Config compare - conflict - lines out of order

ralphpost

Hope someone can help resolve this.

Many devices showing config conflicts. When we run a compare of running and startup config, the configs are identical except that 2 lines are swapped around. Or in slightly different order/place. All Cisco devices.

For example:

Running Config:

sccp ccm group 1
associate ccm 1 priority 1
associate ccm 2 priority 2
associate ccm 3 priority 3
associate profile 2 register ABCD_123456
associate profile 1 register EFG_123456
switchback method graceful
signaling dscp af31

Startup Config:

sccp ccm group 1
associate ccm 1 priority 1
associate ccm 2 priority 2
associate ccm 3 priority 3
associate profile 1 register EFG_123456
associate profile 2 register ABCD_123456
switchback method graceful
signaling dscp af31

The compare process flags these as different.

I see:

495 associate ccm 3 priority 3                               494 associate ccm 3 priority 3

                                                                               495 associate profile 2 register ABCD_123456

496 associate profile 1 register EFG_123456        496 associate profile 1 register EFG_123456

497 associate profile 2 register ABCD_123456

498 switchback method graceful                           498 switchback method graceful

I have downloaded the startup and running configs and every time they look like this (odd pair that are swapped around).

Anyone have any idea:

1) Why this occurs (swapped around lines)

2) How to resolve

3) or how to setup a compare rule to cater for this

We have 422 devices currently flagged with conficts - the bulk of these are the above issue and requires tedious work to look at each one and see that there is actually no issue.

Any and all help is appreciated.

mesverrum

Some Cisco devices do that, basically shuffle lines around between how they display the running config versus what you see in show startup config. Not aware of any way to work around it since orion is just doing a diff between the two outputs and if Cisco displays them differently then there's not much we can do about it.

I've never had much care for the whole concept of comparing running/startup configs for differences. If I am enforcing that they should be the same I just run a periodic job to wr mem and im done with it.

I'd be curious to see a legitimate scenario where there's a difference between the running config and the startup config at 2am that I wouldn't want to just sync them up and be done with it, especially given that I am backing up my configs frequently so I know I always have a copy handy to revert to if somehow I needed to roll back.