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Scripting?

It seems like the admin guide just glosses over the topic. And it seems there is no actual scripting guide. Can't look one up with anything. Have I got it wrong? Is there a document somewhere that provides an in-depth scripting discussion? It's great that I can run a script against a node. But what can I put in there? Can I get it to wait till it sees a prompt before it executes another command or disconnects from the node?

What SHOULD I have used as search criteria to find this?

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Accepted answers

mesverrum

So like HerrDoktor mentioned with the config snippets, those are basically just a place to copy/paste code directly into the CLI. Similar to the way many network engineers I have known will have a notepad file of common config changes that they have had to make and just paste them into the terminal window when they need to set something up. These don't really support any kind of advanced feature or have any intelligence beyond what NCM already has built in to handle things like login prompts and resolving some command variables. It already knows to wait for prompts between executing commands and such as they have that all built into their terminal tool's logic. If you turn on a session trace you can actually see the logic that the tool uses in communicating with devices and interpreting prompts and such.

If you intend to build scripts with any sort of intelligence then you would be using the config change templates, which have introductory documentation here: Config change templates and more detailed examples starting on page 180 of this document: https://documentation.solarwinds.com/archive/pdf/ncm/OrionNCMAdministratorGuide.pdf

The config change templates are not a full on programmatic scripting language like python, but they can accomplish a pretty good amount if you get familiar with them. The biggest limitation they have is that they can apply logic and methods such as if/then/else and foreach, but they cannot respond to the CLI data in real time, they only work with data that NCM has before the script executes.

What I mean to say is that you CAN write a script like if @contextnode.vendor = 'Cisco' run these commands.

You could NOT write a script that says show ip interface, and if the results contain errors shutdown the port. NCM has to be able to completely build the script text ahead of time.

I've seen people build fairly elaborate workarounds, such as running all those show commands ahead of time, rigging up solutions to set custom properties based on the output of the commands, then referencing those custom properties in the scripts that they would run later, but that's getting into fairly complicated scenario and I've often felt that people who build up elaborate schemes like that may be better served by just spending a week learning enough python to accomplish the same result directly without involving NCM at all. If you can just set your expectations correctly around the idea that it cannot parse the output of the commands mid script then you should be able to see where NCM scripts can and cannot do what you want.

All comments

farhood

You might get some tuts over internet.

Batch Script Tutorial

HerrDoktor

Are you referring to the „Config Snippets“ or the „Config Change Templates“?

In the script Snippets you basically type in the commands you would also type in when you are connected to the device via SSH or telnet.

so for this part it should be enough to know the Scripting commands of your devices.

if you need to switch to a Config mode you can either type in the command in the script or check the box in the scripts to „execute in Config mode“

hope this helps

mesverrum

What I mean to say is that you CAN write a script like if @contextnode.vendor = 'Cisco' run these commands.

You could NOT write a script that says show ip interface, and if the results contain errors shutdown the port. NCM has to be able to completely build the script text ahead of time.

sja

take a look at the shared templates that thwack community donate...

NCM is a very rich tool

Network Configuration Manager

liammiller

Hey ddabrieo,

What kind of scripting are you looking at doing?

There is some good info here GitHub - solarwinds/OrionSDK: SDK for the SolarWinds Orion platform, including tools, documentation, and samples in Powe…

ddabrieo

From the responses, I think I was aiming at the wrong tool. It looks like a config change template is what I really should have been using. At first, I thought I'd just be able to do what I needed to do in a sort of script I'd run from the Configuration Management screen.

I'd like to upgrade stacks of 2960-x switches. Seems simple enough to send the archive command, but it doesn't work unless the bot waits for the installation to take place. Depending on the number of switches involved, you may not get anything like success criteria for a long time.

Trying to execute that command in a simple script just didn't work at all.

HerrDoktor

From your latest response, do you want to update the Firmware of the switches? There is an option to do this directly.

is this something that helps you?