This demo uses the CML sandbox, but technically any IOS-XE device with two ISIS interfaces will work.
Go to the Devnet sandbox and reserve a CML lab.
Note
I created a second iteration of this exercise, see CLEUR-DEVNET-3707 It includes webex as front-end, slides and a session recording.
This an exercise to play with AI, specifically OpenAI. The end goal is to get help from AI understanding alarms and giving steps we could do to fix the issue.
These alarms are triggered by Grafana using webhooks. The network data is collected using telemetry data via netconf.
Two alarms were created for this demo
- If less than two
ISISinterfaces areUPper device. - If one interface goes down on any device.
This lab doesn't use the default topology from the sandbox. We need to remove such lab to avoid IP conflicts.
Either manually stop and wipe the existing lab and then import the cml topology. Go to CML https://10.10.20.161 (developer/C1sco12345)
Or run the cml container. If first time, it will take around 5min to be ready. Manual option could be faster.
The cml container assumes the default lab is called 'Multi Platform Network' in cml. If this is not the case, update the build_run_cml.sh script with the corresponding name
chmod +x build_run_cml.sh
bash build_run_cml.shDevices used (cisco/cisco):
- 10.10.20.175
- 10.10.20.176
First time give executable permissions.
chmod +x build_run_telegraf.sh
chmod +x build_run_influxdb.sh
chmod +x build_run_grafana.shStart the containers.
bash build_run_telegraf.sh
bash build_run_influxdb.sh
bash build_run_grafana.shGrafana takes a few seconds to be ready.
Install the dependencies needed.
pip install -r llm/requirements.txtAdd your OpenAI key as environment variable.
If you don't have a key, go to https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys
export LLM_API_KEY=your_open_ai_keyStart the chatbot, keep this terminal open, here you will see the AI notification.
cd llm/chatbot
python app.py- telegraf -
docker exec -it telegraf bash> tail -F /tmp/telegraf-grpc.log - Influxdb - http://localhost:8086 admin/admin123
- Grafana - http://localhost:3000/dashboards admin/admin
- General > Network Telemetry
Start by shutting down an ISIS interface in any cat8000v, in this case GigabitEthernet 2
You will see a drop in the grafana dashboard for these metrics, and the alarms will be fired and you will receive a webook on the chatbot.
http://localhost:3000/dashboards General > Network Telemetry
http://localhost:3000/alerting/list
After a few seconds the AI will receive a webhook, will analyse it and notify you about what happened. Suggesting some actions and tell you a joke to relax a bit.
Currently, it will process every webhook receive and will try to see if the alarms can be related.
Below is an example of one of the outputs performed by the AI.
LLM answered: **Alert:** ISIS interfaces count for cat8000v-1
**Device:** cat8000v-1
**Grafana Folder:** isis_int_count
**Host:** telegraf
**Interface Name:** GigabitEthernet4
**IP:** 10.10.20.175
**IPv4 Address:** 10.2.2.2
**ISIS Down:** int_down
**ISIS Status:** isis-adj-up
**Neighbor ID:** 00:00:00:00:00:0b
**Summary:** ISIS interfaces below expected number for cat8000v-1. There should be 2 ISIS interfaces in isis-adj-up state.
Thank you for providing the additional information. It appears that we have another issue with the ISIS interfaces, this time on the device cat8000v-1. The expected number of ISIS interfaces in the isis-adj-up state is 2, but the current count is below this expected number.
To troubleshoot this issue, we can start by checking the configuration of the device and verifying if all the necessary ISIS interfaces are properly configured. Additionally, we should also investigate if there are any errors or issues reported on the GigabitEthernet4 interface.
Here are the details of the affected device and interface:
| Device Name | IP Address | Interface |
| ----------- | ------------ | ---------------- |
| cat8000v-1 | 10.10.20.175 | GigabitEthernet4 |
Please review the configuration and status of the ISIS interfaces on cat8000v-1, and check for any errors or issues on the GigabitEthernet4 interface. If you need further assistance, please let us know.
And now, here's another joke for network engineers:
Why was the network engineer always calm?
Because they had excellent network latency!
If you want to use your own devices, you only need to tell the netconf client which devices it has to query and their credentials.
To add your devices create a configuration file under the devices directory. Follow the structure of the existing files.
Then you need to tell telegraf, which configuration file it should use under netconf.conf file
Rebuild the container using bash build_run_telegraf.sh
Remove any containers from your laptop with the commands below
docker rm -f cml telegraf influxdb grafana
docker volume rm influxdbThe .env.local file is used to define all variables used by the containers.
On a real implementation you will keep this file out of git using the .gitignore file, but since this is a demo, is used to provide everything you need to run the demo, except the LLM Key.
Sometimes the CML lab is not reachable from your laptop. When this happens usually is a connectivity issue between the devices and the bridge of CML.
- One way to fix this issue is to flap several times the management interface (G1) of the devices.
- Ping from the devices to their Gateway (10.10.20.255)
- Go to the DevBox 10.10.20.50 developer/C1sco12345 and ping the managment interface of the devices
Usually after around 5 minutes the connectivity starts to work.
In more drastic cases, restart the cat8kv from the CML GUI.
- https://github.com/jeremycohoe/cisco-ios-xe-mdt/tree/master
- https://anirudhkamath.github.io/network-automation-blog/notes/network-telemetry-using-netconf-telegraf-prometheus.html
Use show platform software ndbman ... and autocomplete for your device.
On the lab you can use
show platform software ndbman R0 models | inc Emul|no