How to Use RPCs and Operational Mode Commands in Event Scripts

Executing RPCs on a Local Device

In a SLAX or XSLT event script, to execute an RPC on the local device, include the RPC in a variable declaration, and call the jcs:invoke() extension function with the RPC variable as an argument. The following snippet invokes an RPC on the local device:

XSLT Syntax

<xsl:variable name="rpc">
    <get-interface-information/> # Junos RPC for the show interfaces command
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="out" select="jcs:invoke($rpc)"/>
...

SLAX Syntax

var $rpc = <get-interface-information>;
var $out = jcs:invoke($rpc);

In a Python event script, to execute an RPC on the local device, create the Device instance using an empty argument list, and append the rpc property and the RPC method name and argument list to the device instance.

Python Syntax

from jnpr.junos import Device

with Device() as jdev:
    rsp = jdev.rpc.get_interface_information()

Executing RPCs on a Remote Device

In a SLAX or XSLT event script, to execute an RPC on a remote device, first include the RPC in a variable declaration, and create a connection handle using the jcs:open() extension function with the arguments required to connect to the remote device. Then call the jcs:execute() extension function and include the connection handle and RPC variable as arguments. For example:

XSLT Syntax

<xsl:variable name="rpc">
    <get-interface-information/> 
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="connection"
        select="jcs:open('198.51.100.1', 'bsmith', 'test123')"/>
<xsl:variable name="out" select="jcs:execute($connection, $rpc)"/>
<xsl:value-of select="jcs:close($connection)"/>
...

SLAX Syntax

var $rpc = <get-interface-information>;
var $connection = jcs:open("198.51.100.1", "bsmith","test123");
var $out = jcs:execute($connection, $rpc);
expr jcs:close($connection);
...

In a Python event script, to execute an RPC on a remote device, first create an instance of Device using the arguments required to connect to the remote device. Then execute the RPC by appending the rpc property and the RPC method name and argument list to the device instance.

Python Syntax

from jnpr.junos import Device

with Device(host='198.51.100.1', user='bsmith', passwd='test123') as jdev:
    rsp = jdev.rpc.get_interface_information()

To avoid adding the remote connection details directly into an event script, you can specify remote execution details for each event script that executes RPCs on a remote device at the [edit event-options event-script file filename remote-execution] hierarchy level. We recommend adding the remote execution details to the configuration instead of directly in the event script, because all of the information is available in a single location, and the passphrase is encrypted in the configuration.

For each remote device where an RPC is executed, configure the device hostname and the corresponding username and passphrase.

[edit event-options event-script file filename]
remote-execution {
    remote-hostname {
        username username;
        passphrase passphrase; 
    }
}

The remote hostnames and their corresponding username and passphrase, in addition to the event details, are passed as input to the event script when it is executed by an event policy. For more information about the details that are forwarded to the event script, see Use Event and Remote Execution Details in Event Scripts.

An event script references the remote execution details in the argument list of the function used to create the connection to the remote host. Once the connection has been established, the script can execute RPCs on that device.

In Python event scripts, you reference the remote execution details in the argument list of the Junos PyEZ Device() instance. The following code iterates over the remote execution details for all hosts configured for that event script and connects to and executes the same RPC on each host.

Python Syntax

from junos import Junos_Remote_Execution_Details
from jnpr.junos import Device

def main()    
    for remote in Junos_Remote_Execution_Details():
        hostname = remote.host
        username = remote.user
        passphrase = remote.passwd

        with Device(host=hostname, user=username, passwd=passphrase) as jdev:
            inv = jdev.rpc.get_interface_information() 
            #process RPC information... 

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main() 

In SLAX or XSLT scripts, create a connection to the remote host by using the jcs:open() function and reference the remote execution details in the argument list. For example:

XSLT Syntax

<xsl:variable name="rpc">
    <get-interface-information/> 
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:for-each select="event-script-input/remote-execution-details">
    <xsl:variable name="d" select="remote-execution-detail"/>
    <xsl:variable name="connection"
            select="jcs:open($d/remote-hostname,$d/username,$d/passphrase)"/>
    <xsl:variable name="out" select="jcs:execute($connection, $rpc)"/>
    <xsl:value-of select="jcs:close($connection)"/>
    ...
</xsl:for-each>

SLAX Syntax

var $rpc = <get-interface-information>;
for-each (event-script-input/remote-execution-details) {
    var $d = remote-execution-detail;
    var $connection = jcs:open($d/remote-hostname,$d/username,$d/passphrase);
    var $out = jcs:execute($connection, $rpc);
    expr jcs:close($connection);
     ...
}

To execute an RPC on a remote device, an SSH session must be established. In order for the script to establish the connection, you must either configure the SSH host key information for the remote device on the local device where the script will be executed, or the SSH host key information for the remote device must exist in the known hosts file of the user executing the script. For each remote device where the RPC is executed, configure the SSH host key information using one of the following methods:

• To configure SSH known hosts on the local device, include the host statement, and specify hostname and host key options for the remote device at the [edit security ssh-known-hosts] hierarchy level of the configuration.

• To manually retrieve SSH host key information, issue the set security ssh-known-hosts fetch-from-server hostname configuration mode command to instruct Junos OS to connect to the remote device and add the key.

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  user@host# set security ssh-known-hosts fetch-from-server router2
  The authenticity of host 'router2 (198.51.100.1)' can't be established.
  RSA key fingerprint is 30:18:99:7a:3c:ed:40:04:0f:fd:c1:57:7e:6b:f3:90.
  Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
  Warning: Permanently added 'router2,198.51.100.1' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.

• To manually import SSH host key information from a file, use the set security ssh-known- hosts load-key-file filename configuration mode command and specify the known-hosts file.

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  user@host# set security ssh-known-hosts load-key-file /var/tmp/known_hosts
  Import SSH host keys from trusted source /var/tmp/known_hosts ? [yes,no] (no) yes

• Alternatively, the user executing the script can log in to the local device, SSH to the remote device, and then manually accept the host key, which is added to that user’s known hosts file. In the following example, root is logged in to router1. In order to execute a remote RPC on router2, root adds the host key of router2 by issuing the ssh router2 operational mode command and manually accepting the key.

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  root@router1> ssh router2
  The authenticity of host 'router2 (198.51.100.1)' can't be established.
  RSA key fingerprint is 30:18:99:7a:3c:ed:40:04:0f:fd:c1:57:7e:6b:f3:90.
  Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
  Warning: Permanently added 'router2,198.51.100.1' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.

After configuring the required SSH host key and obtaining a connection handle to the remote device, the event script can execute RPCs with the jcs:execute() extension function on that remote device.

Displaying the RPC Tags for a Command

You can display the RPC XML tags for operational mode commands in the CLI of the device. To display the RPC XML tags for a command, enter display xml rpc after the pipe symbol ( | ).

The following example displays the RPC tags for the show route command:

user@host> show route | display xml rpc 
<rpc-reply xmlns:junos="http://xml.juniper.net/junos/10.1I0/junos">
    <rpc>
        <get-route-information>
        </get-route-information>
    </rpc>
    <cli>
        <banner></banner>
    </cli>
</rpc-reply>

SLAX and XSLT scripts can execute RPCs using the RPC XML tags. Python scripts must convert the RPC tags and command options into a format suitable for Python. For more information about using Junos PyEZ to execute RPCs and about mapping RPC tags to the corresponding Python method and method arguments, see Using Junos PyEZ to Execute RPCs on Devices Running Junos OS.

Using Operational Mode Commands in Event Scripts

Some operational mode commands do not have XML equivalents. SLAX and XSLT scripts can execute commands that have no XML equivalent by using the <command> element. Python scripts can execute these commands by using the Junos PyEZ cli() method defined in the Device class.

If a command is not listed in the Junos XML API Operational Developer Reference, the command does not have an XML equivalent. Another way to determine whether a command has an XML equivalent is to issue the command followed by the | display xml command.

user@host> operational-mode-command | display xml

If the output includes only tag elements like <output>, <cli>, and <banner>, the command might not have an XML equivalent. In the following example, the output indicates that the show host command has no XML equivalent:

user@host> show host hostname | display xml
<rpc-reply xmlns:junos="http://xml.juniper.net/junos/10.0R1/junos">
   <output>
       ...
    </output>
    <cli>
        <banner></banner>
    </cli>
</rpc-reply>

user@host> show services cos statistics forwarding-class | display xml
<rpc-reply xmlns:junos="http://xml.juniper.net/junos/8.3I0/junos">
    <cli>
        <banner></banner>
    </cli>
</rpc-reply>

SLAX and XSLT event scripts can execute commands that have no XML equivalent. Use the <command>, <xsl:value-of>, and <output> elements in the script, as shown in the following code snippet. This snippet is expanded and fully described in Example: Display DNS Hostname Information Using an Op Script.

<xsl:variable name="query">
    <command> 
        <xsl:value-of select="concat('show host ', $hostname)"/>
    </command>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:variable name="result" select="jcs:invoke($query)"/>
<xsl:variable name="host" select="$result"/>
<output>
    <xsl:value-of select="concat('Name: ', $host)"/>
</output>
...

Python event scripts can execute commands that have no XML equivalent by using Junos PyEZ APIs. The cli() method defined in the Device class executes an operational mode command and returns the output in text format. For example:

from jnpr.junos import Device

def main():
    with Device() as jdev:
        res = jdev.cli('show host hostname',  warning=False)
        print (res)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

You can also specify format='xml' to return the output formatted as Junos OS XML elements. For more information about the Junos PyEZ cli method, see http://junos-pyez.readthedocs.org/en/latest/_modules/jnpr/junos/device.html#Device.cli .