Monitor an ACI Fabric from your favorite Webex Room - ChatOps

A lightweight bot application to interact with the APIC from a Webex chat room

Use Case description

Monitor your Data Center with an user-friendly bot. This repository contains a Go-based web server, which listens to Webex webhooks notifications and interacts with the APIC REST API to retrieve information about the operational status of your ACI Fabric.

This application allows you to retrieve operational, topology, event/fault and endpoint information from the ACI Fabric by simply typing short and human-readable commands in a Webex room. These is the list of the currently supported commands by the aci-chatbot:

•	/cpu	->	Get APIC CPU Information 💾
•	/ep	->	Get APIC Endpoint Information 💻. Usage /ep [ep_mac] 
•	/events	->	Get Fabric latest events ❎.   Usage /events [user:opt] [count(1-10):opt] 
•	/faults	->	Get Fabric latest faults ⚠️. Usage /faults [count(1-10):opt] 
•	/help	->	Chatbot Help ❔
•	/info	->	Get Fabric Information ℹ️
•	/neigh	->	Get Fabric Topology Information 🔢. Usage /neigh [node_id] 
•	/websocket	->	Subscribe to Fabric events 📩

The bot takes advantage of the APIC REST API to query and filter information from the APIC Management Information Tree (MIT). Additionally, the /websocket command leverages the APIC WebSocket functionality, to get instant notifications once any instance of a defined MO/Class is created, modified or deleted.

Prerequisites

• Make sure to have Go 1.15+ or Docker installed on your computer/server

  • Install Go
  • Install Docker

• Login to your Webex account and create your own bot. Create Bot

  1. Give your bot details

     

  2. The generated token is your WEBEX_TOKEN

     

Installation

Execute ngrok (Optional)

The bot application must be hosted in a server reachable via the public internet because the webhooks are delivered from webex.com . For development and testing pursposes you could use ngrok to expose your server to the public internet. Ngrok will expose your application (Server IP & Port) over a secure tunnel.

• Install ngrok

Follow these instructions after installing ngrok:

• Start the ngrok service stating the port the bot server listens to. By default the application listens to the port 7001, however if you are using the docker container you must state here Docker host port.

    ./ngrok http <bot_port> --region=eu
  

ngrok by @inconshreveable    

Session Status                online
Session Expires               1 hour, 59 minutes
Version                       2.3.40
Region                        Europe (eu)
Web Interface                 http://127.0.0.1:7001
Forwarding                    http://2d6e-89-246-96-47.eu.ngrok.io -> http://localhost:7001
Forwarding                    https://2d6e-89-246-96-47.eu.ngrok.io -> http://localhost:7001
Connections                   ttl     opn     rt1     rt5     p50     p90
                              0       0       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00

• The generated HTTP url is your BOT_URL

NOTE:: The trial version of ngrok creates the secure tunnel only for 2 hours

Option 1: Build the code from source

• Set and source the environmental variables in env.sh

export WEBEX_TOKEN=YOUR-WEBEX-TOKEN-GOES-HERE
export BOT_URL=http://2258-173-38-220-34.eu.ngrok.io
export APIC_URL=https://sandboxapicdc.cisco.com/
export APIC_USERNAME=admin
export APIC_PASSWORD=admin

    source env.sh

• Execute the application

    go run main.go
  

NOTE:: The Go application listens to port 7001

Option 2: Execute the service as a Container

• Set the environmental variables in .env:

WEBEX_TOKEN=YOUR-WEBEX-TOKEN-GOES-HERE
BOT_URL=http://2258-173-38-220-34.eu.ngrok.io
APIC_URL=https://sandboxapicdc.cisco.com/
APIC_USERNAME=admin
APIC_PASSWORD=admin

• Run the application in a Docker container

       docker run --env-file .env -it -p <bot_port>:7001 jgomezve/aci-chatbot:latest
  

NOTE: In case you are using ngrok, <bot_port> is the same port used to start ngrok.

Usage

Either send a message directly to your bot or add it to a Webex Group

NOTE: Some commands do not work if the target APIC is a simulator

Use Case

•	/cpu	->	Get APIC CPU Information 💾
•	/ep	->	Get APIC Endpoint Information 💻. Usage /ep [ep_mac] 
•	/events	->	Get Fabric latest events ❎.   Usage /events [user:opt] [count(1-10):opt] 
•	/faults	->	Get Fabric latest faults ⚠️. Usage /faults [count(1-10):opt] 
•	/help	->	Chatbot Help ❔
•	/info	->	Get Fabric Information ℹ️
•	/neigh	->	Get Fabric Topology Information 🔢. Usage /neigh [node_id] 
•	/websocket	->	Subscribe to Fabric events 📩

•	/cpu	->	Get APIC CPU Information 💾
•	/ep	->	Get APIC Endpoint Information 💻. Usage /ep [ep_mac] 
•	/events	->	Get Fabric latest events ❎.   Usage /events [user:opt] [count(1-10):opt] 
•	/faults	->	Get Fabric latest faults ⚠️. Usage /faults [count(1-10):opt] 
•	/help	->	Chatbot Help ❔
•	/info	->	Get Fabric Information ℹ️
•	/neigh	->	Get Fabric Topology Information 🔢. Usage /neigh [node_id] 
•	/websocket	->	Subscribe to Fabric events 📩