Projects & Workflows¶

Projects are at the heart of NITA — they define what devices to configure, how to configure them, and what tests to run. This page explains how to create, upload, and work with projects.

What is a Project?¶

A NITA project is a zip file containing everything needed to automate the build and test of a network:

graph TB
    subgraph "Project Zip File"
        PY["📄 project.yaml<br/>Action definitions"]
        HOSTS["📄 hosts<br/>Device inventory"]
        BUILD["📂 build/<br/>Ansible playbooks"]
        TEST["📂 test/<br/>Robot test suites"]
        ROLES["📂 roles/<br/>Ansible roles"]
        TEMPLATES["📂 templates/<br/>Jinja2 templates"]
        SCRIPTS["📄 build.sh / test.sh<br/>Entry scripts"]
        CFG["📄 ansible.cfg<br/>Ansible config"]
    end

Project Workflow¶

graph LR
    A["📦 Create Project<br/>Zip File"] --> B["⬆️ Upload as<br/>Network Type"]
    B --> C["🌐 Create Network<br/>with Hosts File"]
    C --> D["📊 Import Config<br/>Data (Excel)"]
    D --> E["🔨 Trigger Build"]
    E --> F["🧪 Trigger Test"]
    F --> G["📈 Review Results"]

Creating a Project¶

Step 1: Define the Device Inventory¶

Create a hosts file using Ansible INI format:

[all:children]
dc1
dc2

[dc1]
dc1-spine1
dc1-spine2

[dc2]
dc2-spine1
dc2-spine2

Step 2: Create the Project Descriptor¶

The project.yaml file defines the actions available for your project:

name: My Network Project
description: Automates spine device configuration

actions:
  - name: Build
    jenkins_url: my_project_build
    category: BUILD
    configuration:
      - shell_command: ./build.sh

  - name: Test
    jenkins_url: my_project_test
    category: TEST
    configuration:
      - shell_command: ./test.sh

  - name: NOOB
    jenkins_url: my_project_noob
    category: NOOB
    configuration:
      - shell_command: ./noob.sh

Action Categories:

Step 3: Write Ansible Playbooks¶

Create the build playbook at build/sites.yaml:

---
- import_playbook: ../make_clean.yaml
- import_playbook: ../make_etc_hosts.yaml

- hosts: all
  pre_tasks:
  connection: local
  roles:
    - { role: spine }

- hosts: all
  connection: local
  gather_facts: no
  roles:
    - { role: commit_config }

Step 4: Create Jinja2 Templates¶

Templates generate device-specific configurations from inventory data:

{# Template for Junos syslog configuration #}
system {
  syslog {
    {% if base.syslog is defined %}
        host {{ base.syslog.loghost }} {
    {% endif %}
    {% if base.syslog.host is defined %}
      {% for row in base.syslog.host %}
          {{ row.facility }} {{ row.level }};
      {% endfor %}
        }
    {% endif %}
  }
}

Step 5: Prepare Configuration Data (Excel)¶

NITA uses Excel workbooks to provide configuration values. A workbook typically contains these worksheets:

Step 6: Include Standard Files¶

Download these standard files from an existing example project:

Step 7: Zip and Upload¶

zip -r my_project.zip my_project/

Upload through the NITA Webapp UI under Network Types → Add.

Excel Data Formatting¶

Base Data Sheet¶

Management Interface Sheet¶

Useful Tools¶