About this session
Software Defined Networking does not require a vendor lock-in. The open source Workflow Orchestrator, used by research and education networks worldwide, manages the full lifecycle of your network products with workflows written in plain Python. Combined with Netbox as source of truth and Ansible through LSO, you get an auditable, extensible automation platform. We walk through the ecosystem and build a working stack live.
Agenda
- Orchestration vs. automation: why intelligence and an audit log matter
- Products and subscriptions: create, modify, terminate and validate workflows
- The ecosystem: orchestrator-core, Orchestrator UI, Pydantic-Forms and LSO for Ansible
- Netbox as source of truth and the Example Orchestrator Docker stack
- NSI with SuPA and PolyNSI for multi-domain connectivity
- New in the WFO: AI hybrid search and the MCP server
What you'll take away
- A clear map of the open source SDN tooling landscape
- A working starting point you can run locally with Docker Compose
- How to model your network services as products with lifecycle workflows
Who should attend
- Network architects and engineers
- NRENs, ISPs and campus networks
- Python developers in network teams