Creating resource families and models

Hi @jim.pfleger.vz

There is no API for creating a family/model.

Although there is a way using packages/package editor, I think it would be best to align with the resource standards, which our out-of-the-box shells also follows.

You can use shellfoundry to create the basic switch/router families with a relevant model (usually per Vendot+OS), while the actual model number will be set in the Model attribute (all should be covered in the dev guide) - or import some of these shells that are relevant to you and continue from there.

Once you have these, it will be a rare case that you need to add a new family/model.

Yaniv

Thanks @Yaniv.K. I was planning to use the resource families and models provided by the shells. However CloudShell 8.0 does not come with any shells, families, or models, and the two Gen 2 shells I've installed so far (Cisco-IOS-Router-Shell-2G and Cisco-IOS-Switch-Shell-2G) did not create any resource families or models. From that I assumed that this was part of the changes in 8.0 - that we would be responsible for creating resource families and models, and tying them to shells. Should the Gen 2 shells still create resource families and models?

After digging into this more, I found something confusing. When I said that there were no resource families or models, this was from looking the resource manager:

However, if I add a new resource, I get a different list of available families and models:

Where did CS_Router and CS_Switch come from if they're not in the Resource Manager? Should we even be using the Resource Manager in 8.0? (I noticed that it's not on the SDK OVA.)

The 2nd gen shells are using these CS_ families and are hidden from the resource families tree - this is because they are now being managed by CloudShell and the standards defines them (This is to prevent user changes that will later can cause conflicts).

Once you have a router/switch 2nd gen shell they are added under these families, the shell will just define the model.

It seems (at least for the moment) that there are two completely separate hierarchies for resource families and models. If that's the case, where should we add attributes that we want to use globally (ex: "vendor", "city", "state", "country")? We can add them in resource manager for gen 1 shells, but it's not clear where to add them in gen 2 shells. Is there some proto-shell that everything inherits from, where we could safely add attributes that we want to use everywhere?

Hi @jim.pfleger.vz

As Yaniv pointed out, 2nd Gen Shells follow the CloudShell Standrads.

When you create a 2nd Gen Shell, your shell automatically includes the standard families, models and attributes, you don't need to model them by yourself. This process streamlines the development and also guarantees that the shell data model is defined properly - You can read more in the CloudShell 8.0 Dev Guide.

In CloudShell 8.0, to add custom attributes to 2nd Gen Shells you can use the following API functions:

SetCustomShellAttribute(modelName='', attributeName='', defaultValue='', restrictedValues=[])

RemoveCustomShellAttribute(modelName='', attributeName='')

First create the attribute in RM client, then use the 'set' API to associate the attribute with the shell.

Jim,

Also, if you are developing the shell by yourself, you can add 'device related' attributes by extending the shell data model. These attributes will extend the standard data model and will be included in the shell package.