InterLAN IX Lighthouse - Yet Another Network Automation Tool#

Andrei Dinu, InterLAN IX

• Why: A production self-service portal with checked, reversible, recorded changes over a multi-vendor estate (Nokia SR OS + Arista EOS) — a transferable template for anyone automating a physical fabric, including how to keep humans in the loop.
• What: Lighthouse (network automation) alongside BirdNest (Rust-based BIRD route servers with IRR/RPKI/looking-glass) and NoSignal (live TV) behind one member portal. Lighthouse automates Nokia L2/L3/EVPN services, ports/LAGs/multihoming, routing and traffic policy, plus Arista access ports/trunks/VLANs/ACLs. One member request fans out to several routers as an atomic multi-device transaction with per-device preview, a rollback timer, a reachability check, and confirm-one-router-at-a-time; when safe recovery can't be proven, a human takes over.
• How: gNMI for Nokia config/state/streaming telemetry, eAPI+SNMP for Arista; the database owns intended state so hand-made device changes surface as deviations and are never silently adopted; a digital twin built from production snapshots (same topology, same NETCONF/gNMI writes) rehearses changes; an AI assistant with strictly read-only tools writes reports and migration plans; IPFIX/sFlow lands in ClickHouse for who-exchanges-with-whom analytics and trial attack detection.
• Where applicable: Built for an IXP (Nokia core, Arista access), but the pattern — intended-state database, preview/rollback transactions, deviation surfacing, rehearsal twin — generalizes to any multi-vendor DC or campus estate.