Service Manual

Smart Scripting

Smart Scripting is supported on the S4810, S4820T, S3048–ON, S4048–ON, S5000, S6000, S6000–ON,

Z9100–ON, Z9500, and MXL switch platforms. Smart Scripting is not supported on the M IOA and FN

IOM platforms.

Smart Scripting allows you to add functionality to Dell Networking switches without updating the Dell

Networking OS release. Smart Scripting is available as a separate installable package that supports SQLite

DB and NET SNMP applications and TCL, Expect, Perl, Python, Ruby, and Unix scripting languages.

The Smart Scripting package supports the smart utility (SmartUtils) application programming interfaces

(APIs) providing you an easier way to invoke switch operations by creating and running Tcl, Expect, Perl,

Python, Ruby, and ZSH scripts on the Dell Networking OS. API library files describe the functions

supported in Perl, Python, and Ruby scripts.

A separate package is extended with HTTP and HTTPS daemons based on CGI scripts and Web Server.

For more information about this package, see Web Server . For information about HTTP requests the

REST API supports, see the REST API CLI.

Overview

To manage and interact with Dell Networking switches in the network, you can use Smart Scripting to

create custom Expect, Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl, UNIX, and ZSH shell scripts.

Smart Scripting provides support for:

• Modules that implement requested Python features, such as AMQP (message queuing), XML-RPC

(arbitrary data exchange), and Twisted (event-driven networking engine).

With Smart Scripting, you don’t need to learn proprietary scripting languages; allowing for faster

development and deployment of custom scripts.

Smart Scripting also offers solutions in a UNIX environment useful to cloud administrators who are

familiar with working in a UNIX shell. Smart Script support in a UNIX environment allows you to invoke

standard UNIX utilities such as netstat, tcpdump, ls, chmod, chown, and so on.

Smart Scripting includes a convenient set of API function libraries that you can refer to when you create

Expect, Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl, UNIX, and ZSH shell scripts. API libraries provide a representation of CLI

functions to retrieve data from the Dell Networking OS and change configuration parameters on Dell

Networking switches. Script writers include API function calls made directly on the Dell Networking OS

CLI in Expect, Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl, UNIX, and ZSH shell scripts.

For example, the API functions a script uses includes setting up a telnet session, gathering data on the

switch, sending information to the CLI, and closing telnet sessions. By using simple function calls, you do

not have to include the parsing code required for telnet sessions and retrieving configuration information.

Smart Scripting