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RANCID Configuration Management Guide

This document discusses RANCID, a configuration management tool that keeps track of changes to network equipment configurations. RANCID automates the retrieval of device configurations, archives them in a version control system like CVS or SVN, and emails configuration diffs to users. It allows network administrators to backup configurations, audit changes, and identify who made configuration changes.

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71 views11 pages

RANCID Configuration Management Guide

This document discusses RANCID, a configuration management tool that keeps track of changes to network equipment configurations. RANCID automates the retrieval of device configurations, archives them in a version control system like CVS or SVN, and emails configuration diffs to users. It allows network administrators to backup configurations, audit changes, and identify who made configuration changes.

Uploaded by

pianksatriacemento
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

Campus Network Design

Workshop

Configuration Management with RANCID

This document is a result of work by the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC at [Link] This document may be
freely copied, modified, and otherwise re-used on the condition that any re-use acknowledge the NSRC as the original source.
What is RANCID?
•  The “Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ”!

•  A configuration management tool


•  Keeps track of changes in the configurations of
your network equipment (Cisco, HP, Juniper,
Brocade, etc.)
•  Works on routers and switches
–  And most devices with command line interface
What is RANCID?
•  Automates retrieval of configurations & archives
them
•  Functions as:
–  Backup tool – “oops, my router burned”
–  Audit tool – “how did this error get in?”
–  Blame allocation J – “who did it?”
•  The data is stored in a Version Control System,
either of:
–  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.  Maintain different versions from the same data set
•  What types of data?
–  Source code
–  Documentation
–  Configuration files
–  Generally, any type of data…
How does RANCID 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/SVN check-in the changes
•  Generate a diff from the previous version
•  E-mail the diff to a mail address (individual or group)
Example Email
Why Use RANCID?
•  Track changes in the equipment configuration
•  Track changes in the hardware (S/N, modules)
•  Track version changes in the operating system
•  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 Operations
•  Automated checks (verify configurations for
strange/inconsistent setup)
•  Generate DNS file from equipment list
•  Use IP address adjacency to produce a graph of
your network
References
•  RANCID Project:
–  [Link]
•  Subversion (SVN):
–  [Link]
•  Good, Short RANCID Presentation
–  [Link]
•  RANCID HowTos
–  [Link]
Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch1_:_Network_Backups_With_Rancid
–  [Link]
–  [Link]
Questions?

This document is a result of work by the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC at [Link] This document may be freely
copied, modified, and otherwise re-used on the condition that any re-use acknowledge the NSRC as the original source.

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