/ncclient

Python library for NETCONF clients

Primary LanguagePythonApache License 2.0Apache-2.0

ncclient: Python library for NETCONF clients

ncclient is a Python library that facilitates client-side scripting and application development around the NETCONF protocol. ncclient was developed by Shikar Bhushan. It is now maintained by Leonidas Poulopoulos (@leopoul)

This version includes a merge of Juniper Networks and Cisco Systems respective ncclient forks based on leopoul/ncclient v0.3.2

Docs: http://ncclient.readthedocs.org

PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ncclient

Requirements:

  • Python 2.6 <= version < 3.0
  • setuptools 0.6+
  • Paramiko 1.7+
  • lxml 3.0+
  • libxml2
  • libxslt

If you are on Debian/Ubuntu install the following libs (via aptitude or apt-get):

  • libxml2-dev
  • libxslt1-dev

Installation:

[ncclient] $ sudo python setup.py install

or via pip:

pip install ncclient

Examples:

[ncclient] $ python examples/juniper/*.py

Usage

#####Get device running config Use either an interactive Python console (ipython) or integrate the following in your code:

from ncclient import manager

with manager.connect(host=host, port=830, username=user, hostkey_verify=False) as m:
    c = m.get_config(source='running').data_xml
    with open("%s.xml" % host, 'w') as f:
        f.write(c)

As this version integrates Juniper's and Cisco's forks, lots of new concepts have been introduced that ease management of Juniper and Cisco devices respectively. The biggest change is the introduction of device handlers in connection paramms. For example to invoke Juniper's functions annd params one has to re-write the above with device_params={'name':'junos'}:

from ncclient import manager

with manager.connect(host=host, port=830, username=user, hostkey_verify=False, device_params={'name':'junos'}) as m:
    c = m.get_config(source='running').data_xml
    with open("%s.xml" % host, 'w') as f:
        f.write(c)

Respectively, for Cisco nxos, the name is nxos. Device handlers are easy to implement and prove to be futureproof.

Changes | brief

  • Switch between replies if custom handler is found
  • Add Juniper, Cisco and default device handlers
  • Allow preferred SSH subsystem name in device params
  • Allow iteration over multiple SSH subsystem names.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks, primarily to Jeremy Schulman (Juniper) for providing his precious feedback, to Ebben Aries (Juniper) for his contribution, to Juergen Brendel (Cisco) for the Cisco fork and to all contributors from Cisco and Juniper.