CloudVision and Network Automation
Core concepts
CloudVision is Arista's management and telemetry platform. Understand its components: the CloudVision portal (CVP) for configuration management and change control, and CloudVision as a telemetry/analytics layer using gNMI/gRPC streaming. Know the roles of eAPI (JSON-RPC over HTTPS) for programmatic device access and how CloudVision uses it for provisioning.
Concepts to master
Configuration management models: change control workflows (snapshot, change, review, approve, execute), configlets, and containers/tags for device grouping. Understand streaming telemetry vs SNMP polling - telemetry pushes at high frequency and is event-driven. Know the difference between CloudVision's state-based (intended vs actual) model and traditional CLI push. Be familiar with automation tooling: eAPI, Python (pyeapi), Ansible modules for EOS, and gNMI.
Traps
Questions confuse CloudVision's telemetry role with its config-management role - it does both. Another trap: assuming telemetry requires per-device polling (it streams). Watch for claims that CloudVision replaces eAPI - it uses eAPI/gNMI as transports. Also distinguish change control (approval gates) from ad-hoc CLI.
Rule of thumb
Think of CloudVision as three layers: manage (configlets/containers), control (change control workflow), and monitor (telemetry/analytics). For automation questions, eAPI is the device-level API; CloudVision is the fabric-level orchestrator built on top.