Using Ruby with Zenoss - Part 2

This is the second installment of Using Ruby with Zenoss.  This posting will mainly focus on using the library.  If you have not read Part 1, I would strongly recommend going there first in order to make sure your environment is set up correctly.

In creating the Zenoss library for Ruby I have tried to keep the interface to the programmer fairly similar to the Python API.  It is somewhat simplified because the depth of modules and classes don't map one-for-one to a REST client world.  There is still much to be in its implementation, but here are a few examples of what you can do with the library today.

Requiring the gem

!!! You need to have at least version 0.0.4 of the gem installed. !!!

Make sure you add this to any of the following examples:

require 'rubygems' # if you're using gems
require 'zenoss'

Getting Started

You need to tell zenoss_client where to point and how to authenticate. To do that use the following code:

# Set the base uri that we talk to Zenoss with. Your host will
# be unique but the port will probably be 8080 unless you proxy
# it through 80.
Zenoss.uri 'https://:/zport/dmd/'

# Add the appropriate credentials
Zenoss.set_auth('user','pass')

Getting a list of devices

Now that we're set up we can get down to it. One of the primary things that I find myself doing is managing devices through the REST interface. You need a starting point so let's get the base Device class ( /zport/dmd/Devices ):

devices = Zenoss.devices

You can think of the 'Zenoss' object as a slimmed down equivalent of 'dmd' in the zendmd Python interface.

If you want to start at a DeviceClass deeper in the tree you can do so by passing the path to DeviceClass:

linux = Zenoss::Model::DeviceClass.new('/Devices/Server/Linux/')

Once you have your DeviceClass you can list the devices beneath it like so:

subdevs = linux.get_sub_devices

Device Info

Using the Device Array from the last step, we'll take the first device and get some information from it.

mydev = subdevs.first

# Get the status id
mydev.get_status

# Get the icon associated with this status
mydev.get_status_img_src(mydev.get_status)

# Get uptime
mydev.sys_uptime

# Fetch some RRD Values
dps = mydev.get_rrd_data_points
dsnames = []
dsnames << dps[1].name
dsnames << dps[2].name
mydev.get_rrd_values(dsnames)
# => {"laLoadInt1_laLoadInt1"=>"252.27000000000001", "laLoadInt15_laLoadInt15"=>"255.86000000000001"}

Systems

The library has basic support for Systems now. It's mainly just the ability to create and delete subsystems. More support is forthcoming.

# Fetch the base '/Systems' System
systems = Zenoss.systems

# Create a new subsystem
ltst = systems.add_subsystem('linuxtst')

# delete the newly created System
ltst.delete!

That's it, go play

That's a quick introduction to the Zenoss Ruby library. I'm adding new functionality all the time so check for updates often. The code is up on github at http://github.com/zenchild/zenoss_client so if you want to fork it and help out with development you're welcome to do so. If you're not interested in developing it but would like to see a feature added please comment below or open up a ticket on github and I'll get to it as time allows. I hope you find the library useful.

Addendum: The RDocs are available at http://rdoc.info/projects/zenchild/zenoss_client

Cheers,

Dan