Opening ports on Virtual Guest using API - firewall

Question

Im trying to automate the basic monitoring option on Virtual Guests through Python, and have succeeded in ordering the Basic monitoring as well as installing Nimsoft monitor automatically. The missing step is to open up the ports (48000 to 48003) on the machines so that the monitor data can be sent.
I looked up creating network rule through API but in my case, I dont have any output when trying to output firewallServiceComponent.
In [48]: client['Virtual_Guest'].getObject(id=server_id, mask="mask[id,firewallServiceComponent[rules]]")
Out[48]: {'id': 29701179}
Can someone help in understanding how to setup Firewall rules for Virtual Guests?
Thanks!

Answer 1

That example is for opening ports on a VLAN firewall and not directly on the Virtual Guest. The API cannot interact with the OS level functions of your Virtual Guest. This is something that you can do manually or with the help of a Post Provisioning script.
http://knowledgelayer.softlayer.com/procedure/add-custom-provisioning-script

Answer 2

The firewallServiceComponent is used for VSI or BMS servers that have a hardware firewall. You can order a hardware firewall but take account that this option is only available for Monthly servers.
You can add/edit rules of hardware firewall through the API like described in I need to create a softlayer network firewall rule through REST API
If you have created the virtual guest with software firewall, you need to enter to your VSI and edit/add rules like any other OS.
To know if you have a Software firewall you can use the following REST call:
https://[user_name]:[api_key]#api.softlayer.com/rest/v3/SoftLayer_Virtual_Guest/29701179/getSoftwareComponents?objectFilter={"softwareComponents":{"softwareDescription":{"productItems":{"categories":{"categoryCode":{"operation":"firewall"}}}}}}
If you don’t have a software firewall you can create a new VSI by adding this option, or you can reload the OS. The reload will format the primary disk and will reconfigure the computing instance to the current specifications on record, before to do this I recommend you take a backup of your OS. If you are not sure to make a reload by API you can do it through portal page.
"""
Reload OS of VSI
Important manual pages:
http://sldn.softlayer.com/reference/datatypes/SoftLayer_Virtual_Guest
http://sldn.softlayer.com/reference/datatypes/SoftLayer_Virtual_Guest/reloadOperatingSystem
License: http://sldn.softlayer.com/article/License
Author: SoftLayer Technologies, Inc. <sldn#softlayer.com>
"""
import SoftLayer
USERNAME = 'set-me'
API_KEY = 'set-me'
# The id of virtual guest you wish to reload the OS
guestId = 29701179
client = SoftLayer.create_client_from_env(username=USERNAME, api_key=API_KEY)
itemPrices = [
{'id': 170009}, # Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus Minimal Install (64 bit)
{'id': 14625}, # Monitoring Package - Basic
{'id': 411} # APF Software Firewall for Linux
]
config = {'itemPrices': itemPrices}
try:
reload = client['SoftLayer_Virtual_Guest'].reloadOperatingSystem('FORCE', config,
id=guestId)
print(reload)
except SoftLayer.SoftLayerAPIError as e:
print("Unable to get SoftLayer_Hardware object: %s, %s " % (e.faultCode,
e.faultString))
(Take account that prices above are only examples)
I hope this help you.
Regards,