Hi All, in this session lets discuss some Automation.

During past few days, I was looking at some REST APIs for Juniper Northstar Controller. Now Northstar is good for LSP creation/deletion/modification but it cant configure the service E2E. Offcourse that tool is not meant to do all this but Juniper has recently released one beta version of it which can bind your LSP to some service which is excellent step forward. We will see that in a moment. Juniper is leveraging Jinja templates in NS to achieve this binding.

However as I said still service creation is not E2E and for that I thought of adding one more layer of automation and for this I have used Juniper own PyEZ framework which is basically Juniper Python library for automating tasks. Brilliant lets see how this work.

Juniper PyEZ is a framework which is easily grasped by Network engineers and you don’t need to be programmer to fully understand it.

https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/junos-pyez/topics/concept/junos-pyez-overview.html

REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is a set of useful conventions and principals about transfer of information over the World Wide Web.

Many Web services are now using the principals of REST in their design.

When you type a URL into your browser, like http://example.net, your browser software creates an HTTP header that identifies:

• a desired action: GET (“get me this resource”).
• a target machine (www.domain-name.com).

The NorthStar RESTful APIs are designed to enable access over HTTP to most of the same data and analytics that are available to you from both the NorthStar GUI and the NorthStar CLI.

https://www.juniper.net/documentation/en_US/northstar3.1.0/information-products/api-ref/api-ref.html

Below is the pictorial representation of what we will be doing. I have used a Windows server on which we will write a script which will talk to Northstar using REST APIs and other components of Juniper Pes using PyEZ.

Our Script will be written in Python and you can write the variables value in excel and pass it to the script.

Our excel format:

L2VPN_CCC_Data

import httplib
import json
import time
import re
import sys
import pandas as pd
from jnpr.junos import Device
from jnpr.junos.utils.config import Config
from pprint import pprint

df = pd.read_excel("L2VPN_CCC_Data.xlsx","Sheet1")

PE1 = str((df['PE1'].values.tolist())[0])
PE2 = str((df['PE2'].values.tolist())[0])
Interface_PE1 = str((df['Interface_PE1'].values.tolist())[0])
Unit_PE1 = str((df['Unit_PE1'].values.tolist())[0])
Vlan_PE1 = str((df['Vlan_PE1'].values.tolist())[0])
Interface_PE2 = str((df['Interface_PE2'].values.tolist())[0])
Unit_PE2 = str((df['Unit_PE2'].values.tolist())[0])
Vlan_PE2 = str((df['Vlan_PE2'].values.tolist())[0])
LSP_Name_PE1 = str((df['LSP_Name_PE1'].values.tolist())[0])
LSP_Name_PE2 = str((df['LSP_Name_PE2'].values.tolist())[0])
VPN_CCC_PE1 = str((df['VPN_CCC_PE1'].values.tolist())[0])
VPN_CCC_PE2 = str((df['VPN_CCC_PE2'].values.tolist())[0])

dev1 = Device(host=''+PE1+'', user='demo', password='password', port='22')
dev1.open()
dev1.timeout = 300

with Config(dev1, mode='private') as cu: 
cu.load('set interfaces '+Interface_PE1+' unit '+Unit_PE1+' description L2VPN-CCC encapsulation vlan-ccc vlan-id '+Vlan_PE1+' family ccc', format='set')
cu.pdiff() #Printing the difference in the configuration after the load
cu.commit()

dev1.close()
dev2 = Device(host=''+PE2+'', user='demo', password='password', port='22')
dev2.open()
dev2.timeout = 300

with Config(dev2, mode='private') as cu: 
cu.load('set interfaces '+Interface_PE2+' unit '+Unit_PE2+' description L2VPN-CCC encapsulation vlan-ccc vlan-id '+Vlan_PE2+' family ccc', format='set')
cu.pdiff() #Printing the difference in the configuration after the load#
cu.commit() #commit#

dev2.close()
conn = httplib.HTTPConnection('10.198.123.180:8091')
Bandwidth = raw_input('Please enter LSP Bandwidth on '+PE1+' (e.g 100k): ')
Setup_Pri = raw_input('Please enter Set up Priority: ')
Hold_Pri = raw_input('Please enter Hold Priority: ')
payload = str('{\r\n\"name\": \"'+LSP_Name_PE1+'\",\r\n\"creationConfigurationMethod\": \"NETCONF\",\r\n\"provisioningType\": \"RSVP\",\r\n  \"pathType\": \"primary\",\r\n  \"from\": {\r\n\"topoObjectType\": \"ipv4\",\r\n\"address\": \"'+PE1+'\"\r\n },\r\n  \"to\": {\r\n\"topoObjectType\": \"ipv4\",\r\n\"address\": \"'+PE2+'\"\r\n},\r\n\"plannedProperties\": {\r\n\"bandwidth\": \"'+Bandwidth+'\",\r\n\"setupPriority\": '+Setup_Pri+',\r\n\"holdingPriority\": '+Hold_Pri+',\r\n\"userProperties\": {\r\n \"ccc-vpn-name\": \"'+VPN_CCC_PE1+'\",\r\n \"ccc-interface\": \"'+Interface_PE1+'.'+Unit_PE1+'\",\r\n\"transmit-lsp\": \"'+LSP_Name_PE1+'\",\r\n\"receive-lsp\": \"'+LSP_Name_PE2+'\"\r\n    }\r\n  }\r\n}\r\n')
headers = {
 'content-type': "application/json",
'cache-control': "no-cache",
 }

conn.request ("POST", "/NorthStar/API/v2/tenant/1/topology/1/te-lsps", payload, headers
res = conn.getresponse()
data = res.read()
print 'Please wait while we get the status of LSP you created :)'
for i in xrange(25,0,-1):
 time.sleep(1)
 sys.stdout.write(str(i)+' ') 
 sys.stdout.flush()
 conn.request("GET", str('/NorthStar/API/v2/tenant/1/topology/1/te-lsps/search?name=' + LSP_Name_PE1), headers=headers
 res = conn.getresponse()
 data = res.read()

LSP_Status = re.search('operationalStatus":(.*?),', data).group(1)
if LSP_Status == '"Active"':
  print ('\nSuccess: LSP "'+LSP_Name_PE1+'" is Created and Active')
elif LSP_Status == "Down":
   print ('\nFailed: LSP "'+LSP_Name_PE1+'" is created however Down')
else:
  print ('\nFailed: LSP "'+LSP_Name_PE1+'" is not created and is in Unknown State on Northstar')

time.sleep(10)

conn = httplib.HTTPConnection('10.198.123.180:8091')
Bandwidth = raw_input('Please enter LSP Bandwidth on '+PE2+' (e.g 100k): ')
Setup_Pri = raw_input('Please enter Set up Priority: ')
Hold_Pri = raw_input('Please enter Hold Priority: ')

payload = str('{\r\n\"name\": \"'+LSP_Name_PE2+'\",\r\n\"creationConfigurationMethod\": \"NETCONF\",\r\n\"provisioningType\": \"RSVP\",\r\n  \"pathType\": \"primary\",\r\n  \"from\": {\r\n\"topoObjectType\": \"ipv4\",\r\n\"address\": \"'+PE2+'\"\r\n },\r\n  \"to\": {\r\n\"topoObjectType\": \"ipv4\",\r\n\"address\": \"'+PE1+'\"\r\n},\r\n\"plannedProperties\": {\r\n\"bandwidth\": \"'+Bandwidth+'\",\r\n\"setupPriority\": '+Setup_Pri+',\r\n\"holdingPriority\": '+Hold_Pri+',\r\n\"userProperties\": {\r\n \"ccc-vpn-name\": \"'+VPN_CCC_PE2+'\",\r\n \"ccc-interface\":\"'+Interface_PE2+'.'+Unit_PE2+'\",\r\n\"transmit-lsp\": \"'+LSP_Name_PE2+'\",\r\n\"receive-lsp\": \"'+LSP_Name_PE1+'\"\r\n    }\r\n  }\r\n}\r\n')
headers = {
 'content-type': "application/json",
 'cache-control': "no-cache",
   }

conn.request ("POST", "/NorthStar/API/v2/tenant/1/topology/1/te-lsps", payload, headers)
res = conn.getresponse()
data = res.read()
print 'Please wait while we get the status of LSP you created :)'
for i in xrange(25,0,-1):
   time.sleep(1)
   sys.stdout.write(str(i)+' ')
   sys.stdout.flush()

conn.request("GET", str('/NorthStar/API/v2/tenant/1/topology/1/te-lsps/search?name=' + LSP_Name_PE2), headers=headers)
res = conn.getresponse()
data = res.read()
LSP_Status = re.search('operationalStatus":(.*?),', data).group(1)
if LSP_Status == '"Active"':
    print ('\nSuccess: LSP "'+LSP_Name_PE2+'" is Created and Active')
elif LSP_Status == "Down":
    print ('\nFailed: LSP "'+LSP_Name_PE2+'" is created however Down')
else:
    print ('\nFailed: LSP "'+LSP_Name_PE2+'" is not created and is in Unknown State on Northstar')

time.sleep(5)

dev1.open()
dev2.open()

print (dev1.cli('show connections remote-interface-switch '+VPN_CCC_PE1+'', warning=False))

print (dev2.cli('show connections remote-interface-switch '+VPN_CCC_PE2+'', warning=False))

dev1.close()
dev2.close()

In this script we are making reading the values from the excel and using it as variables in or script.

After that using PyEZ, making a SSH connection to PE1 and PE2 and configuring the layer 2 sub-interfaces with vpn-ccc encapsulations. Once that is done, connection to Northstar server 10.198.123.180 using httplib libraris/modules is made and waiting for Northstar to configure the LSP. At this stage Northstar is also binding that LSPs in connections using Jinja template. Once Northstar has created the LSPs we are using regular expression to get the LSP Index from Northstar and checking whether LSP creating in Success or failed.

At last we are printing the show command output to find out if everything is up and running 🙂

Lets see by running the script

C:\Program Files (x86)\Python\Northstar_Scripts\Working\Juniper\L2VPN_CCC>python
 E2E_L2VPN_CCC_Script.py
[edit interfaces xe-2/0/0]
+ unit 601 {
+ description L2VPN-CCC;
+ encapsulation vlan-ccc;
+ vlan-id 601;
+ family ccc;
+ }
[edit interfaces xe-2/0/0]
+ unit 601 {
+ description L2VPN-CCC;
+ encapsulation vlan-ccc;
+ vlan-id 601;
+ family ccc;
+ }
Please enter LSP Bandwidth on 10.198.123.100 (e.g 100k): 70m
Please enter Set up Priority: 5
Please enter Hold Priority: 0
Please wait while we get the status of LSP you created :)
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Success: LSP "l2vpn-ccc-1" is created and is Active
Please enter LSP Bandwidth on 10.198.123.205 (e.g 100k): 70m
Please enter Set up Priority: 5
Please enter Hold Priority: 0
Please wait while we get the status of LSP you created :)
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Success: LSP "l2vpn-ccc-2" is created and is Active
CCC and TCC connections [Link Monitoring On]
Legend for status (St): Legend for connection types:
 UN -- uninitialized if-sw: interface switching
 NP -- not present rmt-if: remote interface switching
 WE -- wrong encapsulation lsp-sw: LSP switching
 DS -- disabled tx-p2mp-sw: transmit P2MP switching
 Dn -- down rx-p2mp-sw: receive P2MP switching
 -> -- only outbound conn is up Legend for circuit types:
 <- -- only inbound conn is up intf -- interface
 Up -- operational oif -- outgoing interface
 RmtDn -- remote CCC down tlsp -- transmit LSP
 Restart -- restarting rlsp -- receive LSP
Connection/Circuit Type St Time last up # Up tran
s
l2vpn-ccc rmt-if Up Nov 25 12:52:10
1
 xe-2/0/0.601 intf Up
 l2vpn-ccc-1 tlsp Up
 l2vpn-ccc-2 rlsp Up

CCC and TCC connections [Link Monitoring On]
Legend for status (St): Legend for connection types:
 UN -- uninitialized if-sw: interface switching
 NP -- not present rmt-if: remote interface switching
 WE -- wrong encapsulation lsp-sw: LSP switching
 DS -- disabled tx-p2mp-sw: transmit P2MP switching
 Dn -- down rx-p2mp-sw: receive P2MP switching
 -> -- only outbound conn is up Legend for circuit types:
 <- -- only inbound conn is up intf -- interface
 Up -- operational oif -- outgoing interface
 RmtDn -- remote CCC down tlsp -- transmit LSP
 Restart -- restarting rlsp -- receive LSP

Connection/Circuit Type St Time last up # Up tran
s
l2vpn-ccc rmt-if Up Nov 25 12:52:11
1
 xe-2/0/0.601 intf Up
 l2vpn-ccc-2 tlsp Up
 l2vpn-ccc-1 rlsp Up

C:\Program Files (x86)\Python\Northstar_Scripts\Working\Juniper\L2VPN_CCC>

So that’s all for today.. You can see the possibility of using this framework in so many tasks in your daily networking journey. I hope you like this blog and will try to use it in your network 🙂

Regards

Mohit