AI-Scripts Overview

AI-Scripts provide the intelligence devices need to automatically detect and report incident and intelligence events to ensure maximum network uptime.

This section provides the following topics:

• What AI-Scripts Do
• AI-Scripts Modes
• Events Detected by AI-Scripts
• JMB Contents
• AI-Scripts Tools
• AI-Scripts Process Flow

What AI-Scripts Do

AI-Scripts do the following:

• React to specific incident events that occur on devices and provide relevant information about the problems for analysis
• Periodically collect data on events that can be used to predict and prevent risks in the future.
• Package all incident and intelligence event data into a structured format called a Juniper Message Bundle (JMB) and send it to a remote archive location so that it can be collected and displayed by the second component in the AIS system, Advanced Insight Manager (AIM). AIM can be configured to send event data to Juniper Support Systems (JSS), the third component in the AIS system. JSS collects incident and intelligence information from AIM and sends intelligence information back to AIM specifically for your network.

AI-Scripts Modes

AI-Scripts operate in two distinct modes:

• Reactive (incident-driven)—A trigger event occurs and is detected on a device. An AI-Script is executed. An AI-Script builds a Juniper Message Bundle (JMB) with event and router data, and sends it to a designated AIM archive location. See Figure 10.

  Each AI-Script corresponds to a specific device event. The list of device events that can be detected and reported will evolve over time. For the latest device events supported by AI-Scripts, see the AI-Scripts Release Notes at the AIS documentation Web site.

• Proactive (intelligence-driven)—AI-Scripts monitor device system resources for fluctuations that could signal a future problem. AI-Scripts collect intelligence data for analysis. A tailored AI-Script builds a JMB with intelligence data, and sends it to a designated remote AIM archive location.

Events Detected by AI-Scripts

AI-Scripts detect the following types of events:

• Common software events, including daemon and Packet Forwarding Engine crashes
• Common hardware events, such as PIC alarms
• Hardware platform-specific events, such ASIC issues

For more information about the types of incidents that are detected by a specific AI-Script package, see the AI-Scripts Release Notes located on the AIS documentation Web site.

JMB Contents

The JMB for both incident and intelligence events includes the following:

• Manifest—basic router and event data
• Trend data—device counters, statistics, and settings
• Attachments—show command output for the incident event.

AI-Scripts Tools

AI-Scripts use the following tools on JUNOS devices:

• Event policies
• Event scripts responsible for automating event policies
• Operation (op) scripts
• JUNOScript
• Stylesheet Language Alternative Syntax (SLAX)

Event Policies

An event policy is an if-then-else construct that defines actions to be executed by the software on receipt of a system log message. For each policy, you can configure multiple actions, as follows:

• Ignore the event.

• Upload a file to a specified destination.

• Execute JUNOS software operational mode commands.

• Execute JUNOS operation (op) scripts.

For more information about event policies, see the JUNOS Configuration and Diagnostic Automation Guide.

Operation (Op) Scripts

An op script automates network troubleshooting and network management by doing the following:

• Automatically diagnosing and fixing problems in your network

• Monitoring the overall status of a routing platform

• Customizing the output of operational mode commands

• Ensuring a routing platform is configured to avoid known problems in the JUNOS software

• Running automatically as part of an event policy that detects periodic error conditions

• Changing the device configuration in response to a problem

For more information about op scripts, see the JUNOS Configuration and Diagnostic Automation Guide.

JUNOScript

The JUNOScript API (application programming interface) is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) application that client applications use to request and change configuration information on routing platforms that run the JUNOS software. The operations defined in the API are equivalent to configuration mode commands in the JUNOS command-line interface (CLI). Applications use the API to display, edit, and commit configuration statements (among other operations), just as administrators use CLI configuration mode commands such as show, set, and commit to perform those operations. For more information about JUNOScript, see the JUNOScript API Guide.

Stylesheet Language Alternative Syntax

Stylesheet Language Alternative Syntax (SLAX) is a language for writing JUNOS commit and op scripts and is an alternative to Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT). SLAX has a distinct syntax, but the same semantics as XSLT.

SLAX has a simple syntax that follows the style of C and PERL. It provides a practical and succinct way to code, thus allowing you to create readable, maintainable commit and op scripts. SLAX removes programming instructions and XPath expressions from XML elements. XML angle brackets and quotation marks are replaced by parentheses and curly brackets ({ }), which are the familiar delimiters of C and PERL.

AI-Scripts Process Flow

Figure 10 shows the AI-Scripts process flow.

Figure 10: AI-Scripts Process Flow

The AIM Archive location can either be a local directory on the same system as AIM, or a directory mounted from another system onto the system running AIM. The archive location directory should be used exclusively for JMBs and no other AIM files.

AIM connects to the AIM archive location, retrieves, then displays the JMB information in Incident Manager for reactive services and Intelligence Manager for proactive services. For reactive services, AIM submits a case for resolution by JSS. For proactive services, JSS analyzes intelligence information, then sends AIM pertinent information to prevent problem events from occurring in the future.