Network Engineer’s Unified Realtime Automation Library ©
NEURAL Page (Overview, features, extensibility, etc.)
https://www.automate-the-network.com/neural
NEURAL is the premiere CLI jockey replacement full stack web/app/database network automation application, providing a “no-code” web app for network engineers developed by a network engineer!
It’s built using the Django Web framework
I’ll be updating this README in the future with more info, but for now, here’s the intial setup instructions, after you’ve got your Server running, e.g. after you’ve
imported the OVA into VM Workstation or got it setup within a vShere environment (or other means using the OVA)
The OVA should be compatible with the following:
• Workstation 14.x
• Workstation 15.x
• ESXi 6.7 U2
• ESXi 6.7
• Fusion 11.x
• Fusion 10.x
It should theoretically work using VirtualBox too but I have not tried it on that application.
You can grab the OVA at:
https://www.automate-the-network.com/download-neural
You can watch the initial instructional Video at:
https://www.automate-the-network.com/neural-videos
Inital App Setup (After you’ve deployed the VM)
• Watch the instructional Video. It also goes over all of the info below
• Run the initial setup (FQDN and Email related) from the home page link which points to the URL slug /setup
• Configure email relay server settings in settings.py by ssh-ing to the server or by SCP, e.g via using WinSCP using the root account and default
password neural123 (See the Video for more info)
• Configure the svcacct-netbrains user in your environment. This user must be created in your network’s authentication system, e.g. TACACS/AD and have the full privileged access to the network
The name of the account must be “svcacct-netbrains”
• Change the svcacct-netbrains user password within the django admin interface (See the Video). This must match what’s configured in your network’s authentication system,
e.g. TACACS/AD. By default the system comes with the password set to neural123
• I have personally run it and it runs perfectly as a VM inside a VM (and recommend running it this way), e.g. having your Server team just provision a Windows Server, say with 16GB of RAM and 100GB disk space on an E: Drive. Then just give the VM 6GB of RAM (which the OVA has by default). From there, I’ve run it and even while doing a big job, say on a thousand devices, I’ve never seen the memory go above 1.5GB, disk I/O very low, CPU 1 to 2%, and network I/O very low (Usually under 1Mbps). Then, you can just setup/change the network settings from bridged to NAT for even more security (and you might need to set it to NAT if running as a VM on a VM inside of ESXi)
To see all of the features and possibilities:
And to get you up to speed on using the interface for automation in less than an hour, please see the following links:
Short Instructional Video: https://www.automate-the-network.com/neural-videos
NEURAL Page (Overview, features, extensibility, possibilities, etc.) https://www.automate-the-network.com/neural
