Adding Schedules

Contents

Overview

If you have a large number of devices, carrying out operations such as backup, upload etc., become monotonous, if they are to be done manually. You might also require to perform certain operations at regular intervals. Execution of these operations can be automated - that is they can be scheduled for execution at the required time automatically.

Tasks such as:

  1. Configuration Backup
  2. Report Generation and
  3. Compliance Check
  4. Configlet

for a specific device or group of devices could be scheduled for execution at a future point of time. These tasks can be scheduled for automatic execution at periodic intervals or for an one-time execution.

 

Adding Schedules

 

Periodic Configuration Backup

  1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule".

  2. In the UI that opens, click "Add" on the top right corner.

  3. In the UI that pops-up, provide a name for this schedule in the text field for the parameter "Schedule Name".

  4. Choose "Configuration Backup" in the drop-down for "Task type".

  5. Select the devices that are to be backed up. You can either choose a list of "Specific Devices" or a "Device Group" [if you choose a device group, all the devices in the group will be backedup].

  6. Specify the required recurrence option.

  7. The result of the scheduled task could be sent as an email notification to any number of users. Just add the email IDs to the "Send email notification" field. Sending notifications is optional. Finally, click "Save".

 

Periodic Report Generation

  1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule".

  2. In the UI that opens, click "Add" on the top right corner.

  3. In the UI that pops-up, provide a name for this schedule in the text field for the parameter "Schedule Name".

  4. Choose "Report Generation" in the drop-down for "Schedule type".

  5. Select the required report from the drop-down for "Choose Reports".

  6. Select the devices for which the report is to be generated. You can either choose a list of "Specific Devices" or a "Device Group" [if you choose a device group, the report will be generated for all the devices in the group]

  7. Specify the required recurrence option.

  8. The result of the scheduled task could be sent as an email notification to any number of users. Just add the email IDs to the "Send email notification" field. Sending notifications is optional. Finally, click "Save".

 

Scheduled task for Compliance Check

Prerequisite:

Before adding a schedule for compliance check, compliance policy should have been associated with the devices. Refer to the section on Compliance Policies for more details.
 

  1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule".

  2. In the UI that opens, click "Add" on the top right corner.

  3. In the UI that pops-up, provide a name for this schedule in the text field for the parameter "Schedule Name".

  4. Choose "Compliance Check" in the drop-down for "Schedule type".

  5. Choose whether you want to report compliant rules only, violated rules only, or both, in the 'Reporting Options' field.

  6. Select the "Report File type". You can get the report file as either a PDF or a CSV file.

  7. Select the devices whose configuration has to be checked for compliance. You can either choose a list of "Specific Devices" or a "Device Group" [if you choose a device group, compliance check will be run for all the devices in the group].

  8. Specify the required recurrence option.

  9. The result of the scheduled task could be sent as an email notification to any number of users. Just add the email IDs to the "Send email notification" field. Sending notifications is optional. Finally, click "Save".

 

Scheduled Task for Configlets

All the three types of configlets - TFTP mode, script execution mode and advanced scripts could be scheduled for execution at a future point of time:

In case, you want to specify a different value for different devices, you can provide your input in the form of a text file. This option will be highly useful in cases such as providing passwords. You assign a unique password to each device in a single click through this option. Ensure that the entries in the text file are in the following format:

    1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule".

    2. In the UI that opens, click "Add" on the top right corner.

    3. In the UI that pops-up, provide a name for this schedule in the text field for the parameter "Schedule Name".

    4. Choose "Configlets" in the drop-down for "Schedule type".

    5. Select the required configlet from the drop-down for "Select Configlet". The execution mode will be automatically filled based on the configlet's execution type.

    6. You will see the list of 'Configlet Variables', if a variable has been created/defined in the configlet. You have two options here to enter the desired value for the respective configlet variables.

      1. Same value for all devices

      2. A different value for each device, picking the respective values from a file

Same value for all devices

If you want to specify the same value for a particular configlet variable for all devices, choose this option and enter the value. For example, for '%COMMUNITY%', you can provide 'public' as the value. After entering the values(s), you can preview the actual configuration with full configuration commands and value for community variable(s).

A different value for each device

      • Column headers should be the same as that of the Configlet parameters defined in the configlets with the entries separated by a comma.

      • "RESOURCE" column is mandatory and it should be the first column in the file to identify the devices on which the script needs to be executed. The value for RESOURCE should be either hostname/IP address. One line can hold the entries for one device.

Format:RESOURCE,<variablename>,<variablename>
Examples: </variablename></variablename>

RESOURCE, PASSWORD
192.168.1.1,abcd
de-host,dced
RESOURCE,IPADDRESS,MGMTINTERFACE
de-host,192.168.122.2,vlan-mgmt

  1. When executing the script, Network Configuration Manager will automatically pick the values as specified in the file at run time.

  2. Note: The text file will be stored by Network Configuration Manager under /configlets directory.

  3. After entering the values(s), you can preview the actual configuration with full configuration commands and value for community variable(s). To preview the configuration, click 'Preview'. If you have chosen to specify a different value for each device, the values will be taken from the file provided by in the previous step.

  4. Select the devices on which the configlet has to be executed. You can either choose a list of "Specific Devices" or a "Device Group" [if you choose a device group, the configlet will be executed on all the devices in the group].

  5. Specify the required recurrence option.

  6. The result of the scheduled task could be sent as an email notification to any number of users. Just add the email IDs to the "Send email notification" field. Sending notifications is optional. Finally, click "Save".

 

Scheduled Task for Sync Configuration

This schedule task helps to synchronize the startup and running configurations of any number of devices.

  1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule".

  2. In the UI that opens, click "Add" on the top right corner.

  3. In the UI that pops-up, provide a name for this schedule in the text field for the parameter "Schedule Name".

  4. Choose "Sync Configuration" in the drop-down for "Schedule type".

  5. Select the devices for which the "Sync Configuration" has to be done. You can either choose a list of "Specific Devices" or a "Device Group" [if you choose a device group, the "Sync Configuration" will be done for all the devices in the group]

  6. Specify the required recurrence option

  7. The result of the scheduled task could be sent as an email notification to any number of users. Just add the email IDs to the "Send email notification" field. Sending notifications is optional. Finally, click "Save".

 

Scheduled Task for PCI Review

  1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule".

  2. In the UI that opens, click "Add" on the top right corner.

  3. In the UI that pops-up, provide a name for this schedule in the text field for the parameter "Schedule Name".

  4. Choose "PCI Review" in the drop-down for "Schedule type" and select the reviewer(s).

  5. Select the devices for which the "PCI Review" has to be done. You can either choose a list of "Specific Devices" or a "Device Group" [if you choose a device group, the "PCI Review" will be done for all the devices in the group]

  6. Specify the required recurrence option.

  7. The result of the scheduled task could be sent as an email notification to any number of users. Just add the email IDs to the "Send email notification" field. Sending notifications is optional. Finally, click "Save".

 

Audit of Scheduled Task Execution

Tasks that were executed for a particular schedule (from the time of creation of the schedule up to the current time) can be viewed as a snapshot. This history provides starting time of the schedules, their ending time and also the result of execution.
 

To view the Audit of Schedule task execution,

  1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule" >> "Schedule Audit".

  2. In the UI that opens, you can view the audit of each schedule.

 

Managing Schedules

The scheduled tasks once created, can be managed from the "All Schedules" UI from where you can:

  1. view the properties of scheduled tasks

  2. edit the scheduled tasks

  3. remove the schedules

 

Viewing the Properties of Scheduled Tasks

To view the properties of scheduled tasks,

  1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule" >> "All Schedules".

  2. Click the name of the schedule whose properties are to be viewed.

 

Editing Schedules

To view edit the properties of scheduled tasks,

  1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule" >> "All Schedules".

  2. Click the name of the schedule whose properties are to be edited.

  3. Edit the details and click "Save".

 

Enabling/Disabling Schedule

At times, you would require to temporarily stop the execution of a scheduled task and would like to resume it again at some other point of time.

To enable/disable a schedule,

  1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule" >> "All Schedules" and scroll to the desired schedule.

  2. There will be a toggle switch under the field 'Status' for each Schedule. Click on it to enable/disable the schedule.

 

Removing a Schedule

If a scheduled task is not needed, you can remove it from the list of schedules.

To remove a schedule,

  1. Go to "Config Automation" >> "Schedule" >> "All Schedules".

  2. Select the name of the schedule which is to be removed.

  3. Click "Delete Schedule" icon present at the top right corner. When the popup appears, click 'OK' to delete that schedule.

 


 

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