NTCI - Net::Telnet::Cisco::IOS

Let's make sure we've got everything together so we can use NTCI. There's not many requirements, so it's a piece of cake. I'm going to assume you're running Linux (just like the rest of the docs). If you're running Windows, I'll speak what I think I know, but you're on your own for the most part.

First, you need Perl. That's obvious and is only mentioned for the sake of mentioning it. Most (maybe all) distros of Linux install Perl by default. If not, go to http://www.perl.org/ to get it.

Next, you need to have Net::Telnet::Cisco installed. This is a Perl module written by Joshua Keroes that makes NTCI work. Without this module, NTCI does nothing and I wouldn't even have tried to write it. Heh.

Anyway, you can see if you have Net::Telnet::Cisco installed by entering:

$ perl -e "use Net::Telnet::Cisco;"

If it doesn't say anyting, you're good. If it's not installed, you'll see a whole screenful of stuff, and you'll need to get it installed. Luckily, that's where CPAN comes in. I won't get into the details of it, but you can use CPAN to install Net::Telnet::Cisco very easily by following below:

$ perl -e shell -MCPAN
Password:
Terminal does not support AddHistory.

cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.7601)
ReadLine support available (try 'install Bundle::CPAN')

cpan> install Net::Telnet::Cisco

You'll have to be root (or equiv) to do so. After CPAN does some fetching and calculating, it should say something like "Net::Telnet::Cisco installed". Then you can test again to be sure everything worked alright.

That's it. If you pass the test, you can install NTCI.