After just short of 6 months I'm pleased to say that I've completed the DevNet Fundamentals course on DevNet.
I really enjoyed the content and found the course flowed well.
As a fundamentals course it outlines a particular area, such as NETCONF, and outlines its main attributes and you generally get started.
Early in the course it introduces Python. Whilst the course does offer insight in to Python I would say its really not covered in any depth and you need to plan to study this separately. I'm going to start 'Automating the Boring Stuff' and take it from there.
Another topic introduced but not covered in as much depth as I would have liked is application testing. Various testing concepts were presented such as UnitTest and PyTest but I didn't feel I was comfortable with the foundations at the end of topics. I suspect this was mainly down to my short comings with Python so I'll try again once I feel more confident.
One of the areas I did get alot out of however was the section on API's. I've had colleagues demonstrate various tasks via API calls and there were a few moments in the course where I went 'I've seen this!'
One the things I liked the most was the hands on learning incorporated in to the online course its self. It was really useful to take part in hands on demonstrations such as getting started with GIT, REST APIs, or demonstration of Ansible.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely! This course lays the ground work for the DevNet Associate exam. I don't think there's enough in it to use as your only source material for the exam but when has that ever been the case for a training course?
As a career networker with no experience of coding or automation I found this to be an excellent use of my time.
Finally, there is an added bonus with this course! The Cisco Continuing Education programme!
This course is worth 48 CE credits to go towards the re-certification of your certificates. Thats huge! I'm a CCNP and CCDP so to recertify I need 80 CE credits. As a result of this course I now just need 32 CE credits over the next 3 years to re-certify all my certifications without sitting an exam. A few Cisco Live sessions and I'm done. Brilliant!
Soooo what next?
There are 3 areas that I'm going to follow up immediately:
1) Firstly I intent on working on my Python. I've got a number of simple projects in mind, whilst they're not going to set the world alight they might make a few tasks at work a bit more interesting.
2) Next I'm going to complete the Nick Russo's Cisco Certified DevNet Associate (DEVASC 200-901) learning path on Pluralsight.com
3) At the same time I'll be chipping away at the DevNet Learning path, doing the labs and getting a handle on concepts such as GIT and RESTCONF/NETCONF
Following up on my check list from the start of the year, here is my progress so far:
- Get it set up. <<DONE
- Install Visual Studio Code. <<DONE
- Link to my Github profile (?) page(?) whatever...<<DONE
- Make Cisco DevNet my homepage. <<DONE
- Work through the Programming Fundamentals course. <<DONE
- Work through the DevNet Associate Fundamentals course. <<DONE
- Move on to the DevNet sandbox environments and have a play there. <<ON GOING
- Pluralsight.com - Nick Russo's DevNet Associate Path <<ON GOING
- DevNet LEarning Path Labs - <<ON GOING
- Start learning Python <<ON GOING
- Work through the Visual Studio Code Python tutorial <<TO DO
- Check out NAPALM <<TO DO
- Check out Netmiko <<TO DO
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