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OrionSDK Not Permanently Setting Interface Status on Node

I have a Python script utilizing OrionSDK and the API that iterates through a node's interfaces and if the interface's status is equal to 2 (Down), set the status to 10 (unplugged). The script works and the interfaces do get changed, but the Unplugged status only lasts for a couple of seconds before it automatically reverts back to the Down status.

The attachments I've added show that the script correctly sets all Down interfaces to the Unplugged status, but then immediately begins reverting back until all of the interfaces are Down again in addition to the scrubbed Python script I'm using to accomplish this task. I have a similar script that uses this same syntax to add custom properties to interfaces and that works just fine (at least from prior to our 2019.4 update).

Thanks in advanced for any help you can provide.

attachments.zip

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Accepted answers

mesverrum

I'm surprised that ever worked reliably, instead of settings status = 10 you need to stop doing that and instead set unpluggable = 1, which will allow the built in feature to work the way it was intended.

All comments

mesverrum

bmmarugg

It worked like a champ for our entire Cisco environment until 2019.4. But I followed your advice and set the interface property Unplugged to 1 and it seems to be working and permanent, so thanks for the recommendation.

Out of curiosity, is there a page or documentation that lists all of the interface settings that can be set/changed via the OrionSDK? I didn't even know that "Unplugged" was an option, and there are many more things on interfaces I plan to do for the future.

bmmarugg

Also, can you explain in greater detail as to why setting the status to 10 wouldn't work vs. setting Unplugged to 1 does? I get that setting the Unplugged tag makes it more dynamic, but why would Status=10 just fail like it did?

mesverrum

It's not documented anywhere but from using the products you find that some values are set once when you initially add an object, others are changed when you change various settings in the GUI, and some are polled on some recurring schedule. Initially it just has to be trial and error until you get a sense for how the devs have coded things up and then you tend to have pretty reliable guesses since *most* of the platform is fairly consistent in how it behaves.

When it comes to making changes in the API I recommend 100% of the time that before you even look at making a change in code you should start by trying to see how the data behaves when you just use the GUI. Then you try to replicate that as best you can in your code. A SWIS update via the API is functionally identical to going into the database and directly editing the rows there and it does no sanity checking and really only minimal error handling so if you aren't sure what you are doing you can cause yourself some real pain that way. If there is a verb then that tends to be safer since the verbs are actually set up by the devs and they usually cover all the bases such as inserting corresponding rows to related tables and getting the flags set everywhere they need to be.

Status is a polled value, it should be getting updated every 2 mins or so and that behavior has been reliable for the last 6 years that I've been using Orion tools. Makes me wonder if there was something wrong with your poller before the upgrade that was inadvertently fixed by installing the newer version.

The "unpluggable" feature came out in NPM 9.5, so it's been around a long time although I tried to check the NPM admin guide just now and didn't see it explicitly mentioned anywhere. Setting the flag to true is the same as editing the interface details and checking the box to turn the option on. Once that option is on Orion will poll the interface as normal, and if the interface is up then everything is normal, if it is down then it basically over rides the down status with the unplugged status which has different effects on child status inheritance is generally handy for setting up easier alert logic and keeping the GUI looking clean for the interfaces you don't want to worry about.