This document summarizes an end-user case study about network automation from Federico Olivieri, a Network Automation Engineer at Ticketmaster. It discusses problems with network visibility and telemetry that are often incorrectly blamed on various components. It then covers understanding requirements for automation, creating an approachable interface for non-technical users, and how to monitor networks using open-source tools like Python, Grafana, Docker and databases. The presentation proposes a solution called T.N.T. - Ticketmaster Network Telemetry to automate network monitoring using probes and dashboards provisioned by continuous integration/continuous delivery pipelines.

1. End-user case study:
Automation in action
Federico Olivieri
Network Automation Engineer
Ticketmaster

2. Agenda
1. Exploring network visibility and telemetry problems.
2. Understanding what we need and finding the right
tools for automation.
3. Creating an approachable interface for non-tech people.
4. How to monitor the network using open-source tools.
5. Questions.

3. 1.
Exploring network visibility
and telemetry problems

4. Whose fault is that?
• 3rd party cloud provider (AWS is down! Where is
your God now?!)
• Bare-metal server ( NIC driver version 0.1.beta,
year 1998 )
• Hypervisor ( BSD does not like e1000, so let’s drop
some packets! Catch me if you can!)
• Docker ( have you tried docker restart? )
• Application ( No way! Is because the network!)
• Network (No way! Is because the application)
The winner is …

6. Application: “Please keep
looking for a potential network
issue while I will go through the
log files of my just developed
and tested application…but I am
sure is working ok”
Network: “I found it! 1 ping drop
over 1000000K sent”
Application: ”Did you? That’s
cool! …I have just realized that I
had forgotten to start the
service, but… thanks anyway!”

7. • BGP transit
• MPLS circuits
• Routing convergence
• Spanning-Tree-Protocol (Habemus SDN…!)
• TCP windowing
• L3 RTT
• L4 RTT
• QoS
• 3rd party cloud
• …etc..etc
Manager: “What could be the root cause of that packet drop? “ The network
manager asked to himself. ”You, boy, with your fresh CCNA, go and find it!”
Boy: “Might I have my P45 please?”

8. Never again!

9. 2.
Understanding what we need
and finding the right tools for
automation

10. L3 RTT
L4 RTT
ping
nmap
Python / go DBs Grafana
T.N.T. - Ticketmaster Network Telemetry
Docker
Run command
Extract the data
Write DB body
DB API call
CI/CD
Trinitrotoluene
YAML
Jinja2

11. 3.
Creating an approachable
interface for non-tech people

12. https://gitlab.com/networkAutomation/network-telemetry
What you need:
• Nice text editor supporting git.
• Basic git understanding.
Probes Only

13. • Local Grafana instance
• Local Database instance
• Local PING probe
• Local TCP probe
• Dashboard provisioned automatically via CI/CD
• Can run directly in your environment without need for a
new instance
Full Stack

17. 4.
How to monitor the network
using open-source tools

18. Thanks to…
…for a total of 0 £

19. 5.
Questions
?