Cisco Firepower API | Creating Multiple Network Objects using Python & CSV

I have written a slightly updated version of this post: http://ciscotom.com/cisco-firepower-api-creating-multiple-network-objects-using-python-csv-updated/

I decided to utilise the script provided by the API explorer and develop it further. I amended it to read data from a CSV file and simulate a bulk creation of network objects and hosts using the API.

The script loops through each object in the CSV file and creates it on the FMC, this script does not update or delete objects.

The CSV file should only contain new objects, as this is a POST (create) and not a PUT (update) call. You will get a status code of 400 if the object already exists, my script hung if I received 10 of these error codes (your experience may differ). You may also receive an error code 400 for invalid query parameters, including unrecognized parameters, missing parameters, or invalid values.

At the end of the script, a log file will be created with JSON dumps inside

Here’s a simple CSV file containing 4 objects and their values

name,value,type,description
zTest1,1.255.255.1,host,test host
zTest2,1.255.255.0/30,network,test network
zTest3,2.255.255.1,host,test host
zTest4,2.255.255.0/30,network,test network

And here is the script used in this demo. You will need to update the FMC server address, username and password and the domain ID in the API_Path to match your environment. (You’re best of viewing the code in a separate window),

import csv
import json
import sys
import requests
import os

server = "https://192.168.99.5"
username = "username"

if len(sys.argv) > 1:
    username = sys.argv[1]
password = "password"
if len(sys.argv) > 2:
    password = sys.argv[2]
r = None
headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
api_auth_path = "/api/fmc_platform/v1/auth/generatetoken"
auth_url = server + api_auth_path
print('\nAttempting connection to FMC...')

try:
    requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()
    r = requests.post(auth_url, headers=headers, 
    auth=requests.auth.HTTPBasicAuth(username,password), verify=False)
    auth_headers = r.headers
    auth_token = auth_headers.get('X-auth-access-token', default=None)
    if auth_token == None:
        print("auth_token not found. Exiting...")
        sys.exit()

except Exception as err:
    print ("Error in generating auth token --> "+str(err))
    sys.exit()


headers['X-auth-access-token'] = auth_token
print('...Connected! Auth token collected successfully (' + auth_token + (')\n'))

api_path = "/api/fmc_config/v1/domain/e276abec-e0f2-11e3-8169-6d9ed49b625f/object/networks"
url = server + api_path

if (url[-1] == '/'):
    url = url[:-1]

f = open("objects.csv")
objectsfile = csv.DictReader(f)

for object in objectsfile:
    post_data = {
        "name": object["name"],
        "type": object["type"],
        "value": object["value"],
        "description": object["description"],
    }

    print('Creating object ' + object["name"])
    
    try:
        r = requests.post(url, data=json.dumps(post_data), headers=headers, verify=False)
        status_code = r.status_code
        resp = r.text
        log = open('POST_Create-FMC-Objects.log', 'a')   
        print("Status code: "+str(status_code))
        json_resp = json.loads(resp)
        log.write('\n---------------------------------------------------------------------\n')
        log.write(json.dumps(json_resp,sort_keys=True,indent=4, separators=(',', ': ')))  
        
        if status_code == 201 or status_code == 202:
            print (object["name"] + " was successfully created\n")
        elif status_code == 400:
            print (object["name"] + " already exists!\n")
        else:
            r.raise_for_status()
            print (object["name"] + " encountered an error during POST --> "+ resp +'\n')
            
    except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as err:
        print ("Error in connection --> "+str(err))
    finally:
        if r: r.close()

print('Log file "POST_Create-FMC-Objects.log" updated\n')
os.system('pause')

Here is the script running in Windows,

Whilst the script is running, a log file will be created and updated for every object being created. Here is a snippet from the logs showing data for the ‘zTest1’ object,

{
    "description": "test network",
    "id": "780CF067-5D5C-0ed3-0000-051539661120",
    "links": {
        "parent": "https://192.168.99.5/api/fmc_config/v1/domain/e276abec-e0f2-11e3-8169-6d9ed49b625f/object/networkaddresses",
        "self": "https://192.168.99.5/api/fmc_config/v1/domain/e276abec-e0f2-11e3-8169-6d9ed49b625f/object/networks/780CF067-5D5C-0ed3-0000-051539661120"
    },
    "metadata": {
        "domain": {
            "id": "e276abec-e0f2-11e3-8169-6d9ed49b625f",
            "name": "Global"
        },
        "ipType": "V_4",
        "lastUser": {
            "name": "api"
        },
        "parentType": "NetworkAddress",
        "timestamp": 0
    },
    "name": "zTest1",
    "overridable": false,
    "type": "Host",
    "value": "1.255.255.1"
}

Checking the Objects in the FMC you can see they have been created successfully,

The Firepower REST API implements rate limiting to reduce network load. It’s important not to exceed more than 120 requests (objects being created) per minute otherwise you will receive a 429 status code (too many requests). It will only allow 10 simultaneous connections per IP address. These are not configurable parameters at the time of writing.