pyIOS

A NETCONF API Implementation for Cisco IOS

To enable NETCONF over SSH on Cisco IOS

crypto key generate rsa usage-keys modulus 1024
ip ssh version 2
netconf max-sessions 16
netconf lock-time 60
netconf ssh
line vty 0 15
 transport input ssh

This library is inspired by pyIOSXR, pyEOS, and NAPALM in general. The purpose of this library is to take advantage of the NETCONF API that is present in most modern implementations of Cisco IOS and follows a very similar structure to the NAPALM structure.

NOTE: This code isn't ready for production use.

The commit_config function doesn't like writing large chunks of configuration changes. Small, targeted configuration changes appear to work, however.
I need to test the lock and unlock functionality to lock a device from being configured by a third party at the same time that work is being performed via NETCONF.
I need to implement discard and rollback functions
I need to implement an API call in commit_config to write changes to startup.

To utilize this library. You must first import the class.

>>> from pyIOS.iosnetconf import IOS

Then you define the parameters for the device that you want to connect to.

>>> router = IOS(hostname='router1', username='someuser', password='somepassword', timeout=120)

Next, establish a connection to the device. The data-plane is established over SSH. The SSH connection calls the NETCONF subsystem. The remote device will immediately send a <hello> xml message. We strip the session-id off the <hello> and reply back with the same xml message. This effectively establishes the NETCONF session to the remote device.

>>> router.open()

Once the NETCONF session is established, we're able to make API calls to interact with the device. To get the running configuration of the device, call the load_running_config() function.

>>> running = router.load_running_config()

Now you can load a candidate configuration into memory locally, with the load_candidate_config().

>>> candidate = router.load_candidate_config(filename='replace.cfg')

With a running config and candidate config loaded into memory, you can compare the differences between the configurations.

>>> compare = router.compare_config()
>>> print compare
--- 
+++ 
@@ -349,8 +349,7 @@
  spanning-tree bpdufilter enable
 !
 interface GigabitEthernet1/0/1
- no switchport
- ip address 192.168.3.1 255.255.255.0
+ switchport
 !
 interface GigabitEthernet1/0/2
 !
@@ -445,7 +444,7 @@
  exec-timeout 0 0
  transport input ssh
 !
-ntp clock-period 36030421
+ntp clock-period 36029820
 ntp server 172.16.0.2 prefer
 ntp server 172.16.0.2 source Loopback0
 netconf max-sessions 16

If you're satisfied with the intended configuration from the candidate, you can commit the changes to the remote device.

>>> router.commit_config(filename='replace.cfg')

Finally, when you're done, you can close the connection.

>>> router.close()

jtdub/pyios

pyIOS