GhittoPCM v1.0.20140207.1
"Back That Rack Up!"
by AGreen BHM
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Q: What is GhittoPCM?
A: GhittoPCM is a free, open-source HP ProCurve Configuration Manager, based on Python and Git, for Windows.

Q: What does GhittoPCM do?
A: GhittoPCM downloads configuration files from network devices and saves changes, allowing for differences from past configs to be viewed later.

Q: How does it do that?
A: At launch, a TFTP server is spawned locally.  GhittoPCM will then Telnet to the devices specified (more on that later), login, and upload the device configuration to the local machine using TFTP.  After all devices have saved their configs, Git will initialize a local repository (if not already present), add new files (for new devices), and update existing files (for existing devices).

Q: Why is this helpful?
A: GhittoPCM allows for as many devices as desired to have their running-config backed up at a schedule of your choosing (more on that later).  This ensures that changes made to a network device don't have to be manually saved every single time you modify something. Although that's best practice, sometimes it doesn't always happen... By saving changes in a Git repository, you can go back and look at the differences between each config, that way, if a new config is malfunctioning, you can always revert back to a known working config, without keeping multiple copies of configs laying around.

Q: Doesn't something like this already exist?
A: Yup!  But as far as I can tell, not for free on Windows.  RANCID is a *nix-based open-source program that does something similar, and Solarwinds' CatTools is a paid Windows-based offering, but it starts at $750.  I don't have any Linux servers I wanted to throw RANCID on, and I don't need to spend $750 to backup my 10~ switches.

Q: What's with the name?
A: GhittoPCM is combination of a few things: Git, ghetto, and PCM (which is the name of HP's network management tool.  I believe it stands for ProCurve Manager, but I'm using the acronym as ProCurve Configuration Manager).  Ghetto?  Kinda-sorta - this started off as a VBScript, and that was definitely ghetto, but I'd like to think it's slightly less-ghetto	after a couple days of work.

Q: What works?
A: *Creating local, temporary TFTP server.

	*Logging into fully-managed HP ProCurve switches with Telnet, either with and/or without  a banner that says "Press Any Key To Continue" (more on that later).
	
	*Creating a Git repo and adding new files/committing changes.

Q: What doesn't work?
A: Nothing (as far as I can tell), as long as you follow the instructions below.  New features will be implemented soon, and I'm sure something there will break :)

Q: How can I contribute?
A: Find me on GitHub, username agreenbhm, project GhittoPCM.  Pull requests are welcome.
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Notes:

TFTPy, by Michael P. Soulier (https://github.com/msoulier/tftpy), and slightly modified by me, is used and included in this distribution.
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Usage:

python.exe GhittoPCM.py [-w] [-s]
GhittoPCM.exe [-w] [-s]
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Instructions:

[Follow these instructions very carefully!!!]

1. Install Python 2.x (2.7 is what I'm using) on your system.  NOTE: Python 3.x has not been tested and will likely not work!

1a. Install Python library dependencies: Twisted (http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/) & Zope Interface (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/zope.interface/3.6.7#downloads)

2. Install Git for Windows on your system.  Use the installable version, not the .7z package.  Make sure you install Environmental Variables to PATH, if given the option.

3. Install TFTPy (included with this distribution).  I've included a batch file called "install_tftpy.bat" in the "tftp" folder.  Double-click on this batch file to install.  You can also manually install TFTPy by opening up a command prompt in the "tftp" folder, then running "python setup.py build", then "python setup.py install".

4. Once all of the prerequisites are installed, open "GhittoPCM.ini" from the main GhittoPCM folder.
	
	~The following fields are required:

	*tftpRoot - This is the full path of the directory (WITHOUT a trailing "\") the TFTP server will save files to, where your Git repo will be created, and where your device config files will be saved.
		*NOTE: In order to use the web GUI, make sure this is a folder called "configs" within the folder GhittoPCM.py is located in.  If not specified in GhittoPCM.ini, this folder will be autocreated and used as the target.

	*switchList - This is the full path of the text file listing the switches to backup.  One device per-line (IP or hostname).  Devices cannot require "Press Any Key To Continue" before entering username.  See below for devices that DO require this.  If ALL of your devices require "Press Any Key To Continue", still include this entry, and create an empty file for the target.
	
	*switchUsername - This is the username to connect to each device via Telnet with.
	
	*switchPassword - This is the password to connect to each device via Telnet with.
	
	*gitUsername - This is the username Git will use for commits to the repo.  No reason to change this from the default unless you want to.
	
	*gitEmail - This is the email address Git will use for commits to the repo.  Again, no reason to change this from the default.
	
	~The following fields are not mandatory, but are dependent on each other:
	
	*continueBannerSwitchList - This is the full path of the text file listing all additional switches to backup, one device per-line (IP or hostname), that require you to "Press Any Key To Continue" before entering a username.  NOTE: If using this list, you must specify "yes" for "continueBannerSwitchListExist" in the "options" section.
	
	*continueBannerSwitchListExist - This is the on/off switch to determine if a file listing devices that require "Press Any Key To Continue" before entering a username should be used.  Default is "no".  To use secondary list for "Continue Banner", change this to "yes".  If this is set to "yes" and there is no file specified for "continueBannerSwitchList", the program WILL crash.
	
5. Once your "GhittoPCM.ini" file is configured, launch the program by opening a command-prompt in the GhittoPCM directory, and execute "python GhittoPCM.py".  A log file will be created one directory up from your TFTP root folder.
	*Command line arguments are: -w or --web (to launch the web GUI [details on that below] and -s or --service to run GhittoPCM as a service.  If service mode enabled, devices will be backed up every hour, on the hour.
	*Command line arguments can be run individually or together (GhittoPCM.py -w -s)
	
6. If you want to view the changes between different versions of the device configs, use the tool "Git GUI" (installed with Git) and browse to the config directory, then choose the menu option to view branch files or changes.
	***NEW***
	To view current configuration, past configurations, and to compare, use the "-w" or "--web" command line switch to launch the web GUI
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To Do:

*Add SSH support

*Add ability to upload firmware to list of devices using command-line arguments