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Retrieving Device JSON File

This page describes how you can retrieve JSON files for a device from IP Fabric to be consumed outside the platform.

Overview

The JSON file contains all the information about a device after IP Fabric has parsed the command outputs found in the log file and normalized the data. This data can be easily consumed by external automation for further processing.

Example device file
{
    "attemptCount": 1,
    "errorReasonsList": [],
    "ip": "10.35.254.1",
    "isLoggedIn": true,
    "timestamp": 1724882430,
    "tryDeviceAgain": false,
    "vCollectId": "vCollect/a9c6ca82-0e7d-4cc8-9cbd-b8b43a1b3051",
    "versionDetail": {
        "vendor": "cisco",
        "family": "ios",
        "platform": "i86bi_linux",
        "model": "",
        "featureSet": "adventerprisek9",
        "major": "15",
        "minor": "5",
        "maintenance": "2",
        "train": "t",
        "alpha": "",
        "rebuild": "",
        "devTypeList": [],
        "version": "15.5(2)T"
    },
    "vTaskId": "vTask/0b597d69-1d38-4967-b711-3665da27258d",
    "status": "ok",
    "logFile": "/home/autoboss/snapshots/a9c6ca82-0e7d-4cc8-9cbd-b8b43a1b3051/cli/10.35.254.1/2024-08-28T22:00:30.389Z_discovery_telnet.gz",
    "credentialsId": "cb99c0e9-8d5f-4d94-a5a6-d72059f136d2",
    "sn": {
        "sn": "a15ff97",
        "snHw": "a15ff97"
    },
    "arp": [{
            "ip": "10.21.151.151",
            "mac": "0021.81ca.79cf",
            "intL3Name": "Et0/1",
            "ipLong": 169187223,
            "ouiEnabled": false
        },
        ...

Using API and Bash

Do this in three stages:

  1. Send a POST to /tables/inventory/devices with a request body like:

    {
  "columns": ["hostname", "sn"],
  "snapshot": "$last"
}

    You can (and probably would) filter that list (for example, for a specific device with the hostname SWITCH01) by including a key:value pair:

    "filters": {
  "hostname": ["eq","SWITCH01"]
}

    This provides you with the IP Fabric Unique Serial Number sn for the discovery of the device in question. Please note the _meta['snapshot'] value in the response as you are required to use the UUID and not a snapshot reference ($last).

  2. Convert the sn value to a URL safe base64 encoded value:

    > echo "SERIAL_NUMBER" | base64 | tr '/+' '_-' | tr -d '='
U0VSSUFMX05VTUJFUgo

  3. Send a GET to /api/v#.#/snapshots/<SNAPSHOT_ID>/devices/XXXXXXXXXXXXX/json, where XXXXXXXXXXXXX is the base64 encoded value (U0VSSUFMX05VTUJFUgo) returned in step 2 for the required network device. The SNAPSHOT_ID must be the actual snapshot UUID (located in the _meta of the returned data in step 1) and not a snapshot reference ID. This returns the JSON device data for that device discovery.

Using the Python SDK

Using the python-ipfabric Python SDK this has been simplified to the following (requires ipfabric>=v6.9.5).

from ipfabric import IPFClient

ipf = IPFClient()
device = ipf.devices.by_sn['DEVICE_SERIAL_NUMBER']
json_log = device.get_json()