Modern IT networks are intricate combinations of firewalls, routers, switches, servers, workstations, and various other devices. Moreover, the majority of environments today are a blend of on-premise and cloud setups, constantly facing threats from malicious actors. Those courageous individuals responsible for designing, implementing, and managing these complex technological systems are known as network engineers, and I happen to be one of them.
Although my current pursuits as a start-up founder have taken me away from the network engineering world, the incessant influx of grand predictions about a future where AI eliminates the need for human involvement prompted me to delve into the possibility, albeit briefly, of utilizing ChatGPT as a valuable tool to either support or eventually supplant professionals like myself.
Here's what I discovered during my investigation.To gain insights into how ChatGPT could enhance the role of network engineers, I sought the opinion of the most reliable source available: ChatGPT itself. True to form, it provided a comprehensive list of three key areas where it believed it could be of assistance.
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| How ChatGPT could replace IT network engineers Overview 2023.. |
To evaluate the potential value of ChatGPT in configuration management, I posed the following prompts:
1. Could you generate a comprehensive example configuration for a Cisco router, specifically for establishing an internet exchange from the beginning?
2. How about for Juniper?
3. Can you create separate Jinja templates for each vendor?
I utilized these inquiries to assess ChatGPT's capability in aiding configuration management tasks.
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| How ChatGPT could replace IT network engineers Overview 2023.. |
Configuration management
Due to the extensive results provided by ChatGPT, I am unable to reproduce them in their entirety here, both due to space constraints and to respect the readers' potential boredom. However, I have made the complete transcript of all ChatGPT prompts and results available on GitHub for those seeking a non-medical alternative to Ambien.
Regarding configuration management, ChatGPT demonstrated satisfactory performance in handling basic configuration tasks. It showcased an understanding of vendor-specific syntax and was capable of generating configurations. Nonetheless, it is crucial to exercise caution and carefully review the configurations generated by the system for accuracy. The generic prompts I tested could be likened to setting up a quick lab, a task that many novice networking engineers find tedious at the very least. It is evident that such a task can be handled by the technology itself, albeit with human oversight.
Troubleshooting
In order to assess ChatGPT's ability to troubleshoot network engineering challenges, I turned to the popular online community Reddit, specifically the /r/networking subreddit. There, I found real-world questions posed by network engineers to their peers. I selected a few of these questions and presented them to ChatGPT without modifying the prompts, observing its performance. The chatbot successfully handled the easier questions, but encountered difficulties with more complex challenges.
It is worth noting that I specifically included a question that required knowledge of the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), a switch capability used to identify redundant links and prevent loops. Surprisingly, ChatGPT demonstrated a solid understanding of STP, surpassing the knowledge of some networking professionals I have interacted with throughout my career.
Currently, ChatGPT is unable to replace experienced networking professionals when it comes to tackling even moderately complex issues. However, it is not unreasonable to suggest that in the coming years, it may render many subreddits and Stack Overflow threads obsolete as a reliable source of information for network troubleshooting.
Automating documentation
The aspect where ChatGPT exhibited the most significant shortcomings was in the area of generating networking diagrams. Initially, the chatbot claimed it could produce such diagrams, but as a text-based tool, I naturally harbored doubts. These doubts were confirmed when I requested a diagram and ChatGPT explained that it lacked graphical capabilities.
In my attempts to automate network documentation, ChatGPT's responses revealed that it required a detailed network description from me in order to provide one. This not only rendered the chatbot ineffective in generating documentation, but it also resulted in the generation of inaccurate information, leading to deceitful outputs. This observation hints at the chatbot demonstrating human-like characteristics, albeit in an unintentional manner. It is important to note, however, that there are AI applications capable of generating images, and it is conceivable that one of those tools could potentially generate a usable network diagram.
I also inquired if ChatGPT could generate a network description based on a router configuration file. It managed to provide a decent summary of the configured elements until it appeared to reach its computational limits, likely imposed by its creators. It is crucial to acknowledge that ChatGPT is a free tool, and allocating resources for extensive computations can be costly, particularly for an organization that is currently facing financial challenges.