jeremiah windle — spokane, WA

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← blog  ·  2026-08-05

First Useful Netmiko Script: VLAN Audit

A 40-line Python script that saved me an hour of show vlan brief copy-paste.

tags: automation, python, netmiko

Contents

I got tired of SSHing into two switches to compare show vlan brief. You can pull both at once with a small Netmiko loop:

from netmiko import ConnectHandler

devices = [
  {"host": "192.168.99.11", "device_type": "cisco_ios", "username": "admin"},
  {"host": "192.168.99.12", "device_type": "cisco_ios", "username": "admin"},
]

for d in devices:
    conn = ConnectHandler(**d)
    print(f"== {d['host']} ==")
    print(conn.send_command("show vlan brief"))

Notes

  • send_command blocks. You wait for each device in turn. That works for two switches and it drags for fifty.
  • Do not hardcode passwords. Use getpass or env vars.
  • Pipe the outputs through difflib and you get an audit you can save and share.

Repo: I will publish the cleaned script to /projects.


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