Start with an authoritative rollout view
Use the customer deployment record to establish which stores were completed, scheduled, or required another visit.
Enterprise platform · HPE · 2013–2017
Change Management Looking Glass
CMLG
A purpose-built change-management and network-operations platform developed during a large Home Depot wireless refresh when the systems involved in the deployment did not agree on what had actually happened at each store.
The problem
Several systems. Several versions of reality.
The deployment involved multiple organizations and operational systems. Home Depot tracked rollout state. Aruba AirWave knew about wireless infrastructure. HPE IMC knew about network devices. Technical evidence existed in the network itself.
Those systems did not always describe a store the same way. Answering a basic operational question could require manually correlating information from several places.
The approach
Establish the deployment state, then test it against independent operational evidence.
Collect independent infrastructure evidence
Query wireless and network-management systems for device identity, software state, controller information, and other technical facts.
Correlate by site
Bring deployment and infrastructure information into a common store-level model rather than expecting operators to reconcile it manually.
Expose discrepancies and progress
Present current state, exceptions, software versions, deployment progress, and store detail through one operational interface.
Operational model
Different sources contributed different evidence.
Home Depot
Store rollout schedule, completion state, installation dates, and revisit status.
Network devices
Reachability and device-level collection through SNMP and SSH where useful.
CMLG
Python collection and reconciliation, MySQL operational state, historical snapshots, reporting, and web presentation.
Aruba AirWave
Virtual controllers, IAP software versions, and site data.
HPE IMC
Switch identity, management information, and software state.
What the platform did
Turned collection into operational visibility.
Deployment reconciliation
Compared rollout records with infrastructure discovered through independent operational systems.
Store-level investigation
Consolidated deployment, wireless, and switching information around the site an operator was actually investigating.
Software-state visibility
Tracked Aruba and switching software versions across completed locations.
Historical progress
Retained collection snapshots and generated views of deployment and software-state changes over time.
Source health
Tested connectivity to the database and external operational systems so unavailable evidence could be distinguished from actual infrastructure state.
Network collection
Extended beyond APIs into network reachability and device collection where direct infrastructure evidence was useful.
Implementation
A working operations platform, not a reporting exercise.
Application platformLinux · Python · Flask · MySQL
Operational inputsHome Depot rollout records · Aruba AirWave · HPE IMC
Management integrationsREST / HTTP APIs
Direct device collectionSNMP · SSH · Netmiko
Collection processingMultiprocessing · historical snapshots
PresentationStore-level reconciliation · reporting · web interface
Why it matters
The technology changed. The operating pattern did not.
CMLG predates my current work by nearly a decade. The important continuity is not a particular language, platform, or interface.
The recurring pattern is to enter a complicated operational environment, identify where systems disagree, determine which sources are authoritative for which facts, automate evidence collection, reconcile the results, and make the outcome useful to the people operating the environment.
That same pattern continues to inform the systems I build today.