Network Automagic EP003 – NUTS with Marco Martinez

https://networkautomagic.net/podcast/na003/

In this episode, we sit down with Marco Martinez, a core maintainer of NUTS (Network Unit Testing System), to explore how this powerful tool is revolutionizing network testing automation.

Marco walks us through the development of NUTS, designed to address comprehensive testing challenges in large networks that go beyond simple configuration checks. Learn how NUTS automatically tests routing tables, BGP neighbors, and more through an elegant system built on the Pi test library with YAML-defined tests.

🔍 Key Topics: • NUTS architecture and development philosophy • The innovative “INPG Stack” for generating test definitions and visualizing results • Integration with Nornir, Napalm, Netbox, and Infrahub • Comparison with tools like pyATS, ONDATRA, and BATFISH • Pre/post change testing strategies and prioritization • Unix systems advantages for network automation

📋 Episode Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 03:46 – NUTS Overview and Philosophy 12:31 – Technical Components 25:16 – Integration Ecosystem 35:01 – Visualization with INPG Stack 42:31 – Unix Systems Advantage 48:46 – Tool Comparison 55:21 – Future Development 61:11 – Conclusion and Resources

📚 Resources: • NUTS GitHub Repository: https://github.com/network-unit-testing-system/nuts • SwiNOG#39 Presentation: https://youtu.be/ZVl0GnYMUEo • Network Automation Landscape: https://steinzi.com/network-automation-landscape/

🎧 Listen to Network Automagic: • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2UubY0s1KCJ4ct9srD2yUW • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/network-automagic/id1796167806 • RSS Feed: https://anchor.fm/s/1012b01b8/podcast/rss

🎵 Featured Music: “Party Weekend” by Joe ‘King’ Carrasco and the Crowns (1980)

#NetworkAutomation #NUTS #NetworkTesting #NetDevOps #Automation #Python #NetworkEngineering

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