Pinger Skip List and Diagnostic Features

Version 4.3.2 of The Automater introduced 2 new features to the Pinger script:

As stated in the pinger script description, the Pinger script will systematically cycle through a “matrix” of source/destination ping pairs.  However, there may be cases where you know certain source/destination pairs will intentionally fail and you don’t want the script to log a “false” error message.  This feature is enabled by adding a new variable, SKIP_LIST, to the input file.  See the file pinger_template.txt and pinger_vrf_template.txt for more details and examples.  If you do not want this feature, just keep the SKIP_LIST variable commented out (i.e. put a pound sign at the beginning of the line)

A second useful feature added to the Pinger script is the ability to issue some diagnositic commands (e.g. show commands) immediately after a ping fails.  This is useful because sometimes the script catches problems that happen infrequently and intermittently.  Thus, the script can issue the troubleshooting commands that you would have entered if you were manually performing the pings yourself.  After the script finishes you can view the detailed trace log and examine the output of those commands.  This feature is enabled by adding the new variable, DIAG_CMD_LIST, to the input file (-sf filename). See the file pinger_template.txt and pinger_vrf_template.txt for more details and examples.  If you do not want this feature, just keep the DIAG_CMD_LIST variable commented out (i.e. put a pound sign at the beginning of the line).

Version 4.4 introduced the ability to issue specific commands before the actual pings are sent.  This feature is enabled by adding the new variable,PRE_PING_CMD_LIST, to the input file (-sf filename). See the file pinger_template.txt and pinger_vrf_template.txt for more details and examples.  If you do not want this feature, just keep the PRE_PING_CMD_LIST variable commented out (i.e. put a pound sign at the beginning of the line).