Book Image

Mastering Python Scripting for System Administrators

By : Ganesh Sanjiv Naik
Book Image

Mastering Python Scripting for System Administrators

By: Ganesh Sanjiv Naik

Overview of this book

Python has evolved over time and extended its features in relation to every possible IT operation. Python is simple to learn, yet has powerful libraries that can be used to build powerful Python scripts for solving real-world problems and automating administrators' routine activities. The objective of this book is to walk through a series of projects that will teach readers Python scripting with each project. This book will initially cover Python installation and quickly revise basic to advanced programming fundamentals. The book will then focus on the development process as a whole, from setup to planning to building different tools. It will include IT administrators' routine activities (text processing, regular expressions, file archiving, and encryption), network administration (socket programming, email handling, the remote controlling of devices using telnet/ssh, and protocols such as SNMP/DHCP), building graphical user interface, working with websites (Apache log file processing, SOAP and REST APIs communication, and web scraping), and database administration (MySQL and similar database data administration, data analytics, and reporting). By the end of this book, you will be able to use the latest features of Python and be able to build powerful tools that will solve challenging, real-world tasks

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Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
Python Scripting Overview
Python Scripting Overview
Technical requirements
Why Python?
Python syntax compared to other programming languages
Python installation
Python interpreter
Strings
Understanding lists
Tuples
Sets
Dictionaries
Parsing command-line arguments
Decision making
Loops
Iterators
Generators
Functions
Modules
Summary
Questions
Further reading
2
Debugging and Profiling Python Scripts
Debugging and Profiling Python Scripts
What is debugging?
Error handling (exception handling)
Debuggers tools
Debugging basic program crashes
Profiling and timing programs
Making programs run faster
Summary
Questions
Further reading
3
Unit Testing - Introduction to the Unit Testing Framework
Unit Testing - Introduction to the Unit Testing Framework
What is unittest?
Creating unit tests
Methods used in unit testing
Summary
Questions
Further reading
4
Automating Regular Administrative Activities
Automating Regular Administrative Activities
Accepting input by redirection, pipe, and input files
Handling passwords at runtime in scripts
Executing external commands and getting their output
Capturing output using the subprocess module
Prompting for passwords during runtime and validation
Reading configuration files
Adding logging and warning code to scripts
Putting limits on CPU and memory usage
Launching webbrowser
Using the os module for handling directory and files
Making backups (with rsync)
Summary
Questions
Further reading
5
Handling Files, Directories, and Data
Handling Files, Directories, and Data
Using the os module to work with directories
Copying, moving, renaming, and deleting data
Working with paths
Comparing data
Merging data
Pattern matching files and directories
Metadata: data about data
Compressing and restoring
Using the tarfile module to create TAR archives
Using a tarfile module to examine the contents of TAR files
Summary
Questions
Further reading
6
File Archiving, Encrypting, and Decrypting
File Archiving, Encrypting, and Decrypting
Creating and unpacking archives
Tar archives
ZIP creation
File encryption and decryption
Summary
Questions
Further reading
7
Text Processing and Regular Expressions
Text Processing and Regular Expressions
Text wrapping
Regular expressions
Unicode strings
Summary
Questions
Further reading
8
Documentation and Reporting
Documentation and Reporting
Standard input and output
Information formatting
Sending email
Summary
Questions
Further reading
9
Working with Various Files
Working with Various Files
Working with PDF files
Working with Excel files
Working with CSV files
Working with txt files
Summary
Questions
Further reading
10
Basic Networking - Socket Programming
Basic Networking - Socket Programming
Sockets
The http package
The ftplib module
The urllib package
Summary
Questions
Further reading
11
Handling Emails Using Python Scripting
Handling Emails Using Python Scripting
Email message format
Adding HTML and multimedia content
POP3 and IMAP servers
Summary
Questions
12
Remote Monitoring of Hosts Over Telnet and SSH
Remote Monitoring of Hosts Over Telnet and SSH
The telnetlib() module
The subprocess.Popen() module
SSH using fabric module
SSH using the Paramiko library
SSH using the Netmiko library
Summary
Questions
Further reading
13
Building Graphical User Interfaces
Building Graphical User Interfaces
Introduction to GUI
Using a library to create a GUI-based application
Installing and using the Apache Log Viewer app
Summary
Questions
Further reading
14
Working with Apache and Other Log Files
Working with Apache and Other Log Files
Parsing complex log files
The need for exceptions
Tricks for parsing different files
Error log
Access log
Parsing other log files
Summary
Questions
Further reading
15
SOAP and REST API Communication
SOAP and REST API Communication
What is SOAP?
What is a RESTful API?
Working with JSON data
Summary
Questions
Further reading
16
Web Scraping - Extracting Useful Data from Websites
Web Scraping - Extracting Useful Data from Websites
What is web scraping?
Data extraction
Extracting information from Wikipedia
Summary
Questions
Further reading
17
Statistics Gathering and Reporting
Statistics Gathering and Reporting
NumPY module
Pandas module
Data visualization
Summary
Questions
Further reading
18
MySQL and SQLite Database Administrations
MySQL and SQLite Database Administrations
MySQL database administration
SQLite database administration
Summary
Questions
Further reading
19
Assessments
Assessments
Chapter 1, Python Scripting Overview
Chapter 2, Debugging and Profiling Python Scripts
Chapter 3, Unit Testing – Introduction to the Unit Testing Framework
Chapter 4, Automating Regular Administrative Activities
Chapter 5, Handling Files, Directories, and Data
Chapter 6, File Archiving, Encrypting, and Decrypting
Chapter 7, Text Processing and Regular Expressions
Chapter 8, Documentation and Reporting
Chapter 9, Working with Various Files
Chapter 10, Basic Networking – Socket Programming
Chapter 11, Handling Emails Using Python Scripting
Chapter 12, Remote Monitoring of Hosts Over Telnet and SSH
Chapter 13, Building Graphical User Interfaces
Chapter 14, Working with Apache and Other Log Files
Chapter 15, SOAP and REST API Communication
Chapter 16, Web Scraping – Extracting Useful Data from Websites
Chapter 17, Statistics Gathering and Reporting
Chapter 18, MySQL and SQLite Database Administrations
20
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
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Questions

  1. What is the difference between runtime and compile time exceptions in Python?
  2. What are regular expressions?
  3. Explore the Linux commands head, tail, cat, and awk.
  4. Write a Python program to append the contents of one file to another file.
  5. Write a Python program to read the contents of a file in reverse order.
  6. What would be the output of the following expressions?
    1. re.search(r'C\Wke', 'C@ke').group()
    2. re.search(r'Co+kie', 'Cooookie').group()
    3. re.match(r'<.*?>', '<h1>TITLE</h1>').group()

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