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RANCID: Network Configuration Management Tool

RANCID is a configuration management tool that automatically retrieves configurations from network equipment, archives them in a version control system, and alerts administrators of any changes via email. It keeps track of configuration, hardware, and software changes on devices like routers, switches, firewalls, and more. Administrators can use RANCID to back up configurations, audit changes, determine who made configuration edits, and recover from errors.

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Mohammad Sheraz Khan
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55 views9 pages

RANCID: Network Configuration Management Tool

RANCID is a configuration management tool that automatically retrieves configurations from network equipment, archives them in a version control system, and alerts administrators of any changes via email. It keeps track of configuration, hardware, and software changes on devices like routers, switches, firewalls, and more. Administrators can use RANCID to back up configurations, audit changes, determine who made configuration edits, and recover from errors.

Uploaded by

Mohammad Sheraz Khan
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Network Management &

Monitoring

Configuration Management RANCID

These materials are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported license
([Link]
What is RANCID?

The ”Really Awesome New Cisco config Differ”


– Really!

A configuration management tool:


•  Keeps track of changes in the configs of your
network equipment (Cisco, HP, Juniper, Foundry,
etc.)
•  Works on routers and switches
What is RANCID
RANCID??

Automates retrieval of the configurations and


archives them
Functions as:
•  Backup tool - ”woops, my router burned”
•  Audit tool - ”how did this error get in?”
•  Blame allocation :) - ”who did it?”
The data is stored in a VCS (Version Control
System) – supported are:
•  CVS (Concurrent Versions Systems)
•  SVN (SubVersioN)
What is Version Control?

Three basic principles:


1.  Keep a record and history of changes
2.  Give public access to the information
3.  To maintain different versions from the same
data set
What types of data?
•  Source code
•  Documentation
•  Configuration files
•  Generally, any type of data…
How does it
RANCID
work ? work?

Run (manually or automated)


Lookup list of groups
For each device in each list of groups
•  Connect to the equipment (telnet, ssh, …)
•  Run ”show” commands – config, inventory, ...
•  Collect, filter/format data
•  Retrieve the resulting config files
•  CVS check-in the changes
•  Generate a diff from the previous version
•  E-mail the diff to a mail address (individual or group)
What to use it for
for?

•  Track changes in the equipment configuration


•  Track changes in the hardware (S/N, modules)
•  Track version changes in the OS (IOS, CatOS
versions)
•  Find out what your colleagues have done
without telling you!
•  Recover from accidental configuration errors
(anyone have stories?)
Post processing

•  Run traditional filtering commands on your


configs (grep, sed, for information)
•  Re-use the automated login tools to build your
own batch tools or do interactive login
•  On large configurations, you can parallelize
operations
Other applications

•  Automated checks (verify configs for strange/


inconsistent setup)
•  Generate DNS file from equipment list
•  Use IP address adjacency to produce a graph of
your network
References

•  RANCID Project Home Page


[Link]
•  Subversion (SVN) Home Page
[Link]
•  Good, Short RANCID Presentation
[Link]
•  RANCID HowTo’s
1.  [Link]
Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch1_:_Network_Backups_With_Rancid
2.  [Link]
3.  [Link]
[Link]

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