Netmiko / textfsm - netmiko

Question

'Hello, i got my information parsed the way I want it. But now I'm trying to save the output
to a possible .txt file. Im not sure what to type in the "backup.write()" if I type the
"output" variable it saves the whole output not the parsed section.'
connection = ConnectHandler(**cisco_device)
# print('Entering the enable mode...')
# connection.enable()
prompt = connection.find_prompt()
hostname = prompt[0:-1]
print(hostname)
output = connection.send_command('show interfaces status', use_textfsm=True)
for interface in output:
if interface['status'] == 'notconnect':
print(f"interface {interface['port']} \n shutdown")
print(hostname)
print('*' * 85)
# minute = now.minute
now = datetime.now()
year = now.year
month = now.month
day = now.day
hour = now.hour
# creating the backup filename (hostname_date_backup.txt)
filename = f'{hostname}_{month}-{day}-{year}_backup.txt'
# writing the backup to the file
with open(filename, 'w') as backup:
backup.write()
print(f'Backup of {hostname} completed successfully')
print('#' * 30)
print('Closing connection')
connection.disconnect()

Answer 1

my desired result is to run the Cisco IOS command "show interface status" and parse the data using textfsm module to only provide the interfaces that are in the shtudown.
I tried the same on show ip interface brief, because I have no access to a Cisco switch right now. For show interfaces status both methods apply but with different output modifier or if condition.
So to get the following output, you can do it in two ways:
1- CLI Output Modifier
show ip interface brief | include down
And the rest is left for TextFSM to parse the output
[{'intf': 'GigabitEthernet2',
'ipaddr': 'unassigned',
'proto': 'down',
'status': 'administratively down'},
{'intf': 'GigabitEthernet3',
'ipaddr': '100.1.1.1',
'proto': 'down',
'status': 'down'}]
2- Python
You can get the whole output from show ip interface brief and loop over all parsed interfaces and set an if condition to get the down interfaces only. (Recommended)
# Condition for `show ip interface brief`
down = [
intf
for intf in intfs
if intf["proto"] == "down" or intf["status"] in ("down", "administratively down")
]
# Condition for `show interfaces status`
down = [
intf
for intf in intfs
if intf["status"] == "notconnect"
]
Exporting a List[Dict] to a .txt file makes no sense. You don't have any syntax highlighting or formatting in .txt files. It's better to export it to a JSON file. So a complete example of what you want to achieve can be something like:
import json
from datetime import date
from netmiko import ConnectHandler
device = {
"device_type": "cisco_ios",
"ip": "x.x.x.x",
"username": "xxxx",
"password": "xxxx",
"secret": "xxxx",
}
with ConnectHandler(**device) as conn:
print(f'Connected to {device["ip"]}')
if not conn.check_enable_mode():
conn.enable()
hostname = conn.find_prompt()[:-1]
intfs = conn.send_command(
command_string="show ip interface brief", use_textfsm=True
)
print("Connection Terminated")
down = [
intf
for intf in intfs
if intf["proto"] == "down" or intf["status"] in ("down", "administratively down")
]
with open(file=f"{hostname}_down-intfs_{date.today()}.json", mode="w") as f:
json.dump(obj=down, fp=f, indent=4)
print(f"Completed backup of {hostname} successfully")
# In case you have to export to text file
# with open(file=f"{hostname}_down-intfs_{date.today()}.txt", mode="w") as f:
# f.write(down)
# print(f"Completed backup of {hostname} successfully")