NetDocAI - Intelligent Network Documentation System

A comprehensive Python-based network automation tool that connects to network devices, collects detailed information, analyzes configurations, and generates professional documentation reports suitable for network audits, compliance, and operational reference.

🌟 Features

• Multi-Vendor Support: Cisco IOS/IOS-XE/NX-OS, Aruba ArubaOS-Switch/ArubaOS-CX, HP ProCurve, and extensible for other vendors
• Subnet Discovery: Automatically discover devices on a network subnet
• Dynamic Inventory: Scan subnets without pre-configured inventory files
• Parallel Collection: Concurrent data collection from multiple devices
• Comprehensive Analysis: Security analysis, configuration checks, and best practices validation
• Multiple Report Formats: HTML, Excel, and Markdown reports
• Configuration Backup: Automatic configuration backup with version control
• Configuration Comparison: Track and compare configuration changes over time
• Secure Credential Management: Encrypted storage of device credentials

📋 Requirements

• Python 3.8 or higher
• Network access to devices
• SSH credentials for devices

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/netdocai/netdocai.git
cd netdocai

2. Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Install NetDocAI:

pip install -e .

Configuration

1. Copy the environment template:

cp .env.example .env

2. Generate an encryption key:

python -c "from cryptography.fernet import Fernet; print(Fernet.generate_key().decode())"

3. Edit .env and add your encryption key and default credentials

4. Create your device inventory in config/devices.yaml OR use subnet discovery

Usage

Discover Devices on a Subnet

# Discover devices and save to inventory file
netdocai discover --subnet 172.0.66.0/24 --username cisco --password cisco --enable-secret cisco

 # Discover and scan in one command
netdocai scan --subnet 172.0.66.0/24 --username cisco --password cisco --enable-secret cisco

Scan Network Devices from Inventory

netdocai scan --inventory config/devices.yaml --output ./reports

Compare Configurations

netdocai compare --device core-sw-01 --old 20240101_120000 --new latest

Generate Reports

# HTML and Excel reports
netdocai scan --inventory config/devices.yaml --format html --format excel

# HTML only
netdocai scan --inventory config/devices.yaml --format html

📊 Sample Output

NetDocAI generates comprehensive reports including:

• Executive Summary: High-level overview with statistics and health scores
• Device Inventory: Complete list of all network devices
• Individual Device Reports: Detailed information for each device
  • Device information and specifications
  • Interface details and status
  • Routing configuration
  • VLAN information
  • Security configuration
  • Analysis results and recommendations

🔧 Configuration

Device Inventory (config/devices.yaml)

devices:
  - hostname: core-sw-01
    ip_address: 192.168.1.10
    device_type: cisco_ios
    username: admin
    location: Data Center
    role: Core Switch

Settings (config/settings.yaml)

connection:
  timeout: 30
  max_workers: 10

output:
  directory: ./reports
  backup_directory: ./backups

logging:
  level: INFO
  file: ./logs/netdocai.log

🏗️ Architecture

NetDocAI/
├── netdocai/
│   ├── collectors/      # Device connection and data collection
│   ├── parsers/        # Output parsing and data models
│   ├── analyzers/      # Configuration analysis
│   ├── reporters/      # Report generation
│   ├── storage/        # Data persistence
│   ├── utils/          # Utilities and helpers
│   └── cli/            # Command-line interface
├── config/             # Configuration files
├── templates/          # Report templates
├── tests/              # Test suite
└── docs/               # Documentation

🔒 Security

• Credentials are encrypted using Fernet encryption
• SSH key-based authentication supported
• Read-only access to devices recommended
• Sensitive data sanitized in reports
• Audit logging for all actions

📖 Documentation

• User Guide - Detailed usage instructions
• Configuration Guide - Configuration options
• API Documentation - Python API reference

🧪 Testing

Run tests with pytest:

pytest tests/ -v

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built with Netmiko for multi-vendor SSH connections
• Uses TextFSM for parsing network device outputs
• Report generation powered by Jinja2

📧 Support

For issues and questions:

• GitHub Issues: https://github.com/netdocai/netdocai/issues
• Documentation: https://netdocai.readthedocs.io

🗺️ Roadmap

• Web UI dashboard
• Additional vendor support (Juniper, Arista, HP)
• Network topology visualization
• Compliance framework (CIS, PCI-DSS, NIST)
• Integration with ServiceNow, Slack
• ML-based anomaly detection
• Multi-tenancy support

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NetDocAI - Making network documentation effortless