Welcome to Rbeapi’s documentation!

Contents:

Overview

The Ruby Client for eAPI provides a native Ruby implementation for programming Arista EOS network devices using Ruby. The Ruby client provides the ability to build native applications in Ruby that can communicate with EOS either locally via Unix domain sockets (on-box) or remotely over a HTTP/S transport (off-box). It uses a standard INI-style configuration file to specifiy one or more connection profiles.

The rbeapi implemenation also provides an API layer for building native Ruby objects that allow for configuration and state extraction of EOS nodes. The API layer provides a consistent implementation for working with EOS configuration resources. The implementation of the API layer is highly extensible and can be used as a foundation for building custom data models.

The libray is freely provided to the open source community for building robust applications using Arista EOS eAPI. Support is provided as best effort through Github iusses.

Requirements

  • Arista EOS 4.12 or later
  • Arista eAPI enabled for at least one transport (see official EOS Config Guide at arista.com for details)
  • Ruby 1.9.3 or later

Getting Started

In order to use rbeapi, the EOS command API must be enabled using management api http-commands configuration mode. This library supports eAPI calls over both HTTP and UNIX Domain Sockets. Once the command API is enabled on the destination node, create a configuration file with the node properities.

Note: The default search path for the conf file is ~/.eapi.conf followed by /mnt/flash/eapi.conf. This can be overridden by setting EAPI_CONF=<path/conf_file> in your environment.

Example eapi.conf File

Below is an example of an eAPI conf file. The conf file can contain more than one node. Each node section must be prefaced by connection:<name> where <name> is the name of the connection.

The following configuration options are available for defining node entries:

host - The IP address or FQDN of the remote device. If the host parameter is omitted then the connection name is used
username - The eAPI username to use for authentication (only required for http or https connections)
password - The eAPI password to use for authentication (only required for http or https connections)
enablepwd - The enable mode password if required by the destination node
transport - Configures the type of transport connection to use. The default value is https. Valid values are:
    socket (available in EOS 4.14.5 or later)
    http_local (available in EOS 4.14.5 or later)
    http
    https
port - Configures the port to use for the eAPI connection. A default port is used if this parameter is absent, based on the transport setting using the following values:
    transport: http, default port: 80
    transport: https, deafult port: 443
    transport: https_local, default port: 8080
    transport: socket, default port: n/a
open_timeout - The default number of seconds to wait for the eAPI connection to open. Any number may be used, including Floats for fractional seconds. Default value is 10 seconds.
read_timeout - The default number of seconds to wait for one block of eAPI results to be read (via one read(2) call). Any number may be used, including Floats for fractional seconds. Default value is 10 seconds.

Note: See the EOS User Manual found at arista.com for more details on configuring eAPI values.

All configuration values are optional.

[connection:veos01]
username: eapi
password: password
transport: http

[connection:veos02]
transport: http

[connection:veos03]
transport: socket

[connection:veos04]
host: 172.16.10.1
username: eapi
password: password
enablepwd: itsasecret
port: 1234
transport: https

[connection:localhost]
transport: http_local

The above example shows different ways to define EOS node connections. All configuration options will attempt to use default values if not explicitly defined. If the host parameter is not set for a given entry, then the connection name will be used as the host address.

Configuring [connection:localhost]

The rbeapi library automatically installs a single default configuration entry for connecting to localhost host using a transport of sockets. If using the rbeapi library locally on an EOS node, simply enable the command API to use sockets and no further configuration is needed for rbeapi to function. If you specify an entry in a conf file with the name [connection:localhost], the values in the conf file will overwrite the default.

Using rbeapi

The Ruby Client for eAPI was designed to be easy to use and implement for writing tools and applications that interface with the Arista EOS management plane.

Creating a connection and sending commands

Once EOS is configured properly and the config file created, getting started with a connection to EOS is simple. Below demonstrates a basic connection using rbeapi. For more examples, please see the examples folder.

Using the API

The rbeapi library provides both a client for send and receiving commands over eAPI as well as an API for working directly with EOS resources. The API is designed to be easy and straightforward to use yet also extensible. Below is an example of working with the vlans API

# create a connection to the node
require 'rbeapi/client'
node = Rbeapi::Client.connect_to('veos01')

# get the instance of the API (in this case vlans)
vlans = node.api('vlans')

# return all vlans from the node
vlans.getall
=> {"1"=>{:name=>"tester", :state=>"active", :trunk_groups=>[]},
 "4"=>{:name=>"VLAN0004", :state=>"active", :trunk_groups=>[]},
 "100"=>{:name=>"TEST_VLAN_100", :state=>"active", :trunk_groups=>[]},
 "300"=>{:name=>"VLAN0300", :state=>"active", :trunk_groups=>[]}}

# return a specific vlan from the node
vlans.get(1)
=> {:name=>"tester", :state=>"active", :trunk_groups=>[]}

# add a new vlan to the node
vlans.create(400)
=> true

# set the new vlan name
vlans.set_name(100, value: 'foo')
=> true

All API implementations developed by Arista EOS+ CS are found in the rbeapi/api folder. See the examples folder for additional examples.

Installation

The source code for rbeapi is provided on Github at http://github.com/arista-eosplus/rbeapi. All current development is done in the develop branch. Stable released versions are tagged in the master branch and uploaded to RubyGems.

To install the latest stable version of rbeapi, simply run gem install rbeapi

To install the latest development version from Github, simply clone the develop branch and run

$ rake build
$ rake install

To create an RPM, run ``rake rpm``

To generate a SWIX file for EOS with necessary dependencies, run ``rake
all_rpms`` then follow the swix create instructions, provided by the build.
NOTE: Puppet provides a puppet agent SWIX which includes Ruby 1.9.3 in
/opt/puppetlabs/bin/ which is different from where you might otherwise
install Ruby. If you have installed the puppet-enterprise 3.x SWIX, then
you should build and use the rbeapi-puppet3 swix, below. If you have
installed the puppet-enterprise 2015.x SWIX, then you should build and use
the rbeapi-puppet-aio swix, below. The Chef client omnibus install also
includes its own version of Ruby in /opt/chef/bin/, thus the rbeapi-chef
swix should be used.  Otherwise, if you have installed at least Ruby
1.9.3 in the standard system location, then the rbeapi SWIX may be used.

$ bundle install --path .bundle/gems/
$ bundle exec rake all_rpms
...
RPMs are available in rpms/noarch/
Copy the RPMs to an EOS device then run the 'swix create' command.
Examples:
  Puppet Open Source:
    cd /mnt/flash; \
    swix create rbeapi-0.4.0-1.swix \
    rubygem-rbeapi-0.4.0-1.eos4.noarch.rpm \
    rubygem-inifile-3.0.0-3.eos4.noarch.rpm \
    rubygem-netaddr-1.5.0-2.eos4.noarch.rpm \
    rubygem-net_http_unix-0.2.1-3.eos4.noarch.rpm
  Puppet-enterprise agent (3.x):
    cd/mnt/flash; \
    swix create rbeapi-puppet3-0.4.0-1.swix \
    rubygem-rbeapi-puppet3-0.4.0-1.eos4.noarch.rpm \
    rubygem-inifile-puppet3-3.0.0-3.eos4.noarch.rpm \
    rubygem-netaddr-puppet3-1.5.0-2.eos4.noarch.rpm
  Puppet-All-in-one agent (2015.x/4.x):
    cd/mnt/flash; \
    swix create rbeapi-puppet-aio-0.4.0-1.swix \
    rubygem-rbeapi-puppet-aio-0.4.0-1.eos4.noarch.rpm \
    rubygem-inifile-puppet-aio-3.0.0-3.eos4.noarch.rpm \
    rubygem-netaddr-puppet-aio-1.5.0-2.eos4.noarch.rpm \
    rubygem-net_http_unix-puppet-aio-0.2.1-3.eos4.noarch.rpm

On EOS:

Arista# copy <URI-to-RPMs> flash:
Arista# bash
-bash-4.1# cd /mnt/flash/
-bash-4.1# swix create rbeapi-puppet3-0.4.0-1.swix \
           rubygem-rbeapi-puppet3-0.4.0-1.eos4.noarch.rpm \
           rubygem-inifile-puppet3-3.0.0-1.eos4.noarch.rpm \
           rubygem-netaddr-puppet3-1.5.0-1.eos4.noarch.rpm
-bash-4.1# exit
Arista# copy flash:rbeapi-puppet3-0.4.0-1.swix extension:
Arista# extension rbeapi-puppet3-0.4.0-1.swix
Arista# copy installed-extensions boot-extensions

Upgrading

On EOS:

Arista# no extension pe-rbeapi-0.3.0-1.swix
Arista# extension rbeapi-puppet3-0.4.0-1.swix
Arista# copy installed-extensions boot-extensions

Testing Modules

The rbeapi library provides spec tests. To run the spec tests, you will need to update the spec/fixtures/dut.conf file. The switch used for testing must have at least interfaces Ethernet1-7.

To run the spec tests, run bundle exec rspec spec from the root of the rbeapi source folder.

Contributing

Contributing pull requests are gladly welcomed for this repository. Please note that all contributions that modify the library behavior require corresponding test cases otherwise the pull request will be rejected.

Release Notes

License

Copyright (c) 2015, 2016, Arista Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

Neither the name of Arista Networks nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL ARISTA NETWORKS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.