6. WBEM indication listener

New in pywbem 0.9 as experimental and finalized in 0.10.

The WBEM indication listener API supports creating and managing a thread-based WBEM listener that waits for indications (i.e. events) emitted by a WBEM server using the CIM-XML protocol. The API supports registering callback functions that get called when indications are received by the listener.

See WBEM subscription manager for the API for viewing and managing subscriptions for indications on a WBEM server.

6.1. WBEMListener

New in pywbem 0.9 as experimental and finalized in 0.10.

The WBEMListener class provides a thread-based WBEM listener service that can receive CIM indications from multiple WBEM servers and that calls registered callback functions to deliver the received indications.

6.1.1. Examples

The following example creates and runs a listener:

import logging
from socket import getfqdn
from pywbem import WBEMListener

def process_indication(indication, host):
    '''This function gets called when an indication is received.'''

    print("Received CIM indication from {host}: {ind!r}".
          format(host=host, ind=indication))

def main():

    # Configure logging of the listener via the Python root logger
    logging.basicConfig(
        filename='listener.log', level=logging.WARNING,
        format='%(asctime)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s')

    certkeyfile = 'listener.pem'

    listener = WBEMListener(host=getfqdn(),
                            http_port=5990,
                            https_port=5991,
                            certfile=certkeyfile,
                            keyfile=certkeyfile)
    listener.add_callback(process_indication)

    try:
        listener.start()

        # process_indication() will be called for each received indication

        . . .  # wait for some condition to end listening

    finally:
        listener.stop()

Alternative code using the class as a context manager:

with WBEMListener(...) as listener:
    listener.add_callback(process_indication)
    listener.start()

    # process_indication() will be called for each received indication

    ... # wait for some condition to end listening

# listener.stop() has been called automatically

See the example in section WBEMSubscriptionManager for an example of using a listener in combination with a subscription manager.

Another listener example is in the script examples/listen.py (when you clone the GitHub pywbem/pywbem project). It is an interactive Python shell that creates a listener and displays any indications it receives, in MOF format.

6.1.2. Logging in the listener

Each WBEMListener object has its own separate Python logger object with the name:

‘pywbem.listener.{id}’

where {id} is a string that is unique for each WBEMListener object within the Python process.

The logger property of a WBEMListener object provides access to that Python logger object, if needed.

The listener will log any indications it receives and any responses it sends back to the indication sender, at the logging.INFO logging level.

In addition, it will log errors at the logging.ERROR logging level.

Starting with Python 2.7, the Python root logger will by default (i.e. when not being configured) print log records of logging level logging.WARNING or greater to sys.stderr. So the indication and response interactions will not be printed by default, but any errors logged at the logging.ERROR logging level will be printed by default.

Pywbem adds a null handler to the logger named ‘pywbem’, in order to prevent the “No handlers could be found for logger …” warning. This follows best practices recommended in Configuring logging for a library and in several articles, for example in this article. Because this warning is no longer issued on Python 3.4 and higher, pywbem adds a null handler only on Python 2.7.

6.1.3. WBEMListener class

class pywbem.WBEMListener(host, http_port=None, https_port=None, certfile=None, keyfile=None)[source]

New in pywbem 0.9 as experimental and finalized in 0.10.

A WBEM listener.

The listener supports starting and stopping threads that listen for CIM-XML ExportIndication messages using HTTP and/or HTTPS, and that pass any received indications on to registered callback functions.

The listener must be stopped in order to free the TCP/IP port it listens on. Using this class as a context manager ensures that the listener is stopped when leaving the context manager scope.

Parameters:
  • host (string) – IP address or host name at which this listener can be reached.
  • http_port (string or integer) –

    HTTP port at which this listener can be reached. Note that at least one port (HTTP or HTTPS) must be set.

    None means not to set up a port for HTTP.

  • https_port (string or integer) –

    HTTPS port at which this listener can be reached.

    None means not to set up a port for HTTPS.

  • certfile (string) –

    File path of certificate file to be used as server certificate during SSL/TLS handshake when creating the secure HTTPS connection.

    It is valid for the certificate file to contain a private key; the server certificate sent during SSL/TLS handshake is sent without the private key.

    None means not to use a server certificate file. Setting up a port for HTTPS requires specifying a certificate file.

  • keyfile (string) –

    File path of private key file to be used by the server during SSL/TLS handshake when creating the secure HTTPS connection.

    It is valid to specify a certificate file that contains a private key.

    None means not to use a private key file. Setting up a port for HTTPS requires specifying a private key file.

Methods

add_callback Add a callback function to the listener.
deliver_indication This function is called by the listener threads for each received indication.
start Start the WBEM listener threads, if they are not yet running.
stop Stop the WBEM listener threads, if they are running.

Attributes

certfile File path of the certificate file used as server certificate during SSL/TLS handshake when creating the secure HTTPS connection.
host IP address or host name at which this listener can be reached.
http_port HTTP port at which this listener can be reached.
http_started Boolean indicating whether the listener is started for the HTTP port.
https_port HTTPS port at which this listener can be reached.
https_started Boolean indicating whether the listener is started for the HTTPS port.
keyfile File path of the private key file used by the server during SSL/TLS handshake when creating the secure HTTPS connection.
logger Logger object for this listener.

Details

__str__()[source]

Return a representation of the WBEMListener object with a subset of its attributes.

__repr__()[source]

Return a representation of the WBEMListener object with all attributes, that is suitable for debugging.

__enter__()[source]

New in pywbem 0.12.

Enter method when the class is used as a context manager.

Returns the listener object.

__exit__(exc_type, exc_value, traceback)[source]

New in pywbem 0.12.

Exit method when the class is used as a context manager.

Stops the listener by calling stop().

host

IP address or host name at which this listener can be reached.

Type:string
http_port

HTTP port at which this listener can be reached.

None means there is no port set up for HTTP.

Type:integer
https_port

HTTPS port at which this listener can be reached.

None means there is no port set up for HTTPS.

Type:integer
http_started

Boolean indicating whether the listener is started for the HTTP port.

If no port is set up for HTTP, False is returned.

New in pywbem 0.12.

Type:bool
https_started

Boolean indicating whether the listener is started for the HTTPS port.

If no port is set up for HTTPS, False is returned.

New in pywbem 0.12.

Type:bool
certfile

File path of the certificate file used as server certificate during SSL/TLS handshake when creating the secure HTTPS connection.

None means there is no certificate file being used (that is, no port is set up for HTTPS).

Type:string
keyfile

File path of the private key file used by the server during SSL/TLS handshake when creating the secure HTTPS connection.

None means there is no certificate file being used (that is, no port is set up for HTTPS).

Type:string
logger

Logger object for this listener.

Each listener object has its own separate logger object with the name:

‘pywbem.listener.{id}’

where {id} is a unique string for each listener object.

Users of the listener should not look up the logger object by name, but should use this property to get to it.

Type:logging.Logger
start()[source]

Start the WBEM listener threads, if they are not yet running.

A thread serving CIM-XML over HTTP is started if an HTTP port was specified for the listener. A thread serving CIM-XML over HTTPS is started if an HTTPS port was specified for the listener.

These server threads will handle the ExportIndication export message described in DSP0200 and they will invoke the registered callback functions for any received CIM indications.

The listener must be stopped again in order to free the TCP/IP port it listens on. The listener can be stopped explicitly using the stop() method. The listener will be automatically stopped when the main thread terminates (i.e. when the Python process terminates), or when WBEMListener is used as a context manager when leaving its scope.

Raises:OSError – with errno = errno.EADDRINUSE when the WBEM listener port is already in use.
stop()[source]

Stop the WBEM listener threads, if they are running.

deliver_indication(indication, host)[source]

This function is called by the listener threads for each received indication. It is not supposed to be called by the user.

It delivers the indication to all callback functions that have been added to the listener.

If a callback function raises any exception this is logged as an error using the listener logger and the next registered callback function is called.

Parameters:
  • indication (CIMInstance) – Representation of the CIM indication to be delivered.
  • host (string) – Host name or IP address of WBEM server sending the indication.
add_callback(callback)[source]

Add a callback function to the listener.

The callback function will be called for each indication this listener receives from any WBEM server.

If the callback function is already known to the listener, it will not be added.

Parameters:callback (callback_interface()) – Callable that is being called for each CIM indication that is received while the listener threads are running.
pywbem.callback_interface(indication, host)[source]

New in pywbem 0.9 as experimental and finalized in 0.10.

Interface of a callback function that is provided by the user of the API and that will be called by the listener for each received CIM indication.

Parameters:
  • indication (CIMInstance) – Representation of the CIM indication that has been received. Its path attribute is None.
  • host (string) – Host name or IP address of WBEM server sending the indication.
Raises:

Exception – If a callback function raises any exception this is logged as an error using the listener logger and the next registered callback function is called.