Using the Infoblox API

Making use of map()

2008-06-18T15:48:00.005-07:00

The map() function (perldoc -f map) is a surprisingly useful and not well publicised function in perl. It "Evaluates the BLOCK or EXPR for each element of LIST (locally setting $_ to each element) and returns the list value composed of the results of each such evaluation."

So it is a shortcut method for things like :


    my @chars
    foreach my $_ ( @nums ) {
       push @chars , chr ;
    }

You can just use map to do the same thing


    @chars = map(chr, @nums);

Now, when you are working with all the methods and imbedded objects in the API, map is a very quick way to pull out the values you want :


    # get a list of all the DNS zones
    my @zones = $session->search(
            "object" => "Infoblox::DNS::Zone",
            "name" => ".*",
            "view" => $data{'view'},
    ) ;

    # get just the list of zone names
    my @names = map ( $_->name() , @zones ) ;

Getting members

2008-06-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

There are quite a few places that mention members :

Infoblox::DHCP::Member - DHCP Member object.
Infoblox::DNS::Member - DNS Member object
Infoblox::Grid::Member - Grid Member object.
Infoblox::Grid::Member::DHCP - DHCP member object.
Infoblox::Grid::Member::DNS - Grid Member DNS object.
Infoblox::Grid::Member::Interface - Interface member object.
Infoblox::Grid::Member::License - License object.
Infoblox::Grid::Member::OSPF - OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) member
Infoblox::Grid::Member::QIP - Enable Lucent VitalQIP on a member node.
Infoblox::Grid::Member::RADIUS - Manages the Remote Authentication
Infoblox::RADIUS::Member - RADIUS Member object.

So it can be confusing to work out where you get actual info about the GRID members. You should use this one :

Infoblox::Grid::Member - Grid Member object.

If you wanted to get all the members in the grid, try something like this :


# get all the members :
my @members =  $Session->search (
          "object" => "Infoblox::Grid::Member",
          "name"   => "Infoblox" ,
    )

# get a list of the ip addrs
foreach my $mem ( @members ) {
    my  $ip = $mem->ipv4addr();
    my $name = $mem->name();

    print "member : $ip , $name\n";

}

All the rest are just special references to menu items that appear in various places in the workflow, such as adding nameservers to a DNS zone, or setting the member for a DHCP range. These other objects are used so you can tell the server how to find the relevant information that relates to that component of the configuration.

Synopsis

2008-06-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

The Infoblox API doesn't have a Synopsis section, and a lot of users seem to have trouble getting a basic script built. Here are the essential components



          use Infoblox;

          # connect to the grid

          my $session = Infoblox::Session->new(
               "master" => "205.158.171.216",       # VIP address of master
               "username" => "admin",               # Username of valid account
               "password" => "infoblox" );          # Password for above 

          # create a reference to a member in the Grid

          my $member1ns = Infoblox::DNS::Member->new(
               "name" => "ns1.infoblox.com",
               "ipv4addr" => "10.128.64.6" );

          # create the zone, asisgned to a member

          my $zone = Infoblox::DNS::Zone->new(
               "name" => "test.com",
               "email" => "hostmaster\@infoblox.com",
               "primary" => $member1ns,
              );

          # add the zone

          $session->add( $zone ) or
               printf STDERR "Add Zone failure %d: %s\n",
                    $session->status_code(), $session->status_detail();