Network Configuration Management (NCM)
Why is configuration management crucial in large-scale network environments?
It ensures consistency, reduces human error, enables automated backups, and maintains compliance, leading to higher availability and security of services.
How does adopting IaC improve collaboration between development and operations teams?
IaC codifies infrastructure, allowing both teams to work with version-controlled, testable configurations, reducing friction and miscommunication.
How does the DevOps approach help break down traditional IT silos?
DevOps promotes cross-functional collaboration and shared responsibilities, bridging gaps between development, operations, and security teams.
What makes Ansible an attractive option for IT orchestration?
Its simplicity, agentless architecture, use of YAML playbooks, and wide community support make it user-friendly and scalable.
Why might Puppet be preferred in environments requiring strict compliance?
Its agent-based model supports continuous compliance checks and strong reporting features, making it ideal for regulated industries.
How does Chef differ from Ansible in terms of architecture and use case?
Chef uses a master-server model with workstations and a Ruby-based language, offering more flexibility but a steeper learning curve, whereas Ansible is agentless and simpler to deploy.
What are the main functions of a Network Configuration Manager (NCM)?
Device discovery, configuration backup, change management, automation using configlets, and ensuring compliance with industry standards.
What’s the difference between declarative and imperative IaC approaches?
Declarative defines the desired state, while imperative defines the step-by-step process to reach that state.
Explain the role of Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) in DevOps.
CI ensures frequent code integration with automated tests, while CD automates deployment after successful CI checks for faster, reliable releases.
What are Ansible playbooks and how are they structured?
Playbooks are YAML files defining tasks in plays. Each task uses modules to apply configurations to remote hosts.
What are Puppet manifests and what language are they written in?
Manifests are configuration files written in Puppet’s domain-specific Ruby-based declarative language.
Describe the components of Chef and their roles.
Chef Server manages cookbooks; Workstation writes recipes; Knife interfaces with the server; Nodes apply configurations; Cookbooks and Recipes define tasks.
A network engineer accidentally deletes a router's configuration, causing downtime. How can NCM mitigate this issue?
NCM allows quick restoration by uploading a backed-up configuration, reducing downtime and restoring service continuity.
Your team uses Terraform to deploy environments but faces inconsistencies. What IaC best practice can resolve this?
Implement version control, enforce standardized templates, and use automated testing before deployment.
A company’s DevOps pipeline frequently breaks due to environment drift. What strategy can help?
Use Infrastructure as Code with automated provisioning and consistent environments across dev, staging, and production.
ABC Corp struggles with inconsistent configurations. How can Ansible help?
Ansible’s idempotent playbooks can ensure uniform configurations across devices by automating setup tasks.
You need to enforce configuration policies across thousands of devices. How does Puppet’s architecture support this?
Puppet's master-agent model ensures regular check-ins and enforces policies via manifests, preventing configuration drift.
A company wants granular control over infrastructure with detailed logs. Would Chef be suitable? Why?
Yes. Chef’s strong reporting and control features make it suitable for enterprises needing transparency and complexity management.
Given ABC Corp’s global infrastructure and need for consistency, which tool among Ansible, Puppet, and Chef would best fit, and why?
Ansible would likely be best due to its agentless setup, ease of integration, and ability to quickly standardize configurations via SSH across diverse environments.
Based on ABC Corp's case study, what strategic shift should they prioritize for long-term scalability?
They should adopt Infrastructure as Code (Ansible/Terraform), automate configuration with NCM, and implement CI/CD practices under a DevOps culture.