Request Poller Get Started Help

[aascedu]

Hello,

I come here to ask for a bit of help. Validity pollers have come to attention at work since we have an endpoint which serves us devices config. To explain more in detail, we have a sort of poller of our own, which when we access https://get.config.exemple.com/device1, will display a plain text page with the config of the device requested.

Now since we only have to do a GET request to the endpoint to get the config, I think what suits us the best are custom pollers. Am I right ?
Since there is no CLI Command to connect to anything, I was wondering if I could create a Custom Poller without a command.
It would be a Custom Poller that would only make a request to the endpoint and return the string it got.
Would that be possible ?

Also this issue : #151 might be linked to my idea.

Also I read the doc for Custom Poller and there is no info on where the custom poller file should be located ? I am using Netbox Docker and as I am a beginner in Python/Django, could you help me locate a suitable location for my files to be stored at ?

Thanks a lot for what you do !
Arthur

[amyasnikov]

Hey @aascedu, let's break it down:

1. Although there are no "cli commands" in your case, you still need Command instance(s). "Poller" entity describes some sort of communication protocol between Validity and some remote machine. It might be SHH (+ ssh parameters like username, password, etc), but might be HTTP as well (+ HTTP params like API key and so on). So, Poller entity describes this protocol, but it does not describe what exactly we are gonna request from the remote end. Here is why Command is coming to the scene.
2. Command describes WHAT you want to get from a remote end. Especially for your case Validity has JSON API command type. It has all the params you need: URL, Http Method, headers and so on.
3. If I get you right, you don't necessary need custom pollers. You can use built-in requests poller. All you have to do is just set the right url param. For example like that

{
    "url": "https://get.config.exemple.com)/{{device.name}}"
}

In this example particular command URLs do no participate in the final URL expression, so you can leave any arbitrary value inside URL param of the command.

[aascedu]

OK thanks @amyasnikov for your answer, that clarifies a bit how we should use these.

So I should create a command like so :

A poller like so :

And then how do I actually get the config ? Using a datasource "device polling" ? like so :

The problem is I don't understand the custom field Device Command Path and I am pretty sure it is linked with my poller
When I go to a device Serialized State I get this :

[amyasnikov]

Device Command Path is the path for a data file inside a data source corresponding to a (particular device + particular command).
In MOST cases it should be leaved as is.
For instance, if you have device name "mydevice" and a command with label "mycmd", Device Command Path will point to mydevice/mycmd.txt. This path pattern matches with the data file paths used by polling machinery.

[aascedu]

OK. So with how I did my poller and command, I should be able to get a conf text file and then my serializer able to parse it ?
Because I still get the error "Cannot render state item. There is no bound Data File for 'config'." when trying to look at the serialized state of a device that should be polled !

[amyasnikov]

You should start with the info provided by the error: "no bound data file". Does this file really exist inside a data source?

[aascedu]

That’s where I don’t get what I should do, I have used data sources with Validity, (both Git, Local sources) but I thought that polymers where different in the way that they would get the config and replace the file from the data sources or create one I guess ? Am I wrong ? Am I completely wrong ?

…

On Tue 18 Feb 2025 at 16:08, Anton ***@***.***> wrote: You should start with the info provided by the error: "no bound data file". Does this file really exist inside a data source? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#152 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A2DITZCEU2EVNX7D7JJWUVL2QNED5AVCNFSM6AAAAABXI4XSCOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTEMRTHAYTMMI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[amyasnikov]

Your configs are the files (Data File instances) inside "Validity Polling" data source. You should go there (to Validity Polling data source page) and check out these files.
When the configs exist as data files inside a data source, only then you can bind them to particular devices.
So in your case the file either does not exist or has wrong name (not matched with device_command_path pattern).

If device_config_path is defined, it overrides device_command_path (in most cases you don't need device_config_path for Validity Polling)

[aascedu]

As you can see, there are no files in the datasource... I don't understand how to do the action of polling.
I have configured a Poller, a Command, bound it to devices, but it doesn't "pull" the config. I don't see a "sync" button like on the other data source.
I think I got something wrong but I can't figure it out and I am a bit lost

Thank you again for your help, it is much appreciated Anton!

[amyasnikov]

Don't you have this "Sync" button like on my screen?

[aascedu]

Well, all this trouble to make me realize I was using LDAP logging so my account didn't have the permission to Sync datasources...
So I successfuly requested my endpoint.
I have now got to the point where I knew I would have trouble, the Kerberos authentication.
Let's me show you how I would do if I was using cURL to reach the endpoint:

As you can see, if I don't use --negotiate, my request is unauthorized. I think the only way to handle this is in the header of the request. Which is not possible in command/poller right ? Do you have a clue to make it work ?

[amyasnikov]

Yep, in this case you have to proceed with custom poller (and wait till #151 is fixed)