ciscoconfparse2 0.3.0

Parse, Audit, Query, Build, and Modify Cisco IOS-style and JunOS-style configs

ciscoconfparse2

Introduction: What is ciscoconfparse2?

Summary

ciscoconfparse2 is the next generation of ciscoconfparse, which has been the primary development package from 2007 until 2023.

In late 2023, I started a rewrite because ciscoconfparse is too large and has some defaults that I wish it didn't have. I froze ciscoconfparse PYPI releases at version 1.9.41; there will be no more ciscoconfparse PYPI releases.

What do you do? Upgrade to ciscoconfparse2!

Here's why, it:

• Streamlines the API towards a simpler user interface.
• Removes legacy and flawed methods from the original (this could be a breaking change for old scripts).
• Adds string methods to BaseCfgLine() objects
• Defaults ignore_blank_lines=False (this could be a breaking change for old scripts).
• Is better at handling multiple-child-level configurations (such as IOS XR and JunOS)
• Can search for parents and children using an arbitrary list of ancestors
• Adds the concept of change commits; this is a config-modification safety feature that ciscoconfparse lacks
• Adds an auto_commit keyword, which defaults True
• Documents much more of the API
• Intentionally requires a different import statement to minimize confusion between the original and ciscoconfparse2
• Vasly improves Cisco IOS diffs

Simple Example

The following code will parse a configuration stored in tests/fixtures/configs/sample_02.ios and select interfaces that are shutdown.

In this case, the parent is a line containing interface and the child is a line containing the word shutdown.

from ciscoconfparse2 import CiscoConfParse

parse = CiscoConfParse('tests/fixtures/configs/sample_02.ios', syntax='ios')

for intf_obj in parse.find_parent_objects(['interface', 'shutdown']):
    intf_name = " ".join(intf_obj.split()[1:])
    print(f"Shutdown: {intf_name}")

That will print:

$ python example.py
Shutdown: FastEthernet0/7
Shutdown: FastEthernet0/8
Shutdown: FastEthernet0/9
Shutdown: FastEthernet0/11
Shutdown: FastEthernet0/13
Shutdown: FastEthernet0/15
Shutdown: FastEthernet0/17
Shutdown: FastEthernet0/19
Shutdown: FastEthernet0/20
Shutdown: FastEthernet0/22
Shutdown: VLAN1

Complex Example

The following code will parse a configuration stored in tests/fixtures/configs/sample_08.ios and will find the IP address / switchport parameters assigned to interfaces.

from ciscoconfparse2 import CiscoConfParse
from ciscoconfparse2 import IPv4Obj

def intf_csv(intf_obj: str) -> str:
    """
    :return: CSV for each interface object.
    :rtype: str
    """
    intf_name = " ".join(intf_obj.split()[1:])    # Use a string split() method from the BaseCfgLine()
    admin_status = intf_obj.re_match_iter_typed("^\s+(shutdown)", default="not_shutdown", result_type=str)
    # Search children of all interfaces for a regex match and return
    # the value matched in regex match group 1.  If there is no match,
    # return a default value: 0.0.0.1/32
    addr_netmask = intf_obj.re_match_iter_typed(
        r"^\s+ip\saddress\s(\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+\s\S+)", result_type=IPv4Obj,
        group=1, default=IPv4Obj("0.0.0.1/32"))
    # Find the description and replace all commas in it
    description = intf_obj.re_match_iter_typed("description\s+(\S.*)").replace(",", "_")

    switchport_status = intf_obj.re_match_iter_typed("(switchport)", default="not_switched")

    # Return a csv based on whether this is a switchport
    if switchport_status == "not_switched":
        return f"{intf_name},{admin_status},{addr_netmask.as_cidr_addr},{switchport_status},,,{description}"

    else:
        # Only calculate switchport values if this is a switchport
        trunk_access = intf_obj.re_match_iter_typed("switchport mode (trunk)", default="access", result_type=str)
        access_vlan = intf_obj.re_match_iter_typed("switchport access vlan (\d+)", default=1, result_type=int)

        return f"{intf_name},{admin_status},,{switchport_status},{trunk_access},{access_vlan},{description}"

parse = CiscoConfParse('tests/fixtures/configs/sample_08.ios', syntax='ios')

# Find interface BaseCfgLine() instances...
for intf_obj in parse.find_objects('^interface'):
    print(intf_csv(intf_obj))

That will print:

$ python example.py
Loopback0,not_shutdown,172.16.0.1/32,not_switched,,,SEE http://www.cymru.com/Documents/secure-ios-template.html
Null0,not_shutdown,0.0.0.1/32,not_switched,,,
ATM0/0,not_shutdown,0.0.0.1/32,not_switched,,,
ATM0/0.32 point-to-point,not_shutdown,0.0.0.1/32,not_switched,,,
FastEthernet0/0,not_shutdown,172.16.2.1/24,not_switched,,,[IPv4 and IPv6 desktop / laptop hosts on 2nd-floor North LAN]
FastEthernet0/1,not_shutdown,172.16.3.1/30,not_switched,,,[IPv4 and IPv6 OSPF Transit via West side of building]
FastEthernet1/0,not_shutdown,172.16.4.1/30,not_switched,,,[IPv4 and IPv6 OSPF Transit via North side of building]
FastEtheret1/1,not_shutdown,,switchport,access,12,[switchport to the comptroller cube]
FastEtheret1/2,not_shutdown,,switchport,access,12,[switchport to the IDF media converter]
Virtual-Template1,not_shutdown,0.0.0.1/32,not_switched,,,
Dialer1,not_shutdown,0.0.0.1/32,not_switched,,,[IPv4 and IPv6 OSPF Transit via WAN Dialer: NAT_ CBWFQ interface]

Cisco IOS Factory Usage

CiscoConfParse has a special feature that abstracts common IOS / NXOS / ASA / IOS XR fields; at this time, it is only supported on those configuration types. You will see factory parsing in CiscoConfParse code as parsing the configuration with factory=True.

Why

ciscoconfparse2 is a Python library that helps you quickly answer questions like these about your Cisco configurations:

• What interfaces are shutdown?
• Which interfaces are in trunk mode?
• What address and subnet mask is assigned to each interface?
• Which interfaces are missing a critical command?
• Is this configuration missing a standard config line?

It can help you:

• Audit existing router / switch / firewall / wlc configurations
• Modify existing configurations
• Build new configurations

Speaking generally, the library examines an IOS-style config and breaks it into a set of linked parent / child relationships. You can perform complex queries about these relationships.

What if we don't use Cisco IOS?

Don't let that stop you.

You can parse brace-delimited configurations into a Cisco IOS style (see original ciscoconfparse Github Issue #17), which means that CiscoConfParse can parse these configurations:

• Juniper Networks Junos
• Palo Alto Networks Firewall configurations
• F5 Networks configurations

CiscoConfParse also handles anything that has a Cisco IOS style of configuration, which includes:

• Cisco IOS, Cisco Nexus, Cisco IOS-XR, Cisco IOS-XE, Aironet OS, Cisco ASA, Cisco CatOS
• Arista EOS
• Brocade
• HP Switches
• Force 10 Switches
• Dell PowerConnect Switches
• Extreme Networks
• Enterasys
• Screenos

Docs

• The latest copy of the docs are archived on the web

Installation and Downloads

• Use poetry for Python3.x... :

  python -m pip install ciscoconfparse2
  

What is the pythonic way of handling script credentials?

1. Never hard-code credentials
2. Use python-dotenv

Is this a tool, or is it artwork?

That depends on who you ask. Many companies use CiscoConfParse as part of their network engineering toolbox; others regard it as a form of artwork.

Pre-requisites

The ciscoconfparse2 python package requires Python versions 3.7+ (note: Python version 3.7.0 has a bug - ref Github issue #117, but version 3.7.1 works); the OS should not matter.

Other Resources

• Dive into Python3 is a good way to learn Python
• Team CYMRU has a Secure IOS Template, which is especially useful for external-facing routers / switches
• Cisco's Guide to hardening IOS devices
• Center for Internet Security Benchmarks (An email address, cookies, and javascript are required)

Are you releasing licensing besides GPLv3?

I will not. however, if it's truly a problem for your company, there are commercial solutions available (to include purchasing the project, or hiring me).

Bug Tracker and Support

• Please report any suggestions, bug reports, or annoyances with a github bug report.
• If you're having problems with general python issues, consider searching for a solution on Stack Overflow. If you can't find a solution for your problem or need more help, you can ask on Stack Overflow or reddit/r/Python.
• If you're having problems with your Cisco devices, you can contact:
  • Cisco TAC
  • reddit/r/Cisco
  • reddit/r/networking
  • NetworkEngineering.se

Dependencies

• Python 3
• attrs
• passlib
• tomlkit
• dnspython
• hier_config
• PyYAML
• loguru
• deprecated

Unit-Tests and Development

• We are manually disabling some SonarCloud alerts with:
  • #pragma warning disable S1313
  • #pragma warning restore S1313
  • Where S1313 is a False-positive that SonarCloud flags
  • Those #pragma warning lines should be carefully-fenced to ensure that we don't disable a SonarCloud alert that is useful.

Semantic Versioning and Conventional Commits

• At this point, ciscoconfparse2 does NOT adhere to Semantic Versioning
• Although we added commitizen as a dev dependency, we are NOT enforcing commit rules (such as Conventional Commits) yet.

Execute Unit tests

The project's test workflow checks ciscoconfparse2 on Python versions 3.7 and higher, as well as a pypy JIT executable.

If you already git cloned the repo and want to manually run tests either run with make test from the base directory, or manually run with pytest in a unix-like system...

$ cd tests
$ pytest ./test*py
...

Execute Test Coverage Line-Miss Report

If you already have have pytest and pytest-cov installed, run a test line miss report as shown below.

$ # Install the latest ciscoconfparse2
$ # (assuming the latest code is on pypi)
$ pip install -U ciscoconfparse2
$ pip install -U pytest-cov
$ cd tests
$ pytest --cov-report=term-missing --cov=ciscoconfparse2 ./
...

Editing the Package

This uses the example of editing the package on a git branch called develop...

• git clone https://github.com/mpenning/ciscoconfparse2
• cd ciscoconfparse2
• git branch develop
• git checkout develop
• Add / modify / delete on the develop branch
• make test
• If tests run clean, git commit all the pending changes on the develop branch
• If you plan to publish this as an official version rev, edit the version number in pyproject.toml. In the future, we want to integrate commitizen to manage versioning.
• git checkout main
• git merge develop
• make test
• git push origin main
• make pypi

Sphinx Documentation

Building the ciscoconfparse2 documentation tarball comes down to this one wierd trick:

• cd sphinx-doc/
• pip install -r ./requirements.txt; # install Sphinx dependencies
• pip install -r ../requirements.txt; # install ccp dependencies
• make html

License and Copyright

ciscoconfparse2 is licensed GPLv3

• Copyright (C) 2023 David Michael Pennington

The word "Cisco" is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems.

Author

ciscoconfparse2 was written by David Michael Pennington.