Question

Difficulty: MediumImpact of Automation on Network Management

An enterprise network operations team is transitioning from managing 500 access switches individually via manual CLI sessions to using a centralized, controller-driven automation framework. Which operational benefit directly results from adopting this automated network management model?

  1. Device configurations are defined using centralized software templates and applied via programmatic APIs, significantly reducing configuration drift and human error.Answer
  2. B
    The operational framework requires agent software to be installed on every switch to initiate local SSH sessions back to the central controller.
  3. C
    Configuration updates on target devices are performed by sending HTTP GET requests containing the modified configuration payload.
  4. D
    Automated controller management automatically ignores Syslog severity levels 0 through 3 to prioritize high-volume telemetry streaming.

Answer

Device configurations are defined using centralized software templates and applied via programmatic APIs, significantly reducing configuration drift and human error.
Moving from per-device CLI management to a centralized automation framework enables network administrators to define configurations centrally as standardized data models or templates. Pushing these configurations via programmatic APIs ensures compliance across all target devices, virtually eliminating manual entry errors and configuration drift.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the operational transition from traditional CLI management to centralized automation.
Traditional management relies on individual per-device CLI configuration over SSH, leading to inconsistency (configuration drift) and high risk of human error.
Per-device manual configuration does not scale efficiently across hundreds of network devices.
2
Identify the primary benefit of controller-driven API management.
Centralized controllers enforce intent-based network management where policy and configuration templates are pushed automatically via RESTful or RPC APIs.
Template-driven deployment ensures configuration consistency across the entire infrastructure.

Key Concept

Impact of Centralized Controller-Based Automation on Network Operations
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