The Everything Feed - All Packet Pushers Pods HN806: Let’s Get NUTS!
Nov 21, 2025
Urs Bauman, a network automation practitioner and maintainer of the open-source Network Unit Testing System (NUTS), teams up with Marco Martinez, a Swisscom architect focused on network automation. They dive into the essence of unit testing for networks, emphasizing small, verifiable checks and the importance of pre- and post-change testing workflows. The duo introduces NUTS as a versatile testing tool leveraging YAML and pytest, making automation accessible. They also discuss community contributions, digital twins, and the seamless generation of YAML tests from source-of-truth.
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Parallelize Executions With Nornir
- Use Nornir to parallelize test execution across many devices so runs finish quickly.
- Combine Nornir with Napalm calls to gather device data and aggregate results efficiently.
Run Targeted Subsets For Fast Feedback
- Organize tests into folders and run only subsets relevant to your change to get fast feedback.
- Run a targeted subset after a change, then run the full suite when appropriate.
Use A Virtualenv Or Docker Container
- Install Nuts in a Python virtual environment or run the provided Docker container to avoid dependency issues.
- Use the Nuts container if you want a reproducible environment without Python setup headaches.