6 Essential Python Libraries for DevOps and DevSecOps

fahadahammed.medium.com/6-essential-python-libraries-for-devops-and-devsecops-7c8d340f90be

Fahad Ahammed April 29, 2025

Python’s extensive library ecosystem has made it a favorite in the DevOps world. From
automating infrastructure to load testing and securing your code, Python offers tools that
streamline operations and improve efficiency. This blog highlights Ansible, boto3, Locust,
Fabric, Fire and Bandit — essential libraries for modern DevOps workflows.

If you are familiar with python, most likely you will be able to grow yourself as a pretty good
engineer who is capable of handling cloud, infrastructures and specially DevOps practices
with DevSecOps and automation focus.

Ansible is a leading automation tool written in Python. While it’s a standalone tool, its Python
API allows you to extend its functionality for custom automation.

It uses SSH protocol and python to communicate and work. If you have numerous linux
machines and you want to install openjdk or any tool on all of them, or create a complex
workflow on all of the machines, Ansible is one of the best option out there.

Why DevOps Engineers Need Ansible:

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 Manage infrastructure as code (IaC) easily.
Automate repetitive tasks like server provisioning and configuration.
Deploy applications and ensure consistency across environments.

Example Use:

: : : : : : . : fahad

Run the playbook:

ansible-playbook -i inventory.yaml playbook.yaml

PLAY RECAP
**************************************************************************************
: ok=3 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0
rescued=0 ignored=0

PLAY [Get Last Load Average]

**************************************************************************************

TASK [Fetch load average]

**************************************************************************************
[my_vm_01]

TASK [Extract last load average]

**************************************************************************************
[my_vm_01]

TASK [Display last load average]

**************************************************************************************
[my_vm_01] => {: }

or via adhoc command:

$ ansible -i inventory.yaml my_vm_01 -m shell -a

my_vm_01 | CHANGED | rc=0 >>Linux srv-brink 5.15.0-136-generic

2. boto3
boto3 is the official Python SDK for Amazon Web Services (AWS). It enables you to script
interactions with AWS services such as EC2, S3, and Lambda etc.

If you work with AWS, most likely, you will encounter this.

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Why DevOps Engineers Need Boto3:
Automate infrastructure provisioning on AWS.
Manage cloud resources programmatically.
Integrate AWS operations into CI/CD pipelines.

Example Use:

__name__ == : region = owner = name_filter =

get_filtered_amis(region, owner, name_filter)

boto3

(): ec2 = boto3.client(, region_name=region)

: response = ec2.describe_images( Filters=[ {: , :

[]}, {: , : []} ], Owners=[owner] )

amis = response.get(, []) amis:()

() ami (amis, key= x: x[], reverse=):()

Exception e:()

$ python3 get_available_ami.pyAvailable AMIs region us-east-1 owner amazon:Image

ID: ami-08163571a9dc9d95e, Name: aws-parallelcluster-3.13.0-ubuntu-2404-lts-hvm-
arm64-202503271623 2025-03-27T16-27-30.574Z, CreationDate: 2025-04-
01T14:30:34.000ZImage ID: ami-06e7578d29b167293, Name: aws-parallelcluster-3.13.0-
ubuntu-2404-lts-hvm-x86_64-202503271623 2025-03-27T16-27-07.070Z, CreationDate: 2025-
04-01T14:30:11.000Z

3. Locust
Locust is an open-source load testing library for measuring the performance of web
applications and APIs.

This is another gem from python. It is the go to tool for designing load testing and stress
testing workflows.

Why DevOps Engineers Need Locust:

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 Simulate thousands of concurrent users to test system scalability.
Measure response times and pinpoint bottlenecks.
Automate performance testing as part of CI/CD pipelines.
Possible to make pretty complex and advanced workflow for load testing involving
deployment of it on Kubernetes as well to pull large amount of resource when
generating the request.
Option to run headless as well like apache-benchmark or wrk or similar.

Example Use:

(): tasks = [WikipediaTasks] wait_time =

between(, ) host =

locust HttpUser, TaskSet, task, between

():(): self.client.get()

(): self.client.get(, params={: , : })

Run with:

locust -f locustfile.py

This will give response, that means open a web UI at http://0.0.0.0:8089

[] Fahads-MacBook-Pro/INFO/locust.main: Starting Locust (locust-cloud )[] Fahads-

MacBook-Pro/INFO/locust.main: Starting web :

It gives general inputs to do the load testing and get a visualized result

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We can also use as headless mode.

$ locust -f locustfile.py -u -r -t s

4. Fabric
Fabric simplifies SSH-based automation, making it easy to execute commands and deploy
applications on remote servers.

Why DevOps Engineers Need Fabric:

Automate deployment workflows.
Manage remote server tasks like log cleanup, updates, or monitoring.
Simplify multi-server orchestration tasks.
Another tool similar purpose to Ansible.

Example Use:

(): : result = c.run(, hide=)

= re.search(, result.stdout) : last_load = .group().strip()
() : () Exception e: ()

fabric task re

HOSTS = [,]

Let’s check list

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 load the load average the server.

$ fab Available tasks:

Now, let us run the task

$ fab -last-load[] The last load average : [] The last load average :

By the way, the hosts access is managed by the default private key the way SSH works. In
my case, it is using default private key location from ~/.ssh/id_rsa

5. Fire
Fire is a library for automatically generating command-line interfaces (CLIs) from Python
objects.

Why DevOps Engineers Need Fire:

Quickly create CLIs for DevOps scripts.
Simplify the interface for executing infrastructure automation tasks.
Enable non-developers to use Python scripts easily.
Simple library to create powerful CLI tools.

Example Use: (Need requests library)

__name__ == : fire.Fire(HeaderChecker)

requests fire

():: domain.startswith() domain.startswith(): domain = + domain

() response = requests.head(domain, timeout=)

() header, value response.headers.items():()

requests.exceptions.RequestException e:()

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Run it:

[]

6. Bandit
Bandit is a static analysis tool designed to find common security issues in Python
codebases.

Why DevOps Engineers Need Bandit:

Automate security checks for Python scripts and applications.
Detect vulnerabilities like hardcoded passwords, shell injections, and insecure imports.
Integrate seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines for DevSecOps workflows.

Example Use:

bandit -r my_python_project/

Sample Output:

[] Use of insecure hash function. Medium High my_script.

I have a detail blog post how we can implement Bandit on the Pipeline.

Integrating Bandit Security Analysis into DevSecOps Practices for

Python Projects

fahadahammed.medium.com

Conclusion
All these Python libraries represent a versatile toolkit for DevOps engineers. Whether you’re
automating infrastructure, testing system performance, building CLI tools, or securing your
code, these tools will simplify workflows, enhance productivity, and strengthen your
operations.

There is a reason behind the surname of Python, Swiss Army Knife of programming
language.

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