Service Template Automation Overview

Starting in Junos OS Release 12.3, you can use service template automation (STA) to provision services such as VPLS VLAN, Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPNs, and IPsec across similar platforms running Junos OS. Service template automation uses the service-builder.slax op script to transform a user-defined service template definition into a uniform API, which you can then use to configure and provision services on similar platforms running Junos OS. This enables you to create a service template on one device, generalize the parameters, and then quickly and uniformly provision that service on other devices. This decreases the time required to configure the same service on multiple devices, and reduces configuration errors associated with manually configuring each device.

The following process outlines how to use service template automation to provision services:

1. Create a service template definition.

2. Execute the service-builder.slax script and define service-specific instance parameters.

3. Generate the service interface, which automatically builds the required interface (API) from the template.

4. Enable the service interface on each device where the service is required.

5. Provision systems by invoking the service interface using NETCONF and supplying the service parameter values.

You create a new service template by configuring the hierarchies for the actual service to be provisioned on a device running Junos OS. Service template hierarchies are configured at the [edit groups] hierarchy level. When creating the service template:

• Do not include apply-groups or apply-macro statements.

• Do not include any statements that are supported on the current device that are not also supported on the devices where the service will be provisioned (for example dual Routing Engine versus single Routing Engine).

• Commit the configuration. The service template group configuration is read from the committed configuration.

Once you create the basic service template definition, you invoke the service-builder.slax op script. The script reads the service template information from the committed configuration and uses an interactive interface to help you build and generate the service API. You have the option to parameterize every variable in the service template or only selected variables. For each selected variable, you create a generic service template parameter. The service-builder.slax script guides you through the creation and configuration of each parameter.

After you define the service template parameters, you generate the service interface. This creates a platform-specific service op script. If the load-scripts-from-flash statement is configured, the generated service script is stored in the /config/scripts/op directory in flash memory. Otherwise, the generated script is stored in the /var/db/scripts/op directory on the hard disk.

To enable the service interface on a device, you enable the generated service script in the configuration as you would any op script. You can enable the service interface on the local device using the service-builder.slax script or by manually updating the configuration. To enable the service interface on a similar platform, you must copy the generated service script to the corresponding directory on the new device and enable the service script in the configuration.

To provision the service on a device, invoke the service interface using NETCONF, and supply the necessary values for each parameter. Alternatively, you can invoke the service interface in the CLI by executing the service script and supplying the necessary values for each parameter as command-line arguments to the script. You can direct the service script to create a new service configuration, or update or delete an existing service configuration. The service script makes the changes to the candidate configuration and then commits the configuration. The service script does not support the context-sensitive help and auto-completion features available in the Junos OS CLI.