Overview… scripting
As an alternative to using the XenaManager, you can interact with the testers using a command-line interface. This also allows the tester to be controlled from a scripting environment, and be part of a larger automation environment.
Everything that can be done using the XenaManager can also be done through scripting, and in a nearly identical fashion. Please keep this in mind even though most of the examples use the XenaManager for illustration.
The commands are simple lines of text exchanged between a client and the Xena chassis. An example command to the chassis could be:
0/5 PS_RATEPPS [3] 500000
This goes to module 0, port 5, and sets stream 3′s rate to 500000 packets per second. The chassis responds with:
<OK>
You would query for the current value this way:
0/5 PS_RATEPPS [3] ?
And the chassis would respond in exactly the same way that you set the value yourself:
0/5 PS_RATEPPS [3] 500000
Note that this is exactly the same syntax used when saving and loading port configurations to files on the client PC. This allows you to use saved configurations as a starting point for scripting, and it also allows you to modify the saved files before loading them back into the chassis.
The full syntax of all the scriptable parameters is defined in a separate document available from the Xena Networks web-site, http://www.xenanetworks.com/html/resources.html.
The scripting mechanism is the basis for various Microsoft Excel based applications provided by Xena Networks, and can be exploited in the same way by any user, for instance using Tcl.