


omapi(3)                                                 omapi(3)


NNAAMMEE
       OMAPI - Object Management Application Programming Interface

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
       OMAPI  is an programming layer designed for controlling remote applica-
       tions, and for querying them for their state. It is currently  used  by
       the  ISC  DHCP  server  and  this  outline addresses the parts of OMAPI
       appropriate to the clients  of  DHCP  server.  It  does  this  by  also
       describing the use of a thin API layered on top of OMAPI called

       OMAPI  uses TCP/IP as the transport for server communication, and secu-
       rity can be imposed by having the client and  server  cryptographically
       sign messages using a shared secret.

       dhcpctl works by presenting the client with handles to objects that act
       as surrogates for the real objects in the server. For example a  client
       will create a handle for a lease object, and will request the server to
       fill the lease handle's state. The client  application  can  then  pull
       details such as the lease expiration time from the lease handle.

       Modifications  can  be  made to the server state by creating handles to
       new objects, or by modifying attributes of handles to existing objects,
       and  then  instructing  the  server  to  update itself according to the
       changes made.

UUSSAAGGEE
       The client application must  always  call  dhcpctl_initialize()  before
       making  calls  to any other dhcpctl functions. This initializes various
       internal data structures.

       To create the connection to the server the client must use dhcpctl_con-
       nect() function. As well as making the physical connection it will also
       set up the connection data structures to do authentication on each mes-
       sage, if that is required.

       All the dhcpctl functions return an integer value of type isc_result_t.
       A successful call will yield a result of  ISC_R_SUCCESS.  If  the  call
       fails for a reason local to the client (e.g. insufficient local memory,
       or invalid arguments to the call) then the return value of the  dhcpctl
       function  will  show that. If the call succeeds but the server couldn't
       process the request the error value from the server is returned through
       another way, shown below.

       The  easiest way to understand dhcpctl is to see it in action. The fol-
       lowing program is fully functional, but almost all error  checking  has
       been  removed to make is shorter and easier to understand. This program
       will query the server running on the localhost for the details  of  the
       lease  for  IP  address 10.0.0.101. It will then print out the time the
       lease ends.

                 #include <stdarg.h>
                 #include <sys/time.h>
                 #include <sys/socket.h>
                 #include <stdio.h>



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omapi(3)                                                 omapi(3)


                 #include <netinet/in.h>

                 #include <isc/result.h>
                 #include <dhcpctl/dhcpctl.h>

                 int main (int argc, char **argv) {
                      dhcpctl_data_string ipaddrstring = NULL;
                      dhcpctl_data_string value = NULL;

       All modifications of handles and all accesses of handle data happen via
       dhcpctl_data_string objects.

                      dhcpctl_handle connection = NULL;
                      dhcpctl_handle lease = NULL;
                      isc_result_t waitstatus;
                      struct in_addr convaddr;
                      time_t thetime;

                      dhcpctl_initialize ();

       Required first step.

                      dhcpctl_connect (&connection, "127.0.0.1",
                                 7911, 0);

       Sets  up  the  connection to the server. The server normally listens on
       port 7911 unless configured to do otherwise.

                      dhcpctl_new_object (&lease, connection,
                                    "lease");

       Here we create a handle to a lease. This call just sets up  local  data
       structure.  The  server  hasn't  yet  made  any association between the
       client's data structure and any lease it has.

                      memset (&ipaddrstring, 0, sizeof
                           ipaddrstring);

                      inet_pton(AF_INET, "10.0.0.101",
                             &convaddr);

                      omapi_data_string_new (&ipaddrstring,
                                       4, MDL);

       Create a new data string to storing in the handle.

                      memcpy(ipaddrstring->value, &convaddr.s_addr, 4);

                      dhcpctl_set_value (lease, ipaddrstring,
                                   "ip-address");

       We're setting the ip-address attribute of the lease handle to the given
       address.  We've  not  set any other attributes so when the server makes
       the association the ip address will be all it uses to look up the lease



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omapi(3)                                                 omapi(3)


       in its tables.

                      dhcpctl_open_object (lease, connection, 0);

       Here  we  prime the connection with the request to look up the lease in
       the server and fill up the local handle with the attributes the  server
       will send over in its answer.

                      dhcpctl_wait_for_completion (lease,
                                          &waitstatus);

       This  call causes the message to get sent to the server (the message to
       look up the lease and send back the attribute values  in  the  answer).
       The  value in the variable waitstatus when the function returns will be
       the result from the server. If the message could not be processed prop-
       erly by the server then the error will be reflected here.

                      if (waitstatus != ISC_R_SUCCESS) {
                           /* server not authoritative */
                           exit (0);
                      }

                      dhcpctl_data_string_dereference(&ipaddrstring,
                                          MDL);

       Clean-up memory we no longer need.

                      dhcpctl_get_value (&value, lease, "ends");

       Get  the  attribute  named  ``ends''  from  the lease handle. This is a
       4-byte integer of the time (in unix epoch seconds) that the lease  will
       expire.


                      memcpy(&thetime, value->value, value->len);
                      dhcpctl_data_string_dereference(&value, MDL);

                      fprintf (stdout, "ending time is %s",
                            ctime(&thetime));
                 }


AAUUTTHHEENNTTIICCAATTIIOONN
       If the server demands authenticated connections then before opening the
       connection the user must call dhcpctl_new_authenticator.

                 dhcpctl_handle authenticator = NULL;
                 const char *keyname = "a-key-name";
                 const char *algorithm = "hmac-md5";
                 const char *secret = "a-shared-secret";

                 dhcpctl_new_authenticator (&authenticator,
                                                  keyname,
                                                  algorithm,



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omapi(3)                                                 omapi(3)


                                                  secret,
                                   strlen(secret) + 1);

       The keyname, algorithm and must all match  what  is  specified  in  the
       server's  dhcpd.conf  file,  excepting that the secret should appear in
       'raw' form, not in base64 as it would in dhcpd.conf:

                 key "a-key-name" {
                      algorithm hmac-md5;
                      secret "a-shared-secret";
                 };

                 # Set the omapi-key value to use
                 # authenticated connections
                 omapi-key a-key-name;

       The  authenticator  handle   that   is   created   by   the   call   to
       dhcpctl_new_authenticator  must be given as the last (the 4th) argument
       to the call to dhcpctl_connect(). All messages will then be signed with
       the given secret string using the specified algorithm.

SSEEEE AALLSSOO
       dhcpctl(3),    omshell(1),    dhcpd(8),   dhclient(8),   dhcpd.conf(5),
       dhclient.conf(5).

AAUUTTHHOORR
       oommaappii was created by Ted Lemon  of  Nominum,  Inc.   Information  about
       Nominum  and  support  contracts  for  DHCP  and  BIND  can be found at
       hhttttpp::////wwwwww..nnoommiinnuumm..ccoomm.. TThhiiss ddooccuummeennttaattiioonn wwaass wwrriitttteenn bbyy JJaammeess Brister
       of Nominum, Inc.



























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