On 2025-03-21 16:56, Matthew Petach wrote:
In looking at the thread, I will argue (feebly) in my defense that I wasn't the only one falling prey to the "if he's asking about CLI, the counterpoint must be GUI" error. ^_^;
The thread definitely went in that direction. But it also went in other wild & wonderful directions as well :)
I will also take this moment to second Brian's amazingly sage point that thus far, there doesn't seem to be a non-CLI way of managing devices that works over serial-based communication lines to the physical console of a device; so out of necessity, pretty much every network engineer I've run into is at least familiar enough with the device CLI to get it onto the network enough that they can switch to their favorite GUI/API/management tool. <snipped really good stuff here>
It's very true in a lot of environments. The problem set is a bit fragmented in approach thus far -- in my opinion, at least -- but it's an important situation to consider.
And so, for the third aspect of "Love it/Hate it/Needed?", I would say that some type of CLI-ish access to the device is always going to be necessary in order to configure it with initial network parameters for environments where there is no ZTP-type provisioning system in place (yet).
Yeah, I knew the "needed" part would be the most controversial of the question. But I wouldn't have asked, if I hadn't heard enough folks suggest it's not.
But back to you, Mark--you're absolutely right, I took your neutral question, and brought my own soapbox along to perch on, and in doing so, I attributed to you what was not originally present--and for that, I apologize. :(
That's alright, Matt. No apology needed. I was just letting you know that we're birds of a feather; finding pragmatic solutions together.
Thanks!
Matt
Thank you for your responses. Best regards, -- Mark Prosser // E: mark@zealnetworks.ca // W: https://zealnetworks.ca