Arista eAPI Driver Overview

The Arista eAPI is a REST api that allows commands to be executed on the device. The caller can choose to return the results in ‘plain text’ or as JSON data (ie “attribute = value” format)

Executing API commands is implemented in self._run_commands()

You can execute any “show” command, or any “config” command in this way.

We implement get_my_basic_info() and get_my_client_data() by running various ‘show’ commands via the REST API.

Commands are execute are:

get_my_basic_info()

The commands below are returned in JSON format, and parsed as needed. See around line 91.

show version    # get various system information.

show vlan

show interfaces             # get the interfaces on the device, and their settings.

show interfaces switchport  # get the layer-2 configuration of interfaces (vlans).

show interfaces transceiver properties      # get optical transceiver info.

show port-channel           # info any any port-channels that may be configured.

show vrf                    # any VRFs that may be configured.

get_my_client_data()

The commands below are returned in JSON format, and parsed as needed. See around line 345.

show mac address-table          # the layer-2 switching table

show arp vrf all                # IP-to-Mac info on all VRFs defined.

show ipv6 neighbors vrf all     # IPv6-to-Mac info on all VRFs defined.

show lldp neighbors detail      # neighbor device info.

Making Changes

To make changes, we send the following “config” commands via the eAPI.

Commands are wrapped with the following

configure terminal
<commands sent>
end

Enable/Disable Interface:

interfaces {name}
(no) shutdown

Enable/Disable Interface PoE:

Not supported yet! (no test device :-) )

Set Interface Description:

interface {name}
description <new description>

Clear Interface Description:

interfaces {name}
no description

Change Interface Vlan - access mode:

interface {name}
switchport access vlan {new_vlan_id}

Change Interface Vlan - trunk mode:

interface name
switchport trunk native vlan {new_vlan_id}

Set Untagged and 802.1q-tagged vlans

If interface is set in “access” mode:

interface {name}
switchport mode access
switchport access vlan {untagged_vlan}
no switchport trunk native vlan       # not needed, added for config clarity!
no switchport trunk allowed vlan

or if interface is set to “802.1q-tagged” mode:

interface {name}
switchport mode trunk
no switchport access vlan       # not needed, added for config clarity!
switchport trunk native vlan {untagged_vlan}

If “Allow All is set, we added

switchport trunk allow vlan all

Else we add the list of allowed vlans:

switchport trunk allowed vlan none        # clear all tagged vlans
switch trunk allowed vlan add x, y, z     # add vlans allowed.

VLAN Edit/Delete

To create a new vlan:

vlan {vlan_id}
name {vlan_name}

To rename a vlan:

vlan {vlan_id}
'name {vlan_name}' or 'no name'

To delete a vlan:

no vlans {vlan_id}