Cisco and Red Hat Unveil cisco.catalystcenter Ansible Collection for Automating Campus Networks

The Cisco Catalyst Center has become an essential tool for managing campus networks in large enterprises. However, as these networks scale, manual configuration and operations become unsustainable. To address this challenge, Cisco and Red Hat have collaborated to develop the cisco.catalystcenter Ansible Collection.

This collection provides a robust framework of modules, roles, and playbooks that interact directly with the Cisco Catalyst Center through its APIs. With over 70 operational and configuration use cases covered in more than 300 playbooks, network engineers can treat their infrastructure as code.

The cisco.catalystcenter Ansible Collection features several high-value enterprise use cases, including zero-touch discovery and provisioning, SD-Access fabric orchestration, and software image management. For example, the Plug and Play (PnP) onboarding process can be automated using playbooks that design site hierarchies, allocate IP address pools, and assign device credentials.

The collection also enables the automation of complex tasks such as software image management, compliance, and backups. Network assurance is integrated through automated troubleshooting, querying Catalyst Center for Device Health Score KPIs and ICAP settings, and executing Path Traces to identify routing or physical-layer issues.