Dobby

Dobby is a map server modeled to a certain degree after the IF-Map server. Unlike the IF-Map server, Dobby is intended to be a more general purpose graph database that applications can then use for whatever purpose they require.

This is an open source project sponsored by Infoblox.

Requirements

• Erlang R17+

Building

If you want to connect to the dobby Erlang shell using ssh with keys, you must generate keys for deps/erl_sshd. Using make:

% make

Using rebar directly:

% rebar get-deps
% rebar compile
% deps/erl_sshd/make_keys
% rebar generate

You may add your own public keys to the authorized_keys file in priv/erl_sshd (remember to rebar generate afterwards).

If you want to connect to the dobby Erlang shell using ssh with a username and password, add or modify the usernames and passwords to the erl_sshd section of rel/files/sys.config.

Running

% rel/dobby/bin/dobby console

Connecting via ssh

If you genereated keys in erl_sshd before generating the dobby release, you can connect to the dobby server's Erlang shell using ssh.

ssh 127.0.0.1 -p 11133 -i id_rsa

Clients

Use dobby_clib to send commands to the dobby server.

Utility Functions

• dby_bulk:export(Format, Filename): writes the graph database to the named file in the specified format. The only supported format is json.
• dby_bulk:import(Format, Filename): read the graph database from the named file in the specified format. The only supported format is json.

json import/export format

The json import/export file is a list of json objects. There are two type of objects: Identifiers and Links.

Identifiers:

{
    "identifier": Id,
    "metadata" : {
        "metakey": {
            "value": "metavalue",
            "pubisher_id": "publisher",
            "timestamp": "2015-03-04T00:45:54Z"
        }
    }
}

Links:

{
    "link": [Id, Id],
    "metadata" : {
        "metakey": {
            "value": "metavalue",
            "pubisher_id": "publisher",
            "timestamp": "2015-03-04T00:45:54Z"
        }
    }
}

Where an Id is a string, keys are strings, and metadata values are one of:

1. true
2. false
3. null
4. string
5. list
6. object (associative array)

Example:

[
    {
        "identifier": "A",
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": {
                            "value": "metavalue-for-A",
                            "pubisher_id": "publisher",
                            "timestamp": "2015-03-04T00:45:54Z"
                        }
                    }
    },
    {
        "identifier": "B",
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": {
                            "value": "metavalue-for-B",
                            "pubisher_id": "publisher",
                            "timestamp": "2015-03-04T00:45:54Z"
                        }
                    }
    },
    {
        "link": ["A", "B"],
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": {
                            "value": "metavalue-for-link",
                            "pubisher_id": "publisher",
                            "timestamp": "2015-03-04T00:45:54Z"
                        }
                    }
    }
]

Older style export file has this format:

[
    {
        "identifier": "A",
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": "metavalue-for-A"
                    }
    },
    {
        "identifier": "B",
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": "metavalue-for-B"
                    }
    },
    {
        "link": ["A", "B"],
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": "metavalue-for-link"
                    }
    }
]

The older style export files may be imported using:

dby_bulk:import(json0, Filename)

Origin of Name

The Infoblox OpenFlow controller projects follow a fabric theme. The overall project is called LOOM. Dobby fabric is a type of fabric. Coincidentally it is also the name of a character in the Harry Potter franchise.