In my conversations with prospects and companions, there are two subjects which are completely different however considerably associated: compliance and gadget configuration administration. In my newest weblog, “Compliant or not? Cisco DNA Heart will provide help to determine this out”, we mentioned compliance capabilities in Cisco DNA Heart 2.3.3. On this weblog, I’ll handle gadget configuration administration.
Let me begin by saying that DNA Heart at all times has the most recent gadget configuration in its inner databases. This has at all times been the case. The configuration of a tool is first collected and saved when the gadget is added to the stock, it’s then up to date by periodic triggers in addition to event-based triggers. Occasion-based triggers occur when there’s a change within the configuration. DNA Heart makes use of these up-to-date configurations for all its capabilities together with, however not restricted to, assurance, gadget alternative, and compliance. Community directors may also leverage these configurations so, on this weblog, we are going to discover alternative ways to entry them.
Visualize Configuration in Stock
For sure gadget sorts, like switches, DNA Heart has the choice to point out and export the complete gadget configuration. This permits the community administrator to have fast visibility into the configuration. For safety causes, delicate knowledge is masked which implies that we are able to’t straight use this gadget config to revive a tool.
Export the gadget configuration
Configuration archive is the DNA Heart characteristic that enables community directors to export uncooked configurations to an exterior server. Uncooked configurations are helpful to revive a tool for instance.
Machine configuration backup could be scheduled with the specified recurrence and the configurations are despatched to an exterior server. For every configuration backup, DNA Heart creates a password-protected zip file. This zip file comprises one listing per gadget and every listing comprises three information: running-config, startup-config, and VLAN database.
APIs to retrieve gadget configuration
One other solution to entry the clear textual content gadget configurations is by way of APIs. The API accessible in Cisco DNA Heart permits to retrieve uncooked startup, operating configs, and VLAN DB within the type of a zipper file in an analogous means because the configuration archive functionality.
API particulars: POST /network-device-archive/cleartext
Visualize Configuration Drifts
Arguably, I’m leaving probably the most attention-grabbing functionality for final!
At first of the weblog, we talked about that DNA Heart shops the gadget configuration and updates the configurations periodically and upon modifications. Each time there’s a change within the configuration, DNA Heart will retailer and timestamp this new configuration for a most of fifty. We name these configurations config drifts. Furthermore, DNA Heart can present variations between these saved configurations to assist the community administrator establish any modifications. For out-of-band modifications, Config Drift device will even present the username of the individual that made the change.
Within the instance under, we’re evaluating two configurations taken on September 2nd, 2022, one at 1:56pm and the opposite at 2:57pm. We will see within the latter, {that a} “description” command was faraway from “interface GigabitEthernet 1/0/10”. As soon as we establish these modifications within the operating configuration, the community administrator can take particular actions to remediate the problem. For instance, the gadget could be re-provisioned.
We will additionally establish and label a selected configuration that we deem “normal”. That means, it will likely be simpler to check the present operating configuration with the chosen labeled configuration.
Within the instance under, we are going to first choose the popular configuration and identify it with the label of our alternative, on this case, “TBRANCH-Std-Config“:
As soon as we label our normal configuration, we are able to then evaluate it to the present configuration. On this instance, the present operating configuration is recognized as “September 2nd at 3:10pm”. On this case, each operating configuration and normal configurations match.
Have you ever tried these capabilities?
Are there some other subjects you’d wish to see in these blogs?
Let me know within the feedback under.
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