VPIM: Transferring Configuration Data

Using the VPN service model APIs, your client application can create VSM elements and add them to the VPN Inventory repository. After defining all the necessary VSM elements, you can define requests for VPN connectivity and add those requests, each in the form of a CiscoVsmBrowser::VsmSRVC object, to the VPN Inventory repository.

The next step in deploying VPN service for a customer is to use the VPN Provisioning and Inventory Manager (VPIM) to generate configlets for the CiscoVsmBrowser::VsmSRVC objects and download them to the VPN edge devices that are to supply VPN connectivity for the customer over the provider backbone network.

Figure 7-1 shows, in general, how the VPIM and VSM APIs interact with the VPN Inventory repository to configure the CEs and PEs that are to support the VPN.

Figure 7-1: VPIM Object Relationships

Using the process described in the "Binding to Servers" section and, more specifically, the "CVPIMServer" section, add code to your client-application code that contacts the CORBA Naming Service to bind to the CORBA CVPIMServer object. This returns an object reference to the CiscoVPIM::VPIMManager interface, which is assigned to the vpimManagerPtr variable in the sample code. The CORBA context tree is described in "Context Tree" section.

Next, use the VPIM APIs for the following:

After creating the CiscoVsmBrowser::VsmSRVC objects that define VPN connectivity to a set of CEs for a given customer, you can use the CORBA CVPIMServer server to generate configlets for them and download them to the VPN edge devices to which they apply.

Getting a VPIMConfigletDownloadManager Object

With the CiscoVPIM::VPIMManager object, execute the getConfigletDownloadManager() operation to get an instance of the CiscoVPIMDL::VPIMConfigletDownloadManager interface.

Figure 7-2: Getting a VPIMConfigletDownloadManager Object

Because no destructor operation for the CiscoVPIMDL::VPIMConfigletDownloadManager object is supplied by the APIs, you must manage its destruction using the language-specific techniques that apply to the host language of your client-application code.

Generating Configlets and Downloading to Edge Devices

The VPIMConfigletDownloadManager object gives you two approaches to use for generating configlets and downloading them. You can:

Read the "VPIMDL" section of the Cisco VPN Solutions Center: MPLS Solution API Programmer Reference for detailed information regarding the operations that support these two approaches. Specifically, note that some of the parameters are "reserved for future use" but must be supplied in the parameter lists to which they apply, regardless of there usage.

Deploy All Service Requests in "Requested" State

With the VPIMConfigletDownloadManager::downloadAll() operation, you can generate and download configlets for all CiscoVsmBrowser::VsmSRVC objects with states of Requested. or for all CiscoVsmBrowser::VsmSRVC objects in a specified list, regardless of state, respectively.

Figure 7-3: Deploying All Service Requests in "Requested" State

Here is the IDL signature for the downloadAll() operation:

void downloadAll(
    in string databasePath,
    in string logFilePath,
    in boolean writeToNVRAM,
    out ServiceRequestResults srResults);

where:

databasePath is not used.
logFilePath represents full path to the log file. If no file exists at that location, a new log file is created there; if the file already exists, its contents are emptied. Log information is then added to this file in HTML format.
writeToNVRAM is not used.
srResults is a list of download-status reports for each service request specified for downloading. This contains either one or two CiscoVPIMDL::ServiceRequestResult structures for each service request; two ServiceRequestResult structures if all configlets are successfully deployed, and one ServiceRequestResult structure is returned if one or more configlets are not successfully deployed for the given service request.

Deploy All Service Requests in a List

With the VPIMConfigletDownloadManager::downloadList() operation, you can generate and download configlets for all CiscoVsmBrowser::VsmSRVC objects, regardless of their current states. Figure 7-4 shows how to execute the downloadList() operation.

Figure 7-4: Deploying All Service Requests in a List

Here is the IDL signature for the downloadList() operation:

void downloadList(
    in ServiceRequestIds srIDList,
    in string databasePath,
    in string logFilePath,
    in boolean writeToNVRAM,
    out ServiceRequestResults srResults);

where:

srIDList is the list of CiscoVPIMDL::ServiceRequestId values that correspond with a value returned by the CiscoVsmBrowser::VsmSRVC::getID() operation from the VPN Inventory repository.
databasePath is not used.
logFilePath represents full path to the log file. If no file exists at that location, a new log file is created there; if the file already exists, its contents are emptied. Log information is then added to this file in HTML format.
writeToNVRAM is not used.
srResults is a list of download-status reports for each service request specified for downloading. This contains either one or two CiscoVPIMDL::ServiceRequestResult structures for each service request; two ServiceRequestResult structures if all configlets are successfully deployed, and one ServiceRequestResult structure is returned if one or more configlets are not successfully deployed for the given service request.

Getting the Download Results

During the execution of the downloadAll() or downloadList() operations, a list of download-status structures for each service request specified for downloading is returned to the variable representing the srResults parameter. This list contains either one or two CiscoVPIMDL::ServiceRequestResult structures for each service request; two ServiceRequestResult structures if all configlets are successfully downloaded, and one ServiceRequestResult structure is returned if one or more configlets are not successfully downloaded for the given service request.

Figure 7-5: Getting the Download Results

For information regarding CiscoVPIMDL::ServiceRequestResult structures, see the Cisco VPN Solutions Center: MPLS Solution Provisioning and Operations Guide.

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