topic RE: Python Scripting Guide in ExtremeSwitching (EXOS/Switch Engine)

Python Scripting Guide

eyeV — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 13:06:00 GMT

Hi everybody!

I've recently update EXOS to 15.6. and I really would love to write some python scripts. Honestly, I'm not into programming actually. I just write python scripts sometimes.

So, I've read EXOS 15.6 User Guide, but there are few information about python scripting. Аt least for me) Does anybody give me some examples or maybe guides, articles, posts or something about it?

Thanks for help!

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Stephane_Grosj1 — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 14:44:00 GMT

Hi,

A guide will be posted soon here. It'll give a brief introduction to python, how you can use the scripting capability with EXOS, and some other features we are introducing in 15.7 (you sense the teasing here ;)).

In the meantime, I'd encourage you to start learning Python 2.7 and the standard library. That's very easy and powerful. There're so many books, article, it's difficult to point to one specific.

With EXOS 15.6, you can use exsh library to interact with EXOS.

import exsh

exsh.clicmd(cmd, capture=False, xml=False, args=None)

cmd is a valid EXOS CLI cmd.
optional:
capture can be True or False, if True it will return the command output in text.
xml can be True or False. if True it will return the command output in xml.
args are whatever parameter needed for the command

I'll see how we can manage to share on a specific space some little scripts for learning purposes.

So stay tuned for the Guide, it's coming.

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Sotiris_Salloum — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 18:42:00 GMT

Hi eyeV,

One of my findings which you might come and nice to know:

If you want to combine python scripting with Universal Port triggers you can do the following trick which worked for me. Example creating a python script which will run every minute.

1) Create the python script HelloWorld.py

Switch # vi HelloWorld.py

2) Because profile can trigger only CLI, you need to create a profile and just insert the following command (assuming you saved the python file to HelloWorld.py)

Switch # create upm profile HelloWorld
Start typing the profile and end with a . as the first and the only character on a line.
Use - edit upm profile - for block mode capability
run script HelloWorld.py
.

( Note the dot in the end)

3) Add the trigger to run the profile every minute starting from the next minute

create upm timer HelloTimer
configure upm timer "HelloTimer" after 60 every 60
configure upm timer "HelloTimer" profile "HelloWorld"

4) You can delete the timer

delete upm timer "HelloTimer"

Hope it helps

Sotiris

RE: Python Scripting Guide

eyeV — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 19:28:00 GMT

Thanks guys! I'm going to dive in!

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Stephane_Grosj1 — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 19:44:00 GMT

ah, all these spoilers before the release of the guide... 🙂

of course, you can use UPM with Python scripting.
UPM provides environmental variables (for example the port where the event has occurred) and a Python script can use it. Just pass the variable(s) as argument(s) to the python script.

RE: Python Scripting Guide

eyeV — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 19:53:00 GMT

What library I can use in python scripting on Extreme switches?

standard library
sys
pexpect
exshexpect
exsh
what else?

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Stephane_Grosj1 — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 20:02:00 GMT

The standard library is HUGE. You have a lot of modules included. As an example, sys is part of the standard library.

RE: Python Scripting Guide

StephenW — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 21:37:00 GMT

eyeV,

code academy is a great place to start learning python. It's free and very thorough.

http://www.codecademy.com/

I have a few script i made that make some task's very easy. Like running ELRP on every created vlan.

RE: Python Scripting Guide

eyeV — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 21:37:00 GMT

Thanks. I'm going to start right now. )

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Stephane_Grosj1 — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 21:41:00 GMT

I'd love to see your scripts, and everybody's scripts.
If you are ok to share your creation, can you pass links to them? I'm trying to find, internally, a way to share all of it, for the community.

RE: Python Scripting Guide

eyeV — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 21:41:00 GMT

Pretty good idea! For me, especially. )

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Christina_M — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:58:00 GMT

Hi all, the new Python Scripting Guide has been posted at: http://www.extremenetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Python_Getting_Started_Guide.pdf

RE: Python Scripting Guide

eyeV — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:58:00 GMT

It's exactly what I need! Thank you!

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Tim_Black — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:58:00 GMT

Christina M your link now produces:

404 Not Found

As does the same link on your "how to use python with EXOS" page:
https://gtacknowledge.extremenetworks.com/articles/How_To/How-to-use-Python-on-EXOS

What I'm trying to do is to control EXOS from python application running on a remote machine, so I can quickly enact config changes on the switch at my application runtime. To this end I do not see the value in this Python on EXOS feature, since it's much more cumbersome to have to tftp a script to the switch, telnet in, and "load" it, vs simply telnetting in and executing the commands via CLI as needed.

Given what I'm triyng to do (control exos switch remotely from python code), is the easiest and fastest way to accomplish this via telnet/CLI? Or is there some CLIENT python support I can use?

Someone on another thread mentioned a thing called XMC,which can completely control the switch, and has a REST API, and I was wondering if this would be useful in my case, but I'm having trouble finding documentation on it. Any links or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Tim_Black — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:58:00 GMT

I did find this, which is helpfui for running python remotely. I'll look deeper into this.

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Stephane_Grosj1 — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:58:00 GMT

If you want to use python remotely, you can either use jsonrpc or RESTConf (openconfig).

https://github.com/extremenetworks/EXOS_Apps/tree/master/JSONRPC
https://github.com/extremenetworks/EXOS_Apps/tree/master/REST

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Christina_M — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:58:00 GMT

Python Guide Has been re-uploaded here: https://documentation.extremenetworks.com/pdfs/exos/Python_Getting_Started_Guide.pdf

You can also view our Python and RESTConf documentation here: https://www.extremenetworks.com/support/api-app/

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Tim_Black — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:58:00 GMT

Thanks Stephane, Christina. Thanks for all the pointers to the info I was looking for!

Christina, fyi:
1. your link to the "python getting started" doc is broken over at the EXOS API Doc Root, on the "How-to Guides" tab, and also broken on this page.
2. your link to the "EXOS JSONRPC Interface Reference" is broken over at the EXOS API Doc Root, on the API tab. Is looks like a copy-paste err as it links to the RESTAPI docs.

Also, over on this thread, I've been discussing all these option, in case you wanted to review and comment. Thanks.

RE: Python Scripting Guide

Christina_M — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:58:00 GMT

Hi, Tim. Thanks for the heads up. The former has been fixed and our API writer removed the latter from the table. Please let us know if you see any other issues on the website.

RE: Python Scripting Guide

eyeV — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 23:42:00 GMT

I have a mysterious problem with that guide. All pages except the first one are simply the gradient... But I can CTRL+C all text. Does anybody has the same problem?

I can read it on iPad for example, but I can't with the standard MacOS PDF viewer. Pretty strange.