Using python xmlrpclib to interface with zenoss

Managing zenoss trough web interface quickly gets tedious when one need to do the same or similar updates on many hosts. Luckily zenoss is based on Zope, and all Zope objects are accessible trough XML-RPC.

Zenoss API

First simple example

Python script listing all /Devices/Server/Linux devices:

#! /usr/bin/env python
from xmlrpclib import ServerProxy
ZenossURL = 'http://admin:zenoss@localhost:8080/'
deviceTree = ServerProxy(ZenossURL + 'zport/dmd/Devices/Server/Linux/devices/')
for device in deviceTree.objectIds():
        print device

Rename devices

Our server naming standard is a bit confused.. so some hosts are discovered as short hostname, some as public FQDN and some as private FQDNs (and more). I'd prefer them all to be presented as short hostname in zenoss, so I need to rename lots of objects:

#! /usr/bin/env python
from xmlrpclib import ServerProxy
ZenossURL = 'http://admin:zenoss@localhost:8080/'
deviceTree = ServerProxy(ZenossURL + 'zport/dmd/Devices/Server/Linux/devices/')
for device in deviceTree.objectIds():
        shortName = device.split('.')[0]
        if device != shortName :
                print device
                print shortName
                node = ServerProxy(ZenossURL + 'zport/dmd/Devices/Server/Linux/devices/' + device)
                node.renameDevice(shortName)

That almost worked, except I get an exception when the first device gets renamed:

firsthostname.mydomain.net
firsthostname
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in ?
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/xmlrpclib.py", line 1096, in __call__
    return self.__send(self.__name, args)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/xmlrpclib.py", line 1383, in __request
    verbose=self.__verbose
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/xmlrpclib.py", line 1137, in request
    headers
xmlrpclib.ProtocolError: <ProtocolError for
admin:zenoss@localhost:8080/zport/dmd/Devices/Server/Linux/devices/firsthostname.mydomain.net:
302 Moved Temporarily>

Seems it's confused when the object isn't there anymore, so I'll need to add some exception "handling" around the renameDevice:

#! /usr/bin/env python
from xmlrpclib import ServerProxy
ZenossURL = 'http://admin:zenoss@localhost:8080/'
deviceTree = ServerProxy(ZenossURL + 'zport/dmd/Devices/Server/Linux/devices/')
for device in deviceTree.objectIds():
        shortName = device.split('.')[0]
        if device != shortName :
                print device
                print shortName
                node = ServerProxy(ZenossURL + 'zport/dmd/Devices/Server/Linux/devices/' + device)
                try:
                        node.renameDevice(shortName)
                except Exception, reason:
                        print reason

Now all my Linux-devices has short names in zenoss.

Zenoss /Location based on SNMP syslocation

I wnt Zenoss to automatically organize my devices into the right location (/Locations/RoomX/RackY) based on the SNMPv2-MIB::sysLocation.0 setting. So I've defined that all hosts should follow a strict format for defining "syslocation" in /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf. The format should be "/Room/RackName" followed by a "space" and possibly the rack unit number.

        % grep syslocation /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf
        syslocation /Stavanger/BuildingX/Rack9 11

Then I can update the zenoss /Location automatically trough this script:

#! /usr/bin/env python
from xmlrpclib import ServerProxy
ZenossURL = 'http://admin:zenoss@localhost:8080/'
deviceTree = ServerProxy(ZenossURL + 'zport/dmd/Devices/Server/Linux/devices/')
for device in deviceTree.objectIds():
        node = ServerProxy(ZenossURL + 'zport/dmd/Devices/Server/Linux/devices/' + device)
        snmpLocation    = node.getProperty('snmpLocation')
        if snmpLocation[0] == '/':
                if snmpLocation.split()[0] != node.getLocationName() :
                        print "Updating " + device + ' to '+ snmpLocation.split()[0]
                        node.setLocation(snmpLocation.split()[0])
        else:
                if node.getLocationName() != '/Unknown' :
                        print 'Setting ' + device + ' to /Unknown'
                        node.setLocation('/Unknown')

All nodes with a snmpLocation string starting with "/" is put in the correct zenoss /Location, and other nodes are put in the /Unknown location.

Rack Slot

Next step is also getting the rack slot number from SNMPv2-MIB::sysLocation.0 into the zope property "rackSlot".

FIXME — Verify that it's an integer before adding:

node.setZenProperty('rackSlot',snmpLocation.split()[1])

FIXME — Pull out ascii-art drawings of all racks.

Setting HW vendor, HW type, serial numbers, etc. from enterprise mibs

Directly a'la http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.monitoring.zenoss.user/12642 or ?

FIXME

Adding custom properties

FIXME — Log bios version, used/unused DIMM slots and more in custom properties.