Service Manual

• Modules that implement requested Python features, such as AMQP (message queuing), XML-RPC
(arbitrary data exchange), and Twisted (event-driven networking engine).
NOTE: S3100 series does not support Ruby scripting.
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 like netstat, tcpdump, ls, chmod, chown, and so on.
Smart Scripting supports running a script either from the Dell Networking OS CLI or directly from a UNIX
shell. You can run scripts periodically, based on events, at boot up or after the switch is initialized. In addition,
you can run scripts in the foreground or background and display the progress of a script. If required, you can
cancel, stop, or resume scripts.
Smart Scripting allows you to automate common management and maintenance tasks, such as:
• Building visibility and/or discovery programs.
• Creating custom logging.
• Reporting configuration information.
• Reporting switch memory usage, configured virtual local area networks (VLANs), and other operation
and configuration parameters.
• Creating custom APIs for external applications to access the switch.
• Automating custom provisioning of network devices to support server virtualization.
For example, you can automate any of the following tasks:
• Monitor the configuration of switch ports to verify that no change occurs and generate an alarm if a
configuration change is detected as part of a cloud-computing deployment.
• Stage CLI command requests received from a customer. If a link flaps, the command completion status
is held in the script so you can see when the management plane reconnects.
• Generate time-based reports to receive updates on network status on a periodic basis.
• Query an external, configuration management database on a remote server to retrieve information on
port operation and reconfigure switch ports based on the data received.
• Apply additional time-based access-control lists (ACLs) to limit after hours access.
• Monitor network requests; for example, find a specified MAC address or generate a health-check
heartbeat.
• Create a simple menu of options that a non-network administrator can use to create requests to send to
the network.
Smart Scripting consolidates management data inside a switch and sends it to management consoles,
databases, or applications — reducing polling and network traffic. For example, you can use a script as part of
a cloud-computing deployment to detect when the network has changed, query a database server for
configuration management database (CMDB) information, and ultimately apply network changes based on
the data.
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