Custom RANCID modules

[Joshua Ginsberg]

Thanks for your reply, Andrew. So let the questions begin... :-D

I'm not the Perl Gods' gift to mankind, so could somebody briefly
explain to me what sub ProcessHistory does?

And to answer your question, my boss has instructed me to make RANCID
modules for Copper Mountain Copper Edge DSLAM's and for Lucent Stinger
DSLAM's.

Thanks again.

-jag

On Sat, 2004-05-01 at 19:05, Andrew Fort wrote:
> Joshua Ginsberg wrote:
> 
> > I was wondering if anybody had any experience or pointers for somebody
> > trying to begin creating RANCID modules for other types of networking
> > equipment. I've looked at the code base, and I'm not really able to make
> > heads or tails of how it all works. Thanks for any help you could
> > provide.
> 
> If the device is vastly different than one of the others already in the 
> distribution, you're going to need to produce *login program (normally 
> written in expect) and an output parser *rancid program (which produces 
> the data checked into CVS).
> 
> I've hacked with a couple of them (alteon, riverstone) that are in the 
> distribution now; so the maintainers can provide you some more answers 
> I'm sure.  My suggestions are:
> 
> - Try to modify what is in clogin (to handle your new device without 
> breaking others using it) if the device works similarly enough (method 
> of logging in, etc) to a cisco.  This applies for other login/parser 
> pairs, also.  For example, Foundry made their CLI just different enough 
> from Cisco IOS syntax that there are separate program for each of those 
> vendors.
> 
> - expect doesn't have the most obvious syntax, so you'll need to stare 
> at the code for longer than you would a more popular language.  If you 
> are successful, hallucinations and madness will ensue.  At this time, 
> you will be "expected".
> 
> The O'Reilly "Exploring Expect" book (Libes) is rumored to assist if you 
> have the patience for it (I'm not sure whether it's not a good book, or 
> tcl is the culprit).
> 
> - Ask plenty of questions, and consider people who may use the equipment 
> how you do not (for example, those who use TACACS+/RADIUS auth where you 
> do not, or vice versa).
> 
> Oh.. what is the device, by the way? :)
> 
> -afort
-- 
Joshua Ginsberg <joshg at brainstorminternet.net>
Network Operations -- Brainstorm Internet