README.md

Commando is a tiny tool that enables users

• to collect command outputs from a single or a multiple networking devices defined in an inventory file
• send file-based or string-based configs towards the devices defined in the inventory file

all that with zero dependencies and a 1-click installation.

Install

Using the sudo-less installation script makes it easy to download pre-built binary to the current working directory under cmdo name:

# for linux and darwin OSes
bash -c "$(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hellt/cmdo/master/get.sh)"

Windows users are encouraged to use WSL, but if it is not possible, the .exe file can be found in Releases section.

Linux users can leverage pre-built deb/rpm packages that are also available in the Releases section. Either download the package manually, or set --use-pkg flag with the install script:

bash -c "$(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hellt/cmdo/master/get.sh)" -- --use-pkg

Quickstart

If you want to run commands against multiple devices at once:

1. Create an inventory file with the devices information. An example inventory.yml file lists three different platforms.
2. Run ./cmdo -i <path to inventory>; the tool will read the inventory file and output the results of the commands in the ./ output directory.

If you want to run commands against a single device:

1. Use the CLI flags to define the device and commands to send:
   -a <address> - IP/DNS name of the device
   -k <platform> - one of the supported platforms
   -u <username> -p <password> - SSH credentials
   -c <command1 :: command2 :: commandN> - a single or a list of ::-delimited commands
   an example command could be:
   cmdo -o stdout -a clab-scrapli-srlinux -u admin -p admin -k nokia_srlinux -c "show version :: show system aaa"

Inventory

As indicated in the quickstart, commando can run commands against many devices as opposed to the singe-device operation.

For the bulk mode the devices are expressed in the inventory file. The inventory file schema is simple, it consists of the following top-level elements:

credentials: # container for credentials
transports:  # optional container for transport options
devices:     # here the devices connection details are

Credentials

Commando let's you define many credential parameters which you can later associate with any of the devices. For example, a credential config for access switches might differ from the core routers.

credentials:
  # this is a named credential config that you can refer to in the devices settings
  switches:
    username: admin
    password: admin
  routers:
    username: ops
    password: secret123

devices:
  sw1:
    address: some.host.com
    # credentials info from credentials containers named 'switches' will be used
    credentials: switches
  rtr1:
    address: some.host2.com
    # credentials info from credentials containers named 'routers' will be used
    credentials: routers

If you create a credential named default, then you can omit specifying credentials in the device configuration, this will be applied by default:

credentials:
  default:
    username: admin
    password: admin

devices:
  sw1: # sw1 will use `default` credentials configuration
    address: some.host.com

Here is a full list of credentials configuration options:

credentials:
  <name>:
    username:
    password:
    secondary-password:
    private-key: # takes a path to the private key

Transports

Different transports can be defined in the inventory and mapped to the devices to support flexible connectivity options.

Transports are defined in the top level of the inventory:

transports:
  myssh:
    port: 5622

devices:
  sw1: # sw1 will use port 5622 for SSH connection
    address: some.host.com
    transport: myssh

If the transport is not defined for a given device, the default transport options are assumed:

• port 22
• no strict host key checking
• transport type - standard
• ssh config file is not used

Here is a full list of transport configuration options:

transports:
  <name>:
    port: # ssh port number to use
    strict-key: # true or false; sets host key checking
    transport-type: # `standard` or system. standard transport uses Go SSH client, `system` transport uses system's default SSH client (i.e. OpenSSH)
    ssh-config-file: # takes a path to ssh config file. Can only be used if transport is set to `system`

Devices

The network devices are defined under .devices element with each device identified by a <device-name>:

devices:
  <device1-name>:
  <device2-name>:
  <deviceN-name>:

Each device holds a number of options that define the device platform, its address, and the commands to send:

devices:
  <device1-name>:
    # platform is one of arista_eos, cisco_iosxe, cisco_nxos, cisco_iosxr,
    # juniper_junos, nokia_sros, nokia_sros_classic, nokia_srlinux
    platform: string 
    address: string
    credentials: string # optional reference to the defined credentials
    transport: string # optional reference to the defined transport options
    send-commands-from-file: /path/to/file/with/show-commands.txt
    send-commands:
      - cmd1
      - cmd2
      - cmdN
    send-configs-from-file: /path/to/file/with/config-commands.txt
    send-configs:
      - cmd1
      - cmdN
    cfg-operations:
      # Note: cfg operations currently supported only on: arista_eos, cisco_iosxe,
      # cisco_nxos, cisco_iosxr, juniper_junos
      - type: load-config
        replace: false
        diff: true
        commit: false
        # Note: there is also a "config-from-file" option to load configurations from a file
        config: "interface loopback1\ndescription tacocat"
      - type: get-config
        source: running

send-commands list holds a list of non-configuration commands which will be send towards a device. A non configuration command is a command that doesn't require to have a configuration mode enabled on a device. A typical example is a show <something> command.
Outputs from each command of a send-commands list will be saved/printed.

If you want to keep the commands in a separate file, then you can use send-commands-from-file element which takes a path to a said file. You can combine send-commands and send-commands-from-file in a single device.

In contrast with send-commands* options, it is possible to tell commando to send configuration commands. For that we have the following configuration elements:

• send-configs - takes a list of configuration commands and executes then without printing/saving any output the commands may return
• send-configs-from-file - does the same, but the commands are kept in a file.

Entering in the config mode is handled by commando, so your config commands doesn't need to have any conf t or configure private commands. Just remember to add the commit command if your device needs it.

The order these options are processed in:

1. "cfg" operations
2. send-configs-from-file
3. send-configs
4. send-commands-from-file
5. send-commands

Check out the attached example inventory file for reference.

Configuration options

• --inventory | -i <path> - sets the path to the inventory file
• --add-timestamp | -t - appends the timestamp to the outputs directory, which results in the output directory to be named like outputs_2021-06-02T15:08:00+02:00.
• --output | -o value - sets the output destination. Defaults to file which writes the results of the commands to the per-command files. If set to stdout, will print the commands to the terminal.
• --filter | -f 'pattern' - a filter to apply to device name to select the devices to which the commands will be sent. Can be a Go regular expression.

For the single-device operation mode the following flags must be used to define a device:

• --address | -a <ip/dns> - address of the device
• --platform | -k <platform> - one of the supported platform names
• --username | -u <string> - username
• --password | -p <string> - password
• --command | -c <command1 :: commandN> - list of commands to send, can be delimited with :: to provide a list of commands

Supported platforms

Commando leverages scrapligo project to support the major network platforms:

Network OS	Platform name
Arista EOS	arista_eos
Cisco XR/XE/NXOS	cisco_iosxr, cisco_iosxe, cisco_nxos
Juniper JunOS	juniper_junos
Nokia SR OS (MD-CLI and Classic)	nokia_sros, nokia_sros_classic

In addition to that list, commando has the ability to add community provided scrapli drivers, such as:

Network OS	Platform name
Nokia SR Linux	nokia_srlinux

Attributions

• Bullet icon is made by Smashicons from www.flaticon.com