7.8. Reflection Checkpoint

Key Takeaways

Before proceeding, ensure you can:

• Explain WHY SDN separates control plane from data plane and the benefits this provides
• Distinguish between northbound APIs (applications to controller) and southbound APIs (controller to devices)
• Identify the characteristics of REST APIs: stateless, uses HTTP methods, returns JSON/XML
• Describe how Ansible uses an agentless, push-based model for configuration management
• Read and write basic JSON structures (objects, arrays, key-value pairs)

Connecting Forward

You've now completed all seven exam domains. Phase 8 brings together your knowledge with exam strategies, decision trees, and practice questions. The automation concepts you've learned here will help you think about networking as a programmable infrastructure—a mindset that's increasingly valuable in the industry.

Self-Check Questions

1. A network application needs to retrieve interface status from a controller without modifying anything. Which HTTP method would this API call use, and why?
2. What makes Ansible "idempotent," and why is this property important for network configuration management?
3. Given the JSON snippet {"interfaces": [{"name": "Gi0/1", "vlan": 10}]}, how would you describe its structure using JSON terminology?