Forums > General Discussion > just to let you know about a little tool (Netios)
phocean
6 posts
11 Feb 2010 at 7:40 a.m. UTC

Hi all,

I recently discovered this really great site and decided to subscribe here today. I made a little python tool that I want to share with you. I called it "Netios".

The goal of this tool is to work very quickly on a large number of routers or switches and make some tiring administration tasks automatic.

It is far from being terminated, but so far the two most interesting features are : - updating the local accounts and enable passwords - retrieving the configuration file (like rancid does but much faster)

Before continuing, I would like to have more feedback now outside my company : - is it useful ? - is it usable ? - what feature could be added ? removed ? improved ?

Meanwhile I really hope it will help some people here !

Looking forward to reading your comments...

Download : http://www.phocean.net/tools/netios
laith43d
109 posts
11 Feb 2010 at 10:23 a.m. UTC

That is great, I loved it.

Keep up the good work, I wish you release version 1.0 asap, I would like to try the final release.

BTW, your site contains a lot of useful tools, I liked it.
gradgrind
6 posts
11 Feb 2010 at 2:13 p.m. UTC

I like it, it reminds me of a tool we used to use called manymaint. Though manymaint used expect scripts with telnet, not sure if you could mod it for ssh.

http://expect.nist.gov/scripts/manymaint
phocean
6 posts
11 Feb 2010 at 6:37 p.m. UTC

Thank you guys for the encouragement. It's so nice to see that it will be helpful.

Let me know if you have any idea, something you do repeatedly so that I may include it.
lobo
4 posts
11 Feb 2010 at 8:09 p.m. UTC

Hi,

thanks for sharing your tool. I use Exscript since a couple of month to automate admin tasks on Cisco gear. It is also written in python and has an easy scripting/template language. But it has more dependencies on 3rd party modules than your tool.

Here are some Exscript examples:

Very simple inventory script

I use 3 scripts for updating IOS images (on Cat3550 switches). Maybe I'll rewrite them soon to do everything with just one script.

Upload IOS via TFTP

Update boot system if switch is a cat3550 and has the correct IOS image in flash

Reload the devices

Best Regards,

Jochen
sacox31s
32 posts
12 Feb 2010 at 2:37 a.m. UTC

I have a question for you all.

Which do you guys think is better for automating Cisco tasks Perl or Python?

I see a lot of Perl vs Python on the net, but I haven't seen any good information about Perl vs Python for tasks relating to Cisco.

I have written Cisco automation scripts in Perl, but I haven't used Python.

I have experience with C++, vbscript, some perl

what do you think?

Thanks
phocean
6 posts
12 Feb 2010 at 7:36 a.m. UTC

@Lobo : Nice tool it is worth knowing. Thanks to the templates, it is complete. Though mine didn't have the same ambition, it gives me some ideas. One advantage Netios will definitely have is speed, because it has multiprocessing support.

@sacox31s : Personally, I know both languages and use one or another from time to time, according to the project. They are similar on many points and the switch is not difficult. However, I tend to prefer Python for its clean syntax. It also has multiprocessing support that Perl doesn't have, and many other small things that make it kind of more modern than Perl. Perl keeps an advantage on the community support and the great number of resources that are in CPAN. Having said that, I would say the best language is just the one you know the best.

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