Cisco DevNet Learning Labs: Network Controllers

These self-paced interactive tutorials provide instructions for developers to Learn about developing with network controllers like APIC-EM.

Labs are written to be displayed within the Cisco DevNet Learning Labs system.

Contributions are welcome, and we are glad to review changes through pull requests. See contributing.md for details.

Once approved, Cisco DevNet reviewers then create a release that is published through our Learning Labs system.

The goal of these learning labs is to ensure a 'hands-on' learning approach rather than just theory or instructions.

About these Learning Labs

For this repository, this set of learning labs help you learn the basics of the APIC-EM API, learn policy-based APIC-EM APIs and how to use them, and learn how to write custom Python code to communicate with the controller. By default, these lab files are configured to send API calls to a sandboxed Cisco DevNet APIC-EM controller at https://sandboxapicem.cisco.com.

If you need more help, reach out to DevNet through one of our support options.

Preview Learning Lab Markdown locally

You can preview how the Markdown renders by using a pre-built Docker image. The Makefile in the root of the repository lets you run make preview to view the output HTML.

1. Make sure you have Docker installed locally. If not, install Docker for your operating system.

$ docker -v

1. In the root of the repository, run:

$ make preview

1. Open a browser window with the URL: http://localhost:9000.
2. Click a folder to find the Markdown file you want to preview.
3. When you are done previewing, type Ctrl+C to stop running the Docker container.

Contributing

These learning modules are for public consumption, so you must ensure that you have the rights to any content that you contribute.

Write your content in Markdown. DevNet staff reviews content according to the Cisco Style Guide. (Link available on Cisco VPN only.)

Publishing requirements

To create and publish a new lab, take the following steps:

• Add a new folder under labs.
• Create a JSON file with the same name as the labs/folder name.
• Create markdown files named 1.md, 2.md, and so on; refer to those files in the labs/folder JSON file.
• Ensure that the JSON file contains appropriate page titles and file references.
• Send a pull request to get the files commited and merged to master by a DevNet reviewer.

A DevNet reviewer then creates a release on the repository with the latest master and publishes through the admin interface.

Editors

You can write Markdown in a plain text editor, but there are many desktop and Web-based options that allow you to write and preview your work at the same time. We recommend Visual Studio Code Download for several reasons:

• Lightweight environment for coding (or writing Markdown)
• Available on Mac OS, Linux or Windows
• Github Client integration
• Great Markdown preview features native in the editor
• Intuitive operation and structure

You can validate a JSON file by using the online formatter and validator.

Getting involved

• If you'd like to contribute to an existing lab, refer to contributing.md.
• If you're interested in creating a new Cisco DevNet Learning Lab, please contact a DevNet administrator for guidance.