Defining Device Prompts

When establishing a device session to a configured device, the device might issue prompts and expect user input, such as, for example, when performing an authentication operation. For example, the logon sequence below represents a typical logon sequence for a router device that puts the device into a well-defined state.

Prompt
Value
username:
<username>
password:
<password>
GW-IXIA01>
en
password:
<password>

The Device Prompts page contains the captured device responses of a logon sequence. The Device Prompts table initially comprises a set of predefined set of prompts based on regular expressions.

The set of pre-defined prompts is session-specific. A special --More-- prompt, available for Telnet sessions, is intended for handling multi-page device responses.

When adding script steps using the Capture functionality, encountered prompts are automatically added to the Device Prompts table, while the input strings are added to the Steps Table as Execute-type steps.

The Channel idle parameter defines the time interval following a response from the device, after which the system assumes no future responses will arrive and consequently considers the last response line as a the prompt, adding it to the prompts list.

To add prompts, configure a reasonable (default is 250 ms) value for the
Channel Idle parameter, establish a connection to the configured device, and perform the appropriate login sequence.

    A reasonable time out value in the context above indicates a value that should be neither too low (for high latency devices the actual response might take longer to arrive than the configured timeout), nor too high (more than one step commands instead of a single one could possibly be executed in the configured period of time).
    When connecting to devices over networks that have an higher latency, it is recommended to configure a channel timeout higher than 250 ms, such as to be able to receive a response from the device.
    A zero channel timeout value disables the prompt autocapture functionality.

Select a parameter from the Where to find Prompt list for the location of the prompt.

The Command Finished When parameter is available only when you enable Use Putty in the terminal tab. It has got two options:

Prompt found and Channel Idle time occurred: The Prompt found and Channel Idle time occurred parameter considers both Prompt found and Channel idle parameters to decide when a command has finished its execution.

Prompt found: The Prompt found parametergives you increased execution rate at run-time.

An alternative mode of adding a prompt is by clicking the button and defining the prompt parameters manually, as described in Table:Advanced Settings - Device Prompts.

Table:Advanced Settings - Device Prompts

Parameter
Description
Prompt
The expected prompt, which can be a string or a regular expression.
Prompt Type
The prompt type, which can be any of the following:
  • Default: A prompt that is neither a More nor a Password prompt.
  • More prompt: When a More prompt is encountered, a space character is automatically generated such as to advanced the device output to the next page.
  • Password prompt: When a Password prompt is encountered, the subsequent captured command step has the Encrypt option selected and the Command String column entry of the Script Steps table is shown using wildcard (*) characters.
Regular Expression Prompt
The prompt is expected to match a regular expression.
For example, using the [.]+> regular expression means one or more characters are expected, followed by the `>', which might be a valid prompt for a Cmdtool session.

To remove a prompt list entry, select it and click the button.

As an example, considering a sample login sequence shown previously, the captured prompts list is shown in the figure below, with the Password: entry defined as a Password Prompt, such as to show the captured step entry of the Script Steps table using * characters.

See Also

Defining Connection Settings

Defining Terminal Settings

Defining Capture Mode Exceptions

Specifying a Response Templates Folder