Python on the Juniper QFX 5100

I noticed that the Juniper QFX5100 has a python interpreter included in Junos. This is new to the Juniper platforms. From the data sheet this is for management support. I know that Arista allows python scripting on their switches, so my guess is this is supported to keep up with the competition. This is a good first step for Juniper. While slax scripting is powerful, the learning curve for most networking engineers is steep and almost proprietary as you really have to know Junos. Slax is not transferrable to other vendor platforms, while python is.

Juniper's Python is accessible from the shell.

user@QFX5100> start shell

root@QFX5100% python
Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Jan 21 2014, 12:38:40)
[GCC 4.2.1 (for JUNOS)] on junos
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

However I don't know what modules bundled in the OS are used to actually access Junos API.

>>> help ('modules juniper')

Here is a list of matching modules.  Enter any module name to get more help.


>>> help ('modules junos')

Here is a list of matching modules.  Enter any module name to get more help.


>>> help ('modules jnpr')

Here is a list of matching modules.  Enter any module name to get more help.

I did find that it does support telnetlib.


>>> help ('modules telnet')

Here is a list of matching modules.  Enter any module name to get more help.

telnetlib

>>> exit()

Which means you can actually access the QFX via telnet. In the below script I telnet to the switch and send a broadcast message

root@QFX5100% python hello.py
                                                                             
Broadcast Message from jnpr@SW3a                                            
        (/dev/ttyp2) at 22:32 PDT...                                        
                                                                             
hello world                                                                  

----------

I'm not when the Junos API will be available or how to access it. I'm guessing there may be some restrictions for this as you wouldn't want have a hacker creating mischief with python scripts.


source code:
root@QFX5100% more hello.py
---------------------                                                                            

import sys
import telnetlib

HOST = "192.168.1.1"
tn = telnetlib.Telnet(HOST)

user = "user"
password = "password"

tn.read_until("login:")
tn.write(user + "\n")

tn.read_until("Password:")
tn.write(password + "\n")

tn.read_until(">")
tn.write('request message all message "hello world" \n')
tn.read_until(">")
tn.write("exit\n")

tn.close