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README v4.0.11 2024-10-01

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Table of contents

1. General
   1.1 Extract the NED package
   1.2 Install the NED package
       1.2.1 Local install
       1.2.2 System install
   1.3 Configure the NED in NSO
2. Optional debug and trace setup
3. Dependencies
4. Sample device configuration
5. Built in live-status actions
6. Built in live-status show
7. Limitations
8. How to report NED issues
9 Infoblox Perl API supoort

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1. General

This document describes the infoblox-nios NED.

Additional README files bundled with this NED package

Common NED Features

Verified target systems

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1.1 Extract the NED package

It is assumed the NED package ncs-<NSO version>-infoblox-nios-<NED version>.signed.bin has already been downloaded from software.cisco.com.

In this instruction the following example settings will be used:

  • NSO version: 6.0

  • NED version: 1.0.1

  • NED package downloaded to: /tmp/ned-package-store

  1. Extract the NED package and verify its signature:

  2. In case the signature can not be verified (for instance if no internet connection), do as below instead:

  3. The result of the extraction shall be a tar.gz file with the same name as the .bin file:

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1.2 Install the NED package

There are two alternative ways to install this NED package. Which one to use depends on how NSO itself is setup.

In the instructions below the following example settings will be used:

  • NSO version: 6.0

  • NED version: 1.0.1

  • NED download directory: /tmp/ned-package-store

  • NSO run time directory: ~/nso-lab-rundir

A prerequisite is to set the environment variable NSO_RUNDIR to point at the NSO run time directory:

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1.2.1 Local install

This section describes how to install a NED package on a locally installed NSO (see "NSO Local Install" in the NSO Installation guide).

It is assumed the NED package has been been unpacked to a tar.gz file as described in 1.1.

  1. Untar the tar.gz file. This creates a new sub-directory named: infoblox-nios-<NED major digit>.<NED minor digit>:

  2. Install the NED into NSO, using the ncs-setup tool:

  3. Open a NSO CLI session and load the new NED package like below:

Alternatively the tar.gz file can be installed directly into NSO. Then skip steps 1 and 2 and do like below instead:

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1.2.2 System install

This section describes how to install a NED package on a system installed NSO (see "NSO System Install" in the NSO Installation Guide).

It is assumed the NED package has been been unpacked to a tar.gz file as described in 1.1.

  1. Do a NSO backup before installing the new NED package:

  2. Start a NSO CLI session and fetch the NED package:

  3. Install the NED package (add the argument replace-existing if a previous version has been loaded):

  4. Load the NED package

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1.3 Configure the NED in NSO

This section describes the steps for configuring a device instance using the newly installed NED package.

  • Start a NSO CLI session:

  • Enter configuration mode:

  • Configure a new authentication group (my-group) to be used for this device:

  • Configure a new device instance (example: dev-1):

  • Optionally set the ssl to accept-any

  • Finally commit the configuration

  • Verify configuration, using a sync-from.

If the sync-from was not successful, check the NED configuration again.

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2. Optional debug and trace setup

It is often desirable to see details from when and how the NED interacts with the device(Example: troubleshooting)

This can be achieved by configuring NSO to generate a trace file for the NED. A trace file contains information about all interactions with the device. Messages sent and received as well as debug printouts, depending on the log level configured.

NSO creates one separate trace file for each device instance with tracing enabled. Stored in the following location:

$NSO_RUNDIR/logs/ned-infoblox-nios-gen-1.0-<device name>.trace

Do as follows to enable tracing in one specific device instance in NSO:

  1. Start a NSO CLI session:

  2. Enter configuration mode:

  3. Enable trace raw:

    Alternatively, tracing can be enabled globally affecting all configured device instances:

  4. Configure the log level for printouts to the trace file:

    Alternatively the log level can be set globally affecting all configured device instances using this NED package.

The log level 'info' is used by default and the 'debug' level is the most verbose.

IMPORTANT: Tracing shall be used with caution. This feature does increase the number of IPC messages sent between the NED and NSO. In some cases this can affect the performance in NSO. Hence, tracing should normally be disabled in production systems.

An alternative method for generating printouts from the NED is to enable the Java logging mechanism. This makes the NED print log messages to common NSO Java log file.

$NSO_RUNDIR/logs/ncs-java-vm.log

Do as follows to enable Java logging in the NED

  1. Start a NSO CLI session:

  2. Enter configuration mode:

  3. Enable Java logging with level all from the NED package:

  4. Configure the NED to log to the Java logger

    Alternatively Java logging can be enabled globally affecting all configured device instances using this NED package.

IMPORTANT: Java logging does not use any IPC messages sent to NSO. Consequently, NSO performance is not affected. However, all log printouts from all log enabled devices are saved in one single file. This means that the usability is limited. Typically single device use cases etc.

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3. Dependencies

This NED has the following host environment dependencies:

  • Java 1.8 (NSO version < 6.2)

  • Java 17 (NSO version >= 6.2)

  • Gnu Sed

Dependencies for NED recompile:

  • Apache Ant

  • Bash

  • Gnu Sort

  • Gnu awk

  • Grep

  • Python3 (with packages: re, sys, getopt, subprocess, argparse, os, glob)

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4. Sample device configuration

Command to create/update infoblox object:

Possible completions: infoblox:record-a infoblox:record-cname infoblox:record-host infoblox:record-host_ipv4addr infoblox:record-ptr infoblox:zone_auth

Command to delete object:

Possible completions: infoblox:record-a infoblox:record-cname infoblox:record-host infoblox:record-host_ipv4addr infoblox:record-ptr infoblox:zone_auth

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5. Built in live-status actions

  • All device specific actions are under live-status/exec. Currently follwoing actions are supported in NED.

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5.1 get-all-grid-servicerestart-status (To get all grid service restart status)

  • Example:

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5.2 get-single-grid-servicerestart-status (To get single grid service restart status)

  • Example:

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5.3 grid-servicerestart-request

  • Example:

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5.4 restart-service

  • Example:

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5.5 get-object (To get specifc object with spefic return fields)

  • Example:

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5.6 get-any-object (To get any object with query)

  • Example:

NOTE: Example: /wapi/v2.6/member:dns?_return_fields%2B=max_cached_lifetime&_return_as_object=1 User should not specify base API path i.e /wapi/v2.6/ and "?" for query.

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5.7 request-network (To create a new network object using network:func:nextavailablenetwork)

  • Example:

NOTE: Need to sync-from the device before the created network shows up in NSO

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6. Built in live-status show

NONE

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7. Limitations

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7.1 Issue with handling special characters

There are some issue with handling special characters \r and \n in NSO. To include \r and \n in config, user need to escape all \r and \n with "".

  • Example-1:

Assume config that we want to send to device: request "GET /StAtUs?p=SXssl_sso_test_com_https&mmember=1 HTTP/1.1\r\nHOST: sso.test.com\r\nConnection: Close\r\n\r\n"

In NSO: We need to escape all \r and \n with "" like below request "GET /StAtUs?p=SXssl_sso_test_com_https&mmember=1 HTTP/1.1\r\nHOST: sso.test.com\r\nConnection: Close\r\n\r\n"​

NED will convert all \r\n to \r\n before sending it to device and NED will convert all \r\n to \r\n in GET config(i.e sync-from)

NOTE: user need to configure escape-special-char ned-settings(check section 3.6) if device expects esacape for special char as some NIOS version needs this behaviour. In this case \r\n send to device as it is.

  • Example-2:

Assume config that we want to send to device: request "GET /StAtUs?p=SXssl_sso_test_com_https&mmember=1 HTTP/1.1\r\nHOST: sso.test.com\r\nConnection: Close\r\n\r\n"

In NSO: We need to escape all \r and \n with "" like below request "GET /StAtUs?p=SXssl_sso_test_com_https&mmember=1 HTTP/1.1\r\nHOST: sso.test.com\r\nConnection: Close\r\n\r\n"​

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7.2 Issue with network and networkcontainer objects

This limitations occur because the NIOS device will change the configuration out of band (some config is modified in response to other config being created or modified) in some situations.

7.2.2 Issue when deleting networkcontainers

Care must be taken when deleting a networkcontainer because the device wil also delete all the networkcontainers and networks that reside under it:

  • Initial config:

  • Delete networkcontainer 192.0.0.0/8

As it can be seen the device also deleted networkcontainer 192.168.0.0/16 and network 192.168.1.0/24.

7.2.2.1 Issue workaround

To workaround this device limitation you must be mindful of all network containers and networks that reside under the network container that you want to delete and also delete them:

7.2.3 Issue when creating networkcontainers for existing networks

This issue manifests itself when reverting the config and its cause is the same device behavior of automatically deleting all that reside under a network container that is deleted.

  • Initial config:

  • We create a networkcontainer for this network and update the network_container field to avoid a diff:

  • Rollback the configuration to the previous commit

  • The network under the container is no more on the device, and the NED is out of sync.

7.2.3.1 Issue workaround

To workaround this limitation you must avoid creating containers for existing networks if you plan to revert the configuration. Create the networkcontainer and networks that reside under it at the same time.

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8. How to report NED issues and feature requests

Issues like bugs and errors shall always be reported to the Cisco NSO NED team through the Cisco Support channel:

The following information is required for the Cisco NSO NED team to be able to investigate an issue:

Do as follows to gather the necessary information needed for your device, here named 'dev-1':

  1. Enable full debug logging in the NED

  2. Configure the NSO to generate a raw trace file from the NED

  3. If the NED already had trace enabled, clear it in order to submit only relevant information

    Do as follows for NSO 6.4 or newer:

    Do as follows for older NSO versions:

  4. Run a compare-config to populate the trace with initial device config

  5. Reproduce the found issue using ncs_cli or your NSO service. Write down each necessary step in a reproduction report.

  6. Gather the reproduction report and a copy of the raw trace file containing data recorded when the issue happened.

  7. Contact the Cisco support and request to open a case. Provide the gathered files together with access details for a device that can be used by the Cisco NSO NED when investigating the issue.

Requests for new features and extensions of the NED are handled by the Cisco NSO NED team when applicable. Such requests shall also go through the Cisco support channel.

The following information is required for feature requests and extensions:

  1. A detailed use case description, with details like:

    • Data of interest

    • The kind of operations to be used on the data. Like: 'read', 'create', 'update', 'delete' and the order of the operation

    • Device APIs involved in the operations (For example: REST URLs and payloads)

    • Device documentation describing the operations involved

  2. Run sync-from # devices device dev-1 sync-from (if relevant)

  3. Attach the raw trace to the ticket (if relevant)

  4. Access to a device that can be used by the Cisco NSO NED team for testing and verification of the new feature. This usually means that both read and write permissions are required. Pseudo access via tools like Webex, Zoom etc is not acceptable. However, it is ok with access through VPNs, jump servers etc.

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9 Infoblox Perl API supoort

From NED version 3.4.0, NED have support for managing pool configs using infoblox perl API.

There are some required perl modules need to be installed to use this feature.

  1. install infoblox perl module:

To install the Infoblox DMAPI packages on a UNIX management system, first download and install the API package from:

https://<ip_addr>/api/dist/CPAN/authors/id/INFOBLOX/

After you download the package, extract it to a temporary directory with:

Then execute the following commands:

Optionally, before you install, test the package by running:

The infoblox installation is complete.

  1. sudo apt-get install libjson-perl

  2. sudo apt-get install libcrypt-ssleay-perl

  3. sudo apt-get install libxml-libxml-perl

Also we need use-perl-for-pool-object ned-settings to use this feature.

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