ConfPlate is a configuration file generator. After doing some configurations over and over again I got bored and built this script. Boring tasks often lead to mistakes in configurations which you want to avoid I assume.

The script is requires Python3 and uses Jinja2 as template language.

Notes

• Original author has archived their copy and moved onto bigger and better things.
• This fork has been updated as follows
  • now works with python3 (and requires it)
  • --force mode works with csv input
  • added ability to filter csv data by two fields
  • ability to use regex in filters
  • jinja2 ip address filters (j2ipaddr)
  • with much less elegant code (use at your own peril)!

Design goals

• Code should run on Linux, OSX, Windows
• Simplicity (Just generate configs from a template. No querying of other devices via SNMP for input, yadayada...)
• Userfriendly command line interface
• Make it easy to create UIs on top of the main code base

Setup (in a venv)

git clone https://github.com/NoifP/confplate.git
cd confplate/confplate
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install -r ../requirements.txt

Usage Examples

Example template cat3560.txt:

hostname {{HOSTNAME|lower}}
!
ip domain name {{DOMAINNAME}}
!
interface range FastEthernet0/1 - 24
 swtichport mode access
 switchport access vlan {{ACCESS_VLAN}}
 switchport nonegotiate
 no shut
!
interface {{MGMT_IFACE}}
 ip address {{MGMT_IFACE_IP}} {{MGMT_IFACE_NM}}
!
ip default-gateway {{MGMT_DEFAULT_GW}}

This template makes use of Jinja2 filters in the HOSTNAME variable. The value for the hostname variable will always be converted to lower case.

Get a list of variables used in a template

$ ./confplate.py -l examples/cat3560.txt 
 
Variables used in template cat3560.txt

	ACCESS_VLAN
	DOMAINNAME
	HOSTNAME
	MGMT_DEFAULT_GW
	MGMT_IFACE
	MGMT_IFACE_IP
	MGMT_IFACE_NM

Interactive mode

Will prompt you for every variable used in the template

$ ./confplate.py examples/cat3560.txt
ACCESS_VLAN: 23
DOMAINNAME: lab.verbosemo.de
HOSTNAME: brewery-sw010
MGMT_IFACE: Vlan200
MGMT_IFACE_IP: 10.33.200.10
MGMT_IFACE_NM: 255.255.255.0
MGMT_DEFAULT_GW: 10.33.200.1

Variables as arguments

Set all variable values as arguments on the command line

./confplate.py examples/cat3560.txt ACCESS_VLAN=23 DOMAINNAME=lab.verbosemo.de HOSTNAME=brewery-sw010 MGMT_IFACE=Vlan200 MGMT_IFACE_IP=10.33.200.10 MGMT_IFACE_NM=255.255.255.0 MGMT_DEFAULT_GW=10.33.200.1

Bulk configuration

• Variable values read from CSV file
• Creates config per line in CSV file

new-subnets.csv

VLAN_ID,VLAN_NAME,IP,NM,HSRP_IP,IP_HELPER
40,Floor1,192.168.40.2,255.255.255.0,192.168.40.1,192.168.100.100
50,Floor2,192.168.50.2,255.255.255.0,192.168.50.1,192.168.100.100
60,Floor3,192.168.60.2,255.255.255.0,192.168.60.1,192.168.100.100

new-subnets.txt

vlan {{VLAN_ID}}
 name {{VLAN_NAME}}
!
interface Vlan{{VLAN_ID}}
 ip address {{IP}} {{NM}}
 ip ospf 1 area 0.0.0.0
 ip ospf passive-interface
 ip helper-address {{IP_HELPER}}

Use new-subnets.csv as input and create a config per line

$ ./confplate.py -i examples/new-subnets.csv examples/new-subnets.txt 
vlan 40
 name Floor1
!
interface Vlan40
 ip address 192.168.40.2 255.255.255.0
 ip ospf 1 area 0.0.0.0
 ip ospf passive-interface
 ip helper-address 192.168.100.100

vlan 50
 name Floor2
!
interface Vlan50
 ip address 192.168.50.2 255.255.255.0
 ip ospf 1 area 0.0.0.0
 ip ospf passive-interface
 ip helper-address 192.168.100.100

vlan 60
 name Floor3
!
interface Vlan60
 ip address 192.168.60.2 255.255.255.0
 ip ospf 1 area 0.0.0.0
 ip ospf passive-interface
 ip helper-address 192.168.100.100

Generate a CSV header from an existing template. This should make generating a CSV header in your favourite spreadsheet application manually unnecessary

$ ./confplate.py --generate-csv-header examples/cat3560.txt
ACCESS_VLAN,DOMAINNAME,HOSTNAME,MGMT_DEFAULT_GW,MGMT_IFACE,MGMT_IFACE_IP,MGMT_IFACE_NM

$ ./confplate.py --generate-csv-header examples/cat3560.txt > /tmp/cat3560.csv

$ ./confplate.py -g -F ";" examples/cat3560.txt 
ACCESS_VLAN;DOMAINNAME;HOSTNAME;MGMT_DEFAULT_GW;MGMT_IFACE;MGMT_IFACE_IP;MGMT_IFACE_NM

CSV Filters

Filter CSV data based on a value in one of the fields. Field must match specified value. Example filters csv to only render output for Floor2.

$ ./confplate.py -i examples/new-subnets.csv --ff VLAN_NAME --fv Floor2 examples/new-subnets.txt 
vlan 50
 name Floor2
!
interface Vlan50
 ip address 192.168.50.2 255.255.255.0
 ip ospf 1 area 0.0.0.0
 ip ospf passive-interface
 ip helper-address 192.168.100.100

IP Address Filters

Convert network masks, CIDRs and other fun stuff thanks to j2ipaddr

$ ./confplate-ipfilters.py ../examples/ip-filters.j2
ipaddress: 10.11.12.13/24
ipaddress should be a CIDR IP address or an IP address with a subnet mask (and no spaces).
e.g. 192.168.1.5/24 or 192.168.1.5 255.255.255.0

IP Address: 10.11.12.13
Network Address: 10.11.12.0
Broadcast Address: 10.11.12.255
Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
Prefix Length: 24
Wildcard Mask: 0.0.0.255
Network Size: 256
First Usable IP Address: 10.11.12.1
Last Usable IP Address: 10.11.12.254

Feedback, bug reports and patches are welcome.

Links

• https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/stable/
• https://github.com/baldoarturo/j2ipaddr