Solved: Device config deployment to replacement hardware

adery6300 · ‎07-28-2009

Hello gurus,

I'm trying to layout a process which will enable us to quickly setup a replacement unit when a switch fails.

For example, we have lots of 3560 switches, so we have a few of them lying around as spares. My goal is to have a spare 3560 already hooked to some lab subnet, managed by LMS, and already with a current IOS, so that when a production 3560 dies, I can just push its config to the spare and proceed to replace the failed unit with the spare, now running the same config.

Setting up the spare, managing it with LMS and upgrading the IOS is no problem.

However, I'm trying to find a quick and easy method to deploy the config of a dead switch to the spare. Idealy what I would like is a "Take that config and deploy it there" button but I haven't found it.

The deploy button in the config editor for the dead device only lets me deploy to the same device (not helpful since I would have to reconfig my spare to be able to receive the new config). I've also tried saving the dead config to the "Public" space in Config Editor, and then try to deploy it from there, but it's still bound to the dead switch so I can't deploy it to another device.

The only idea I have left is to copy (CTRL-C) the config from the dead switch, edit the config of the spare, paste over it, and deploy that. Is that really the most efficient way to do this in LMS 3.1 ?

Also, if LMS 3.2 offers new features in this area, please do tell!

Thank your very much!

Alex.

Joe Clarke · ‎07-28-2009

This feature exists in LMS 2.5 and higher. There are a lot of ways of getting to it, but the easiest is probably just to go to RME > Config Mgmt > Archive Mgmt > Version Tree, and select the device and desired config version (this assumes the new device is already online, and has the same name and IP as the device it is replacing).

When the config is open, you'll notice a DEploy button in the bottom right-hand corner. Click that button, then select to do a Merge deployment. After that, the new device will have the same config as the device it is replacing.

View solution in original post

Joe Clarke · ‎07-28-2009

This feature exists in LMS 2.5 and higher. There are a lot of ways of getting to it, but the easiest is probably just to go to RME > Config Mgmt > Archive Mgmt > Version Tree, and select the device and desired config version (this assumes the new device is already online, and has the same name and IP as the device it is replacing).

When the config is open, you'll notice a DEploy button in the bottom right-hand corner. Click that button, then select to do a Merge deployment. After that, the new device will have the same config as the device it is replacing.

adery6300 · ‎07-28-2009

Hi JClarke and thanks for the quick reply!

I'd like to be able to do that without requiring the spare device to be pre-configured with the dead device's ip address. The new physical location of the switch may be totally different, so I couldn't push the config until the device is physically moved to it's destination. And if I have to manually configure the switch (IP addr) to push its config from LMS, I'll just copy and paste the config and skip LMS!

You mentionned "there are a lot of ways of getting to it", could you suggest another that doesn't require the new device to be preconfigured with the old devices ip/credentials ?

Thank you!

Alex.

Joe Clarke · ‎07-28-2009

No, this is not possible. RME does not yet support a zero-touch deployment. This feature is being considered for the next release of LMS, but may require the Config Engine to make it happen.

When I said there are multiple ways of getting the functionality, I was referring to multiple ways within RME to do what I already told you. You would still need a basic config on the device (i.e. IP, SNMP).

adery6300 · ‎07-28-2009

Okay so I'll go with the Copy/paste option from within Config Editor for now.

As for zero-touch deployment, if it counts for anything, this feature has my vote!

Thanks Jclarke!

Alex.

adery6300 · ‎08-03-2009

Hello Mr. Clarke,

related question to this thread : Can LMS show the password hashes when doing either a View Config or Edit Config for a device ?

I'm trying to manually copy/paste a config from LMS to another device (via console port), and all the various passwords show up as stars. Any way around this ?

Thanks,

Alex.

Joe Clarke · ‎08-03-2009

You need to click on the various starred links to view the clear text passwords.

What might be easier for you is not to use the GUI at all, but rather to open the latest configurations from the shadow directory. You can then either copy and paste as you're doing now, or copy those configs to the server's tftpboot directory, and deploy them directly. The shadow directory is under NMSROOT/files/rme/dcma on Windows and /var/adm/CSCOpx/files/rme/dcma on Solaris. Configs in that directory are indexed first by device type, then by display name.

adery6300 · ‎08-03-2009

ahhh.. I knew it was possible to show the password hashes... but it's cumbersome as you implied.

Thanks for the tip for the shadow directory. I'll try to see if I can make a simple process based on that. Is it possible to script custom actions in LMS ?

Thanks!

Joe Clarke · ‎08-03-2009

Some scripting can be done in certain LMS applications. However, if you're talking about CLI scripting, there are some commands you can roll into scripts. In this case, you'd be interested in looking at the documentation for cwcli.

yjdabear · ‎08-03-2009

Is "Config Engine" a Solutions Engine-based appliance with "Config Engine" sw?

Joe Clarke · ‎08-03-2009

Config engine is now just a software solution which can run on Solaris or Linux.