ActivePerl Script to make configuration changes to Cisco switches via SSH: ActivePerl, Cisco, SSH

by: Adam314Posted on 2009-11-04 at 17:34:03ID: 25746011

Are you on windows? If so, windows does not support all of the functionality of the Net::SSH::Perl module. There is a module to help deal with this: Net::SSH::W32Perl. This works better on windows than the normal Net::SSH::Perl module, but still not all functionality is supported.

I'm not familiar with what needs to be done on the cisco switch to make the configuration changes you want, but this might work.

by: l0stb0yPosted on 2009-11-09 at 04:19:00ID: 25775177

Hi Adam314,

Thanks for the feedback. I've tried using the Net::SSH::W32Perl module but the documentation says it does not support going into privelege mode which is exactly what I need to do to be able to make configuration changes (unless I'm misunderstanding). I was thinking if I could create a perl script that calls plink (putty's command line tool) I could let it handle the SSH connectivity and then have perl handle the rest. The only reason perl is even needed is to handle the password prompt that occurs when you go into privelege mode on a Cisco switch.

by: Adam314Posted on 2009-11-23 at 09:02:41ID: 25889349

I'm also not familiar with plink, but you might be able to use Expect to deal with this.

With Expect, you tell it what it should send to the program, then wait for desired output.
http://search.cpan.org/~rgiersig/Expect-1.21/Expect.pod

by: l0stb0yPosted on 2009-11-23 at 09:18:57ID: 25889498

Hi Adam314,

Thank-you for your suggestions. I ended up going down the path of using cygwin afterall. It was the only way I could find to do this. Initially, I followed the instructions here-> http://perlwin32ssh.blogspot.com/2007/07/test_4418.html

One thing I had to figure out was that when installing the additional modules in CPAN I had to use "perl -MCPAN -e shell" to get them installed in the right paths. I'm attaching my script in case anyone else is looking for it. It logs into a Cisco switch, enters enable mode, changes the VLAN on the port range defined, and outputs a text file of the changes.

use strict;
    use warnings;
    use Data::Dumper;
    
    use Net::Appliance::Session;
    
    my $ios_device_ip = 'switchname';
    
    my $ios_username        = 'adminuser';
    my $ios_password        = 'iospassword';
    my $ios_enable_password = 'enablepassword';
    
    my $session_obj = Net::Appliance::Session->new(
    
        Host      => $ios_device_ip,
        Transport => 'SSH',
        
    );
    
    # create output file for switch changes
    $session_obj->input_log('Switchchanges.txt');
    
    # try to login to the ios device, ignoring host check
    $session_obj->connect(Name => $ios_username, Password => $ios_password, SHKC => 0);
    
    # drop in to enable mode
    $session_obj->begin_privileged($ios_enable_password);
    
    # enter config mode
    my @output1 = $session_obj->cmd('conf t');
    print @output1;
        
    # set range of ports to change
    my @output2 = $session_obj->cmd('int range fa0/5 - 22');
    print @output2;
    
    # change VLAN
    my @output3 = $session_obj->cmd('switchport access vlan 99');
    print @output3;
 
    # end config mode
    my @output4 = $session_obj->cmd('end');
    print @output4;
 
    # close down our session
    $session_obj->close;

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by: IslandrPosted on 2011-02-28 at 11:02:15ID: 35000015

l0stb0y,

I am currently dealing with a situation very similar, I building a script which will login to a cisco 5520 ASA, go into enable mode, config t and execute a command loggin savelog and then execute another command to move the syslogs to a share in the network.

I am using a Linux Debian Lenny VM and I have the following modules installed:

Installed modules are:
CPAN::Meta::YAML
Class::Accessor::Fast::Contained
Class::Data::Inheritable
Class::Loader
Convert::ASCII::Armour
Convert::ASN1
Convert::PEM
Crypt::Blowfish
Crypt::CBC
Crypt::DES
Crypt::DES_EDE3
Crypt::DH
Crypt::DSA
Crypt::Primes
Crypt::RSA
Crypt::Random
Data::Buffer
Data::Dumper
Data::Phrasebook
Data::Phrasebook::Loader::YAML
Devel::StackTrace
Devel::Symdump
Digest::BubbleBabble
Digest::MD2
Exception::Class
ExtUtils::CBuilder
ExtUtils::ParseXS
File::Which
IO::Tty
IPC::Run3
Math::BigInt
Math::BigInt::Pari
Math::Pari
Module::Metadata
Net::Appliance::Phrasebook
Net::Appliance::Session
Net::SSH::Perl
Net::Telnet
Perl
Perl::OSType
Pod::Coverage
Probe::Perl
Sort::Versions
String::CRC32
Sub::Uplevel
Test::Exception
Test::Harness
Test::Pod
Test::Pod::Coverage
Test::Script
Test::Simple
Tie::EncryptedHash
UNIVERSAL::require
version

When I run the script, I get the following error message:

./scripter.pl
Command response matched device error string at /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.0/Net/Appliance/Session/Transport.pm line 51

I look forward to hear from you.

Thanks,

#!/usr/bin/perl

    use strict;
    use warnings;
    use Data::Dumper;

    use Net::Appliance::Session;

    my $ios_device_ip = 'XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX';

    my $ios_username        = 'useraccount';
    my $ios_password        = 'passwd123';
    my $ios_enable_password = 'system123';

    my $session_obj = Net::Appliance::Session->new(

        Host      => $ios_device_ip,
        Transport => 'SSH',

    );

    # create output file for switch changes
    # $session_obj->input_log('Switchchanges.txt');

    # try to login to the ios device, ignoring host check
    $session_obj->connect(Name => $ios_username, Password => $ios_password, SHKC => 0);

    # drop in to enable mode
    $session_obj->begin_privileged($ios_enable_password);

    # enter config mode
    my @output1 = $session_obj->cmd('conf t');
    print @output1;

    # set range of ports to change
    #my @output2 = $session_obj->cmd('int range fa0/5 - 22');
    my @output2 = $session_obj->cmd('show version');
    print @output2;

    # change VLAN
    # my @output3 = $session_obj->cmd('switchport access vlan 99');
    # print @output3;

    # end config mode
    my @output4 = $session_obj->cmd('logout');
    print @output4;

I commented a few lines, because this is my initial test to see How the script behave, I hope that this message reach you or anyone in this question, I already place a question on EE, but it has not been answered.

Link to the question:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Scripting/Perl/Q_26839549.html

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by: Adam314Posted on 2011-02-28 at 13:46:01ID: 35001779

You should post a new question. You will likely get some new experts to help with this.

by: IslandrPosted on 2011-02-28 at 18:53:37ID: 35003595

Adam314,

I did, here is the link:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/Scripting/Perl/Q_26853745.html

Thanks,

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ActivePerl Script to make configuration changes to Cisco switches via SSH

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ActivePerl

Cisco

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SSH / Telnet Software

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