Oh! I was just researching this!

Check out VyOS. You can virtualize it while you determine if it’s the right fit and then once you’re ready, load it onto a physical chassis. I haven’t actually loaded it yet into my lab, but was impressed with the integrations:

Ansible: https://docs.vyos.io/en/latest/automation/vyos-ansible.html

NAPALM: https://docs.vyos.io/en/latest/automation/vyos-napalm.html

Netmiko: https://docs.vyos.io/en/latest/automation/vyos-netmiko.html

Scrapli: https://scrapli.github.io/scrapli_community/reference/vyos/vyos/sync_driver/

Oxidized(works under “vyatta”): https://github.com/ytti/oxidized/blob/master/docs/Supported-OS-Types.md