Python-Based Linux Network Management

I’m building a purpose-built Network Management System that will run entirely on Linux and I want it written in Python so it is easy for me to maintain in-house once the core is delivered. The software must bring three capabilities together in a single, cohesive package:

• Continuous monitoring of network performance (bandwidth, latency, interface statistics, CPU/memory on key devices).
• Prompt fault detection with real-time alerts so that outages or threshold breaches reach me by e-mail, Slack or syslog at once.
• Configuration management that can back up, compare and push configurations to routers, switches and firewalls over SSH/SNMP.

My environment is SNMP-enabled and most devices expose standard MIBs, so native SNMP polling should be the backbone of the monitoring engine. If you prefer augmenting this with Netmiko, NAPALM or similar Python libraries for configuration retrieval and deployment, that’s perfectly fine. A lightweight web dashboard (Flask, FastAPI or Django) that visualises metrics and lets me acknowledge alarms would seal the workflow.

Acceptance criteria
1. Source code and requirements.txt cleanly installable on Ubuntu 22.04 with one command.
2. Dashboard displays live interface utilisation under 60-second polling intervals.
3. Creating a test fault (interface shutdown) is detected and triggers the chosen alert method within one polling cycle.
4. Device configuration backup and diff work on my reference Cisco IOS device (access provided over VPN).
5. Clear README detailing setup, customising polling intervals, adding devices and extending MIB support.

Deliver the Git repository and a short video or screenshots that show the system in action so I can replicate the steps on my end. Once signed off, we can talk about adding role-based access control and multi-tenant views as a follow-on project.