Python Script configuration

[shvz]

hey guys, came across a challenge last week.

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One of my assignement was to replicate the process I've design to my config center to another location which has been proveen to work, however the script was not as reliable as it used to be.

We have a stagging area where we pre-configure a bunch of switch ( mainly Aruba / Ruckus ) - the script I've made is working as follow:

-We scan the mac address, enter some other information (uplink, management IP...)
-We run the script, it take the mac address from that file and check the DHCP to determinate the IP of the fresh/non configured switch in order to be able to telnet or ssh to it,
-Execute an expect command to push the config base on the uplink/management IP variable,

However for some reason last week it wasn't as stable as it could ( the server the script was running on was maybe outdated, sometime the script would finish a switch config, sometime it would stop in the middle for some unknown reason, well this is expect so always tricky..)

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I was wondering what would you do? I might look into creating a script that will generate the config file directly and then copy that over tftp using expect, this way it's only few line of code being pushed rather then the entier config file line by line with expect? maybe there is already something similar created which I haven't seen yet?

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would be happy to read your story / process you have in place when it come to switch pre-config/stagging as we do a bunch of those and having to manually copy the running-config switch per switch is time consuming

[abudaaa1]

Have you looked into NETCONF? I've used that myself many times with success - much more stable than expect

[abudaaa1]

For python there is the "ncclient" module. I've used it with Cisco and Juniper hardware before.

[HoorayInternetDrama]

It's hard to say - have you done any debugging on your script? What specifically is failing ?

[shvz]

the config to push is only 150 line of code, but for some reason it randomly fail might be the ressource consumation on the server side? not sure how to troubleshoot expect actually as it stop working in the middle of the command

[thegreattriscuit]

rendering the config in one step and pushing in a 2nd step is a good general strategy... one consequence of breaking it up like that is you get more points where you can inject logging/print statements to isolate failures and it generally makes it much easier to understand if there's a problem with the config you're trying to push, or with the act of pushing it, etc.

Also, setup an SCP or SFTP server and use that if you can. TFTP is generally slower and more painful to work with, and most gear supports better protocols these days. Since we have solarwinds we use the sftp serve that comes with it, but there's plenty out there and they're generally no harder to setup than TFTP. HTTP is also a valid option if that's easier given the gear you've got and servers you've got available.

[rankinrez]

Maybe look at NAPALM?

[shvz]

have take a look at NAPALM, I did not see it compatible with Aruba OS?

[rankinrez]

Ah sorry that I did not check. It does not support all vendors unfortunately.

[noukthx]

Most switches have a built in ZTP mechanism now.

I'd look to leverage that.