
A high-level overview of how we’ll build a real-world network automation pipeline using Ansible, Zeek, Suricata, and Python.
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Set up a clean Ubuntu Linux virtual machine and all the necessary tools for building a professional network automation and analysis lab.
Install and prepare Zeek, Suricata, and Ansible for building an automated network security analysis pipeline.
Quick reference of all commands needed to install Zeek, Suricata, and Ansible for your automation environment.
Learn where to find high-quality PCAP files for realistic network security analysis and automation testing.
We discuss ways to capture your own network traffic to feed into the automated analysis pipeline.
Important legal and ethical guidelines for responsible use of network security, sniffing, and automation tools.
Learn the basics of running Zeek manually to analyze PCAP files before automating it with Ansible.
Explore deeper Zeek output and logs to understand what data we will later automate and enrich.
Reference guide with Zeek documentation and learning resources for network traffic analysis.
Manually run Suricata on PCAP files to understand alert generation before automation.
Reference guide with Suricata documentation and learning resources for network traffic analysis.
Learn the fundamentals of Ansible automation by writing and executing a simple playbook.
Practice writing and executing Ansible playbooks for real-world network automation tasks.
Reference list of Ansible documentation and basic syntax.
Understand the architecture of our end-to-end PCAP analysis pipeline using Ansible automation.
Configure Ansible and define tool versions to ensure a stable and reproducible automation environment.
Use Ansible to validate installed versions of Zeek, Suricata, and Ansible for consistency.
Reference Ansible tasks used to verify and enforce tool version consistency.
Automate PCAP discovery and selection using Ansible for hands-free analysis workflows.
Reference Ansible tasks for dynamically selecting PCAP files in automation pipelines.
Automate Zeek execution on PCAP files using Ansible roles.
Enhance Zeek automation and log management inside the pipeline.
Reference Ansible tasks used to automate Zeek-based network traffic analysis.
Automate Suricata execution on PCAP files using Ansible.
Reference Ansible tasks for automating Suricata processing.
Automatically organize PCAP files using Ansible-based file management automation.
Reference Ansible tasks for automating PCAP file handling.
Review the complete automated network analysis pipeline built with Ansible.
Learn how to extend an existing Ansible automation pipeline with custom Python features.
Refresh essential Python concepts useful for building any automation scripts.
Design a Python script to enrich network alerts with geolocation and ASN intelligence.
Reference commands for installing the Python dependencies used for getting IP Geolocation and ASN data.
Implement GeoIP and ASN lookups to enrich Suricata alerts using Python.
Reference Python code for IP geolocation and ASN enrichment.
Optimize and integrate GeoIP enrichment into the automated pipeline.
Reference Ansible tasks for running Python enrichment scripts.
Design a Python correlation engine to combine Zeek and Suricata data.
Reference Python code for cross-tool log correlation.
Improve correlation logic to build richer security context automatically.
Reference Ansible tasks for running the Python correlation engine.
Create a Python script to generate a professional security alert report.
Reference Python code for automated alert report generation.
Reference Ansible tasks for generating alert reports automatically.
Build a Python script to generate statistical summaries from correlated alerts.
Reference Python code for automated security statistics reporting.
Reference Ansible tasks for running the statistics report generator.
Create a Python script to merge both reports into a final network analysis report.
Reference Python code for automated final report generation.
Reference Ansible tasks for building the final report automatically.
Execute the full automated pipeline using Ansible and Python on real PCAP data.
Extend the pipeline to support fully automated batch PCAP processing with Ansible.
Reference Ansible configuration for sequential batch PCAP automation.
Learn how to receive updates and ongoing support, as well as my new approach for course creation.
More courses from the Practical Network Automation (PNA) series, and ways we can connect.
Audience: Network Engineers
Level: Beginner to Advanced
Last update: February 2026
What's this course all about?
Recruiters want results. Managers, too. They value builders and doers - not just theoreticians.
Show them your own hands-on threat-hunting lab for network traffic analysis, built around a fully automated pipeline using the following tools and technologies:
Zeek - deep PCAP analysis and context-rich security logs
Suricata - detection based on pre-defined rules and signatures
Ansible - automation and orchestration of the analysis pipeline
Python - for building custom scripts and enriching functionality
MMdb - for adding IP geolocation and ASN-related information
VS Code - used for organizing all of our project files and folders
Ubuntu - base operating system for the traffic analysis pipeline
VirtualBox - used for virtualization and isolation purposes
During this course, you'll build a fully automated network traffic analysis pipeline that ingests PCAP files, runs in-depth analysis from multiple angles, generates actionable logs and alerts - as well as a Markdown report summary, and helps uncover unusual or malicious behavior in your network.
We're going to build the project together from the ground up, step-by-step
You will install, execute, code, and also troubleshoot everything alongside me
By the end, you’ll have a threat-hunting lab that you can actually use in the real world for:
Becoming a better Network Engineer or Security Analyst
Showcasing a strong project to companies and recruiters
Monitoring and securing your own home network traffic
This project is a perfect fit if you're looking to showcase your skills as a:
Network Engineer or Network Security Analyst
Network Automation Engineer or QA Engineer
Network Detection and Response Engineer
SOC Analyst, SOC Engineer
Threat Hunting Engineer
Important information before you enroll:
30-day money-back guarantee - no questions asked
Unlimited, lifetime access to the course from any device
All the future course and code updates are included
Full instructor support for all course-related questions
A Certificate of Completion upon finishing the course
What others have to say about my courses?
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"This is a great course for network engineers who would like to start automating their tasks. Geared towards beginners, this course teaches the fundamentals and applying those concepts to networking. There is a lot of fluff on the internet, however the instructor managed to put together the necessary information to start automating the network." by Costin N.
"I've seen the blueprint and some demo videos and I was convinced right away. Without a doubt, it's one of the best trainings a network engineer can have. It gives you actual valuable and marketable skills that you can use in your daily job. Mihai explains the topics really well, with practical examples making it a fun way to learn. Highly recommended." by Vlad V.
Some of my instructor stats on Udemy:
Teaching automation here since May 2015.
Over 110,000 students from 185 countries.
Over 12,800 reviews, 4.5/5 average rating.
Time is ticking - don’t waste it! Start building.
Enroll now, and I'll see you in the first lecture.