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
Table of Contents (21 chapters)

Making backups (with rsync)

This is the most important work system administrators have to do. In this section, we will learn about making backups using rsync. The rsync command is used for copying files and directories locally, as well as remotely, and performing data backups using rsync. For that, we are going write a script called take_backup.py and write the following code in it:

import os
import shutil
import time
from sh import rsync
def check_dir(os_dir):
if not os.path.exists(os_dir):
print (os_dir, "does not exist.")
exit(1)
def ask_for_confirm():
ans = input("Do you want to Continue? yes/no\n")
global con_exit
if ans == 'yes':
con_exit = 0
return con_exit
elif ans == "no":
...