Implemented

Compare config against master template

I work for a company that has many remote sites that are all nearly identical in their network configuration. Basically the IP addresses in use at each site are different but the rest of the configurations should be identical across sites. I'd like to be able to create a "master config template" and schedule a nightly report that compares each site configuration to that single "master config template" to look for variations.

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  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    I am confused as to why you can't currently do this using Regex pattern matching.  Is it that you are looking for a simpler wizard like way to do it?  If so, I wouldn't categorize it as a master template since you should be able to build the parts you want to match on in different rules, then apply them to a policy and then a report and in that manner you can reuse the sections you need.

  • Hi ,

    The feature should be user-friendly, you need reporting etc. I agree that some parts of the functionality may be achieved with the current NCM abilities, but here we prefer a solid, easy-to-use feature.

    Regards,

    Jiri

  • FormerMember
    FormerMember in reply to cvachovecj

    I agree with making things easier but the battle of granularity versus ease of use becomes something of an issue of bringing what I would call "Power User" abilities to your average user.  I am just trying to see a valid use case for a single "Master" template when copy and paste and the reuse of compliance rules can allow for it.

    Perhaps a Wizard tool would be simpler but there are some underlying issues with allowing checking of config blocks to not auto-flag if the block does not exist and the allowance of checking Find Strings in order, that would need to be addressed to make the use of a wizard viable.  The reason I say this is a Wizard should assume you have no regular expression knowledge and should therefor have the above abilities to allow for expected granularity and conditions for such a master template.

    I give an example of say a 2811 out in the field, you should have a Master Template based on device type however, the circuit going to R1 may be a single T1 whereas R2 may have a Multilink interface, without the above abilities you cannot simply have a single Master Template that would work.  My issue with bringing this idea to fruition is that even though it has the most votes, the underlying tool needs some work to allow it to work well.  I would much rather see a feature properly implemented than seeing it presented in the GUI only to find it doesn't actually work (I can list some features like this already).

  • Tim -

    I appreciate what you are saying about adding complexity. However, let me tell you why Policy Manager doesn't fit the bill for me right now. I'll freely admit that I may be missing something here but policy manager only allows me to verify that the configuration contains certain configuration lines. I don't have the ability to see what might have been added to a system configuration beyond my base configuration. How do I search for stuff that might have been added to the config but that is additive, not a mismatch of an exact stanza?

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  • Tim -

    I appreciate what you are saying about adding complexity. However, let me tell you why Policy Manager doesn't fit the bill for me right now. I'll freely admit that I may be missing something here but policy manager only allows me to verify that the configuration contains certain configuration lines. I don't have the ability to see what might have been added to a system configuration beyond my base configuration. How do I search for stuff that might have been added to the config but that is additive, not a mismatch of an exact stanza?

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