APIC Rest Python Adapter (arya)

Original Author: Paul Lesiak - palesiak@cisco.com

Co-author: Mike Timm - mtimm@cisco.com

Description

arya is a tool that will convert APIC object documents from their XML or JSON form into the equivalent Python code leveraging the Cobra SDK.

arya supports input in a number of formats, including XML, JSON, a directory containing multiple xml or json documents, as well as standard input. The standard input option is very useful for use as a filter in most text editors, where one can copy the JSON or XML extracted from APIC Visore or API inspector, and quickly generate the Python source code framework, which can then be modified, tokenized and rapidly turned into functional prototypes.

Note that arya is a very useful tool for the heavy lifting of converting object model into source code, however it does not validate configuration, perform advanced lookup logic or implement a number of best practices that should be followed, such as performing lookups to validate targets, referencing object attributes instead of hardcoding Dns and names, and other proper coding practices

It is strongly recommended that for advanced use cases, getting expert advice and validating your code, you reach out to Cisco Advanced Services for support. For more information, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/aci

If you run into issues with arya, please open an issue on github

Installation

Environment

Required

• Python 2.7+

Recommended:

• pip (to install from pypi)
• Git (to install from github)

Downloading and installing

Option A:

Download and install from pypi:

pip install arya

With this option, this is the only step.

Option B:

If you have git installed clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/datacenter/arya.git

Install following the instructions below.

Option C:

If you don't have git download a zip copy of the repository and extract.

Install if using options B or C

cd arya

Run the setup script

python setup.py install

Check that arya can be run from the command line

$ arya.py

Usage

Once installed arya will place the file arya.py in your path, so you should be able to call arya.py from any prompt.

Usage is as such:

$ arya.py

usage: Code generator for APIC cobra SDK [-h] [-f FILEIN] [-s] [-d SOURCEDIR]
                                         [-t TARGETDIR] [-i IP] [-u USERNAME]
                                         [-p PASSWORD] [-nc] [-b]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -f FILEIN, --filein FILEIN
                        Document containing post to be sent to REST API
  -s, --stdin           Parse input from stdin, for use as a filter, e.g., cat
                        doc.xml | arya.py -s
  -d SOURCEDIR, --sourcedir SOURCEDIR
                        Specify a source directory containing ACI object files
                        you want to convert to python.
  -t TARGETDIR, --targetdir TARGETDIR
                        Where to write the .py files that come from the -d
                        directory. If none is specified, it will default to
                        SOURCEDIR
  -i IP, --ip IP        IP address of APIC to be pre-populated
  -u USERNAME, --username USERNAME
                        Username for APIC account to be pre-populated in
                        generated code
  -p PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD
                        Password for APIC account to be pre-populated in
                        generated code
  -nc, --nocommit       Generate code without final commit to changes
  -b, --brief           Generate brief code (without headers, comments, etc)
                          Password for admin account on APIC

License

Copyright (C) 2014 Cisco Systems Inc.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.