Control Ethernet switch from script using SSH

Hi All!

We have Ethernet switch with SSH and web interface. We want control it
and want to do this from script (we have database with allowed MACs and
want to sync switch list according to database). We tried to do this
directly from PHP using ssh2 extension but with no luck (ssh2_shell and
ssh2_exec fails). We don't want to use web interface because of security
problems, speed and complexity. So for current moment we try to find any
way to program switch. Is here any possibility to do this using Linux
utilites? (Yes, I know about security flaw with switch password if it
will be written in script).

P.S. If I select wrong group to ask please point me right direction.

2007-07-15, 12:10(+03), Alexey Kulentsov:
[...]
> We have Ethernet switch with SSH and web interface. We want control it
> and want to do this from script (we have database with allowed MACs and
> want to sync switch list according to database). We tried to do this
> directly from PHP using ssh2 extension but with no luck (ssh2_shell and
> ssh2_exec fails). We don't want to use web interface because of security
> problems, speed and complexity. So for current moment we try to find any
> way to program switch. Is here any possibility to do this using Linux
> utilites? (Yes, I know about security flaw with switch password if it
> will be written in script).
[...]

You can always use expect or perl's Expect module. But if your
switch offers an ssh interface, I'd be surprised if doesn't
provide with an interface to do things more automatically. SNMP
perhaps?

--
Stéphane

"Stephane CHAZELAS" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) lid...
> 2007-07-15, 12:10(+03), Alexey Kulentsov:
> [...]
>> We have Ethernet switch with SSH and web interface. We want control it
>> and want to do this from script (we have database with allowed MACs and
>> want to sync switch list according to database). We tried to do this
>> directly from PHP using ssh2 extension but with no luck (ssh2_shell and
>> ssh2_exec fails). We don't want to use web interface because of security
>> problems, speed and complexity. So for current moment we try to find any
>> way to program switch. Is here any possibility to do this using Linux
>> utilites? (Yes, I know about security flaw with switch password if it
>> will be written in script).
> [...]
>
> You can always use expect or perl's Expect module. But if your
> switch offers an ssh interface, I'd be surprised if doesn't
> provide with an interface to do things more automatically. SNMP
> perhaps?
>
> --
> Stéphane

Similarly there's an expect module for Python -
http://pexpect.sourceforge.net/

Bernie wrote:

>> [...]
>>
>> You can always use expect or perl's Expect module. But if your
>> switch offers an ssh interface, I'd be surprised if doesn't
>> provide with an interface to do things more automatically. SNMP
>> perhaps?
>>
>> --
>> Stéphane
>
> Similarly there's an expect module for Python -
> http://pexpect.sourceforge.net/
>

Thanks all! Expect is not that I expect but this is the way, we will
test it. It's like DOS times when I fill keyboard buffer and call
Turbo-Basic in my batch compile utility.
About SMNP: we don't sure about SNMP security so don't want to use it.