get Started page and submit your request. 

Additional Resources and Links

Itential provides comprehensive documentation and training to support our customers. You can find links to relevant documentation and courses below:

Documentation

• Automation Studio
• Command Templates
• Configuration Manager
• JSON Forms
• Transformations

Itential Academy Courses

• Automation Studio
• Command Templates
• Configuration Manager
• JSON Forms
• Transformations
• Workflow Automation Best Practices