Setting vShield Edge Device Syslog via API

If you need to update your vSE devices to send traffic to a syslog server then you might be slightly disappointed to see that there are no instructions in the vCNS API guide to do this, especially if you have a bunch of edges. I experienced this same feeling today and am happy to say that now you don’t have to. Below are a quick couple scripts that will allow you to update single edges or a whole bunch at once using curl!

1. First off we need to get a list of our edge devices from the vCNS Manager. We will be using the edgeID acquired here to configure the syslog settings in a minute.

2. This list is a bit too much for our use so I’m going to parse it down to just the edgeID of all the devices.

3. But I’m going to add them all to a text file (edges_test.txt) that I can parse later (code below):

curl -k -H "Authorization: Basic XXXXXXXXXXXXX" -X GET https://vsm.sub.domain.com/api/3.0/edges | xmllint --format - | grep "<id>edge-[0-9]*" | sed -n 's/<id>//p' | sed -n 's/<\/id>//p' > edges_test.txt

Now you have to make a decision, modify individual edges or all of them?

a. Let’s just edit one (MAKE SURE to set the edgeID in the below statement):

curl -k -H "Authorization: Basic XXXXXXXXXXXXX" -H "Content-Type: application/xml" -d '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><syslog><enabled>true</enabled><protocol>udp</protocol><serverAddresses><ipAddress>XX.XX.XX.XX</ipAddress></serverAddresses></syslog>' -X PUT https://vsm.sub.domain.com/api/3.0/edges/edge-282/syslog/config

b. Let’s edit them all! For this one I have a simple bash script that loops through the text file with all the edge devices and runs the curl statement against them.

Here’s the script:

while read edge; do
echo "Beginning Update on $edge"
curl -k -H "Authorization: Basic XXXXXXXXXXXXX" -H "Content-Type: application/xml" -d '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><syslog><enabled>true</enabled><protocol>udp</protocol><serverAddresses><ipAddress>XX.XX.XX.XX</ipAddress></serverAddresses></syslog>' -X PUT https://vsm.sub.domain.com/api/3.0/edges/$edge/syslog/config
echo "Ending Update on $edge"
sleep 5s
done < edges_test.txt

Really simple but very effective!

Now all that is left is to verify the results:

curl -k -H "Authorization: Basic XXXXXXXXXXXXX" -X GET https://vsm.sub.domain.com/api/3.0/edges/edge-282/syslog/config | xmllint --format -

Have fun not having to use the UI :)