Netmiko and NAPALM

Netmiko and NAPALM are two of the most widely used Python libraries for network automation. Netmiko simplifies SSH connections to network devices, while NAPALM provides a unified, vendor-agnostic API for configuration management and operational data retrieval.

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Netmiko

What is Netmiko?

Netmiko is a multi-vendor SSH library built on top of Paramiko. It handles the painful details of interacting with network device CLIs:

Feature	Description
Auto-detection of device type	Identifies prompts and adjusts behaviour
Handles pagination	Automatically sends terminal length 0 or equivalent
Enter enable mode	enable() method with password support
Enter config mode	config_mode() enters and exit_config_mode() leaves
Structured output	Integrates with TextFSM for parsed results
Multi-vendor	Supports 60+ device types (Cisco IOS/XE/XR/NXOS, Arista, Juniper, etc.)

Installation

pip install netmiko

Supported Device Types (Selection)