Using Python to talk to Archiware P5’s CLI API

import sys
import os
import time
import hashlib
import subprocess
 
###########################
# user configurable stuff #
###########################
 
#where is p5 installed?
p5_path = '/usr/local/aw'
 
#ip of p5 server
p5_ip = 'p5demo'
 
#user of p5 server - should be root or user allowed to use P5.  More info here at the url below
# http://portal.archiware.com/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/46/0/user-access-rights-in-presstore
p5_user = 'root'
 
#p5 user password
p5_pass = 'password'
 
#p5 server public port - note this is NOT the port of the local nsd instance, otherwise we could sniff it
p5_port = '8000'
 
###########################
# end configurable stuff  #
###########################
 
#derive the nsdchat path
nsdchat = p5_path + '/bin/nsdchat'
 
# derive the API port
api_port = str(int(p5_port) + 1001)
 
#generate a random session ID - only want to do this once per startup of your app
#I used MD5 here and hashed the date the script started, but you could use whatever you want.  You could even
#use a fixed value as only this application will use that session ID
 
session_id = (hashlib.sha224(str(time.time()))).hexdigest()
 
#build our command prefix so we don't have to keep typing stuff
sock = 'awsock:/' + p5_user + ":" + p5_pass + ":" + session_id + "@" + p5_ip + ":" + api_port
 
#build a simple list we can pass our process interpreter to make life easier
#we can just append our classes/methods now to this
cmd = [nsdchat,'-s',sock,'-c']
 
#make calls easier to make - it will always return a list even if only one element is in there.
#it will print out what it sent via the CLI and return the result. Pass it our cmd from above
#as argument 1 and the class/methods/args we need as a list in arg 2 in a list
def p5_api_call(p5_command_prefix, p5_call):
	#build our call
	new_command = p5_command_prefix + p5_call
	#just print it out so it is easy to see what is going on
	print ' '.join(new_command) 
	#run the call and wait until the process completes
	p = subprocess.Popen(new_command,stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
	p.wait()
	#grab stdout and stderr
	output,error = p.communicate()
	#return stdout formatted as a list.  This isn't 100% perfect, some results are pure text so
	return output
 
# a few quick examples.  To run geterror, sniff your response for expected error based on API
# normally this is an empty line that strips out to nothing in a list (assuming your are building
# lists), but sometimes it isn't.  
#
print p5_api_call(cmd,['ArchivePlan','names']).rstrip().split(' ')
 
# if you know a result never will be more than a single element, you could get rid of the split
print p5_api_call(cmd,['srvinfo','port']).rstrip()
 
# if you want to trap for an error, take a look at your output and filter for expected results
# then you can get the error running the 'geterror' method immediately after an error condition
 
if p5_api_call(cmd,['Volume','1234','mediatype']).rstrip().split(' ')[0] == '':
	print p5_api_call(cmd,['geterror'])
else:
	print
 
# an example of a full archive job - you'll want to error trap all of this
# but for examples we'll just assume everything works
#
# first we need to create an archive selection
my_selection = p5_api_call(cmd,['ArchiveSelection','create','localhost','10001']).rstrip()
print my_selection
 
# then we need to add entries to the selection.  Normally this will be a list of files
# it is important to note that this absolute path to the file on the P5 server, so if there is path
# mapping that has to happen, you'll need to do that before passing the files
# 
# you will also want to check if a file does not return a handle as that means it won't be archived
 
my_file_list = ['/tmp/AlTest1.err','/tmp/AlTest1.out'] #fill this in with real files
my_handles = []
for file in my_file_list:
	this_handle = p5_api_call(cmd,['ArchiveSelection',my_selection,'addentry',file]).rstrip()
	my_handles.append(this_handle)
 
print my_handles # these are all the unique ids of the items that P5 will use in its index
 
 
my_job = p5_api_call(cmd,['ArchiveSelection','submit','now']).rstrip()
print my_job # this is the job that was just submitted
 
my_status = p5_api_call(cmd,['Job',my_job,'status']
print my_status # get back running status of a submitted job