Scripting Infix¶

In some situations a user cannot, or does not want to, use the NETCONF API for interacting with Infix. Examples include production tasks and simpler remote scripting jobs to one or more remote devices.

This document assumes you have the password for the admin user, and that you can connect to the device. Please see Finding my Device for help on locating it.

Furthermore, the example commands shown here that are execute from a PC to a remote device over SSH, use Linux/UNIX. With advances lately in both Windows and macOS, many of the user friendly tools previously only available in Linux are now available there too.

The shell prompt for the PC laptop side:

~$

The shell prompt when logged in to an Infix device:

admin@example:~$

Note

The shell script commands used here are the raw variants which the CLI usually wraps in a warm and snugly blanket. Meaning they may change over time, while the CLI wrappers do not. That being said, please let us know if you find any inconsistencies.

Tips¶

Ensure the admin user does not have clish as login shell
Enable SSH key authentication
Deploy same SSH public key to many Infix devices
Secure your private SSH key using, e.g., ssh-agent

The ssh-keygen command, used to create the private/public key pair, asks for a passphrase and although this is technically optional it is highly recommended to set one. For ease of use, in particular when scripting, use ssh-agent to avoid retyping the passphrase for every command.

Useful links on SSH, keys, and using ssh-agent:

Admin User Not Authorized¶

All system services and critical configuration files are owned by the locked-down root user. It is not possible to activate the root user account for remote logins. Instead, use admin user and the sudo command prefix.

Here we are logged in to an example device:

admin@example:~$ cp /cfg/startup-config.cfg /cfg/backup-config.cfg
cp: can't create '/cfg/backup-config.cfg': Permission denied
admin@example:~$ sudo cp /cfg/startup-config.cfg /cfg/backup-config.cfg

Examples¶

The following example commands are run from the PC over SSH. The following is a very brief introduction.

The notation is ssh username@address, where address can be an IPv4 or IPv6 address, a DNS name, or an mDNS name, e.g. infix.local. In the case of IPv6: address%interface, where interface differs between operating systems. On Linux and macOS the interface name is used, but on Windows the interface index¹ is used.

Logging in to a device¶

~$ ssh admin@fe80::ff:fe00:0%eth0
The authenticity of host 'fe80::ff:fe00:0%eth0 (fe80::ff:fe00:0%eth0)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:5/9mw64jhmYyD8MD+SwrsG3RXMBbP48pDe2T8bg14RQ.
This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'fe80::ff:fe00:0%eth0' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
admin@fe80::ff:fe00:0%eth0's password: *****
.-------.
|  . .  | Infix OS — Immutable.Friendly.Secure
|-. v .-| https://kernelkit.org
'-'---'-'

Run the command 'cli' for interactive OAM

admin@infix-c0-ff-ee:/>

Running a remote command¶

~$ ssh admin@fe80::ff:fe00:0%eth0 echo hej
admin@fe80::ff:fe00:0%eth0's password: *****
hej

Made Easy with mDNS¶

Connecting to networked devices using IP addresses is the way many people are used to. The above example with IPv6 tend to scare off people, so for the rest of this document we'll use the mDNS name instead:

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%eth0
The authenticity of host 'infix.local%eth0' can't be established.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
...
admin@infix:/>

Factory Reset¶

The command option -y disables any "are you sure?" interaction and immediately triggers a factory reset and reboot of the device. It is when the device boots up it erases all writable storage.

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%eth0 factory -y
admin@infix.local%eth0's password: *****

System Reboot¶

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%eth0 reboot
admin@infix.local%eth0's password: *****

Set Date and Time¶

Devices running Infix may have their system time completely off and this can cause problems for upgrading and when accessing the web interface over HTTPS (certificate validation looks at start and end dates).

To set the device's system time, and sync that with the RTC: use the PCs current time as argument:

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%eth0 "sudo date -s '2024-03-20 18:14+01:00' && \
                               sudo hwclock -w -u"
admin@infix.local%eth0's password: *****

Tip

The -u option ensures saving system time to the RTC in UTC time.

Verify that the change took:

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%eth0 date
admin@infix.local%eth0's password: *****
Wed Mar 20 17:14:47 UTC 2024

Remote Control of Ethernet Ports¶

There are two ways to do it:

Change the configuration without saving it to startup-config
Change the operational state

The first involves sending a NETCONF command/config in XML. The second we will cover here. We start by querying available interfaces (ports) on the remote system:

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%qtap0 ip -br a
admin@infix.local%qtap0's password:
lo               UP             127.0.0.1/8 ::1/128
e0               UP             fe80::ff:fe00:0/64
e1               UP
e2               UP
e3               UP
e4               UP
e5               UP             fe80::ff:fe00:5/64
e6               UP             fe80::ff:fe00:6/64
e7               UP             fe80::ff:fe00:7/64
e8               UP             fe80::ff:fe00:8/64
e9               UP             192.168.2.200/24 fe80::ff:fe00:9/64
br0              UP

Here we see a loopback interface (lo), ten Ethernet ports (e0-e9) and a bridge (br0). From this quick glance we can guess that the ports e1-e4 are bridged (you can verify this with the remote command bridge link) because they do not have a link-local IPv6 address.

I know it's port e6 that I want to take down:

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%qtap0 ip link set e6 down
admin@infix.local%qtap0's password:
RTNETLINK answers: Operation not permitted
~$ ssh admin@infix.local%qtap0 sudo ip link set e6 down
admin@infix.local%qtap0's password:

Changing the operational link state of a port is a privileged command, so we have to prefix our command with sudo.

Inspecting the link state again show the port is now down:

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%qtap0 ip -br a
admin@infix.local%qtap0's password:
lo               UP             127.0.0.1/8 ::1/128
e0               UP             fe80::ff:fe00:0/64
e1               UP
e2               UP
e3               UP
e4               UP
e5               UP             fe80::ff:fe00:5/64
e6               DOWN
e7               UP             fe80::ff:fe00:7/64
e8               UP             fe80::ff:fe00:8/64
e9               UP             192.168.2.200/24 fe80::ff:fe00:9/64
br0              UP

Check Network Connectivity¶

Say you want to perform a [System Upgrade][#system-upgrade] and it just does not work, a good place to start troubleshooting is ensuring the device can actually reach the upgrade server.

We run the following ping command remotely on the device:

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%eth0 ping -c 3 server.local
admin@infix.local%qtap0's password: *****
PING server.local (192.168.2.42) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from server.local: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.201 ms
64 bytes from server.local: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.432 ms
64 bytes from server.local: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.427 ms

--- server.local ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2050ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.201/0.353/0.432/0.107 ms

Here we get a reply, so whatever is the issue with the upgrade was not hiding behind a connectivity issue at least.

System Upgrade¶

The underlying software that handles upgrades is called RAUC. To trigger an upgrade you (currently) need an FTP/TFTP or HTTP/HTTPS server where RAUC can fetch the upgrade from. In this example we use an FTP server to upgrade the currently inactive "slot":

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%eth0 rauc install ftp://server.local/infix-aarch64-24.06.0.pkg
admin@infix.local%eth0's password: *****
installing
  0% Installing
  0% Determining slot states
 20% Determining slot states done.
 20% Checking bundle
 20% Verifying signature
 40% Verifying signature done.
 40% Checking bundle done.
 40% Checking manifest contents
 60% Checking manifest contents done.
 60% Determining target install group
 80% Determining target install group done.
 80% Updating slots
 80% Checking slot rootfs.1
 90% Checking slot rootfs.1 done.
 90% Copying image to rootfs.1
 99% Copying image to rootfs.1 done.
 99% Updating slots done.
100% Installing done.
idle
Installing `ftp://server.local/infix-aarch64-24.06.0.pkg` succeeded
~$

The inactive slot is now marked active and will be used on the next boot. To upgrade the partition we booted from, we must first reboot.

For more information, see the Boot Procedure document.

Alternative:

If you know your device has sufficient storage, eMMC or RAM disk (check with the remote command df -h), you can also copy the .pkg file to the device instead of having to set up an FTP/TFTP or HTTP/HTTPS server.

Create an upload directory where admin has write permission:

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%eth0 "sudo mkdir /var/tmp/upload; \
                               sudo chown admin /var/tmp/upload"
admin@infix.local%eth0's password:

Copy the file with secure copy, first we show the nasty IPv6 version of the command:

~$ scp infix-aarch64-24.06.0.pkg admin@\[fe80::ff:fe00:0%eth0\]:/var/tmp/upload/
admin@fe80::ff:fe00:0%eth0's password:
infix-aarch64-24.06.0.pkg                              100%  296   601.4KB/s   00:00

And the upgrade command itself:

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%eth0 rauc install /var/tmp/upload/infix-aarch64-24.06.0.pkg
admin@infix.local%eth0's password: *****
.
.
.

Remember to remove the file from the upload directory when you are done, this can be done before or after the reboot to activate the upgrade. If you want to upgrade both "slots", then you can of course keep the file until you are done (provided the upload directory was created on persistent storage).

~$ ssh admin@infix.local%eth0 rm /var/tmp/upload/infix-aarch64-24.06.0.pkg
admin@infix.local%eth0's password: *****
~$

Controlling LEDs¶

As part of production testing, LED verification is often expected to be performed. Infix uses standard Linux support for LED management, where LEDs appear in the file system under /sys/class/leds and can be controlled using echo command. sudo privileges are required.

When interacting with LEDs this way, first disable the Infix iitod daemon to avoid conflicting LED control.

~$ ssh admin@example.local 'initctl stop iitod'

Then run the test, e.g., visually control that a red LED labeled 'LAN' is working.

~$ ssh admin@example.local 'echo none | sudo tee /sys/class/leds/red\:lan/trigger'
~$ ssh admin@example.local 'echo 1    | sudo tee /sys/class/leds/red\:lan/brightness'

To turn off the same LED, run the following commands.

~$ ssh admin@example.local 'echo none | sudo tee /sys/class/leds/red\:lan/trigger'
~$ ssh admin@example.local 'echo 0    | sudo tee /sys/class/leds/red\:lan/brightness'

When done with LED testing, enable Infix iitod daemon again.

~$ ssh admin@example.local 'initctl start iitod'

Reading Power Feed Status¶

As part of production tests, verification of Power Feed sensors is often expected to be performed. Infix uses standard Linux support for Power management, where power sources appear in the file system under /sys/class/power_supply. The following example reads status of two power supplies named pwr1 and pwr2.

~$ ssh admin@example 'cat /sys/class/power_supply/pwr1/online'
1
~$ ssh admin@example 'cat /sys/class/power_supply/pwr2/online'
0
~$

Here, only pwr1 have power.

Press Win-r to bring up the Run dialog, enter cmd.exe and press enter. Then type in ipconfig /all to list all interfaces, their status, as well as interface index. ↩