In this talk, the presenter will discuss real-world experience garnered doing automated configuration of network devices in the field using Tcl and Expect. What were the challenges? What was learned about exception handling and reliability? What are some strange discoveries made about common devices?

An outline follows:

I. Issues surrounding move, add and change control for network devices

IV. Automated device manipulation techniques using Tcl and Expect

About the Presenter
Mark Epstein has 14 years of experience in the security and network administration fields, having held leadership positions at organizations such as McAfee and Silicon Graphics. While at Silicon Graphics, Epstein led the team that created OpenVault (TM), a distributed storage resource broker that enables any storage management application to interface with robotic storage libraries, regardless of vendor. Epstein drove the OpenVault technology to become an IEEE standard.

Prior to working at Silicon Graphics, Epstein headed the team that created the X-terminal multi-platform installer for Network Computing Devices (NCD), which enabled NCD's X-terminal products to be used with more than a dozen Unix platforms. The code eliminated a formerly arduous manual process by automating the creation of the host-side objects that enabled the X-terminals to function properly.

In addition, he has front-line Network Operations Center (NOC) experience from his tenure at UC Berkeley Central Computing Services, where his duties included resource control, security, and network and systems administration for much of the campus.