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zero_r
Asked: 2009-10-17 04:18:46 +0800 CST

Cisco ASA config management

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I read that for Cisco devices which run IOS, there's a scheduler (kron) which can be used similar to Linuxs cronjobs. I followed the guide on http://blog.ioshints.info/2007/08/sample-configuration-periodic-upload-of.html and it works as expected.

But this feature doesn't seem to be available on a Cisco ASA (e.g. 5510). Is there a substitute command for scheduled tasks?

Or as a general question: How do you manage your Cisco configs (versioning, archiving, backup)?

cisco

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Here's an answer from the non-sophisticated front: I upload configs to a TFTP server (running on my laptop, if the Customer doesn't have a dedicated TFTP server) every time I make a persistent change (I've trained myself to do so right after doing a "copy run start") and then check it in to a Subversion repository (either the Customer's, if they have one, or mine, if they don't). It's a winning strategy for me because I have a fairly small amount of gear to deal with (probably under 100 switches in all my Customers combined, well under 50 routers / firewalls).

    With a larger amount of gear, I'd probably look at something like RANCID.

    (No doubt there are a variety of proprietary and open source offerings out there to do Cisco device config management... since I don't do a lot of it myself I'll be interested to see what other people have to say about this.)

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  2. If you have unix machines at hand, it may be worth looking at installing RANCID.

    If you have enough devices, it may be worth considering investing in one of the Cisco management tools, they have capabilities beyond a simple "download configurations and keep them available", like automatic deployment of new configuration and the like.

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  3. I'd second RANCID. You can run it on a variety of free OS's. The Ubuntu documentation for it is fairly succinct and easy to follow, and points you to the other packages needed to make it work as expected, so I'd just use Ubuntu for it.

    In addition to getting automatic config backups, RANCID will alert you to changes you might not have been aware of. It is also extensible, if you're inclined to put in the effort.

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