In this section, we will learn about Netmiko. The Netmiko library is an advanced version of Paramiko. It is a multi_vendor library that is based on Paramiko. Netmiko simplifies SSH connection to a network device and takes particular operation on the device. Before going doing SSH to your remote device or multi-layer router, make sure they are configured properly and, if not, you can do basic configuration by command mentioned in the Paramiko section.

Now, let's see an example. Create a nmiko.py script and write the following code in it:

from netmiko import ConnectHandler

remote_device={
    'device_type': 'cisco_ios',
    'ip':  'your remote_device ip address',
    'username': 'username',
    'password': 'password',
}

remote_connection = ConnectHandler(**remote_device)
#net_connect.find_prompt()

for n in range (2,6):
      print("Creating VLAN " + str(n))
      commands = ['exit','vlan database','vlan ' + str(n), 'exit']
      output = remote_connection.send_config_set(commands)
      print(output)

command = remote_connection.send_command('show vlan-switch brief')
print(command)

Run the script and you will get the output as follows:

student@ubuntu:~$ python3 nmiko.py
Output:
Creating VLAN 2
config term
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
server(config)#exit
server #vlan database
server (vlan)#vlan 2
VLAN 2 modified:
server (vlan)#exit
APPLY completed.
Exiting....
server #
..
..
..
..
switch#
Creating VLAN 5
config term
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
server (config)#exit
server #vlan database
server (vlan)#vlan 5
VLAN 5 modified:
server (vlan)#exit
APPLY completed.
Exiting....
VLAN Name                             Status    Ports
---- -------------------------------- --------- -------------------------------
1    default                          active    Fa0/0, Fa0/1, Fa0/2, Fa0/3, Fa0/4, Fa0/5, Fa0/6, Fa0/7, Fa0/8, Fa0/9, Fa0/10, Fa0/11, Fa0/12, Fa0/13, Fa0/14, Fa0/15
2    VLAN0002                         active   
3    VLAN0003                         active   
4    VLAN0004                         active   
5    VLAN0005                         active   
1002 fddi-default                    active   
1003 token-ring-default         active   
1004 fddinet-default               active   
1005 trnet-default                    active

In the preceding example, we use Netmiko library to do SSH, instead of Paramiko. In this script, first, we imported ConnectHandler from the Netmiko library, which we used to establish an SSH connection to the remote network devices by passing in the device dictionary. In our case, that dictionary is remote_device. After the connection is established, we executed configuration commands to create a number of virtual LANs using the send_config_set() function.

When we use this type (.send_config_set()) of function to pass commands on a remote device, it automatically sets our device in configuration mode. After sending configuration commands, we also passed a simple command to get the information about the configured device.