Viewing Device Configuration Details

 

Contents Overview Viewing Devices Viewing Device Details Viewing Device Configuration Managing Configurations Comparing Configuration Versions Performing Various Actions on Devices/Configuration

 

Overview

After adding the device and providing the credentials, the details about the device can be obtained from the inventory tab in the GUI. This section explains how to view various details about the device and viewing the device configuration.

 

Viewing Devices

The devices added to Network Configuration Manager can be viewed from the "Inventory >> Devices"

 

Viewing Device Details

 

Pre-requisite

To view device details/configuration, you should have supplied device credentials properly

 

Viewing Basic Device Properties

1. Go to "Inventory >> Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose properties are to be viewed
2. In the GUI that opens up, the device properties are displayed on the LHS

 

Hardware Properties

Upon giving credentials and taking backup of device configuration, hardware properties of the device such as chassis details, model number could be fetched and displayed on the device details page.

To view the hardware properties,

click on the device and it will automatically dispaly the hardware properties on device summary page.

 

Note: Every time device configuration backup is done, the hardware properties are also fetched and updated. At any point of time, you wish to fetch harware properties, simply execute device backup.

 

Viewing Device Configuration

 

One of the important functions of Network Configuration Manager is retrieving the configurations from devices and storing them with proper versions in the database. At any point of time, you can view the current version or any of the previous versions of the configurations. This can be done from the 'Device Details' page.

Before proceeding further, it is pertinent to look at the definitions of the following terms:

 

Current Configuration: this reflects the currently available configuration in the device Current Startup Configuration: this reflects the currently available startup configuration in the device - this is, the configuration that will be loaded when the device starts up Current Running Configuration: this reflects the currently available running configuration in the device Startup History: History of changes that were done over the Startup Configuration. This is presented in terms of change versions in hierarchical order Running History: History of changes that were done over the Running Configuration. This is presented in terms of change versions in hierarchical order Baseline Configuration: The Baseline configuration refers to a trusted working configuration. You can keep any version of device configuration as the Baseline Configuration. When you want to revert to a safe configuration version or while doing disaster recovery, Baseline configuration would come in handy Labelled Configuration: For any version of configuration, you can associate a label - that is, a unique tag. As configuration versions keep on changing, you will have difficulty in remembering the version number of a particular good configuration. To avoid that, you can associate the version with a label for easy identification Draft Configuration: As the name indicates, this is a new configuration created by you. For creating a draft configuration, you can take up any version of device configuration - startup or running - and save it as a draft as it is or after carrying out some changes. You can also create a new draft altogether

 

Viewing Current Version (Running & Startup)

1. Go to "Inventory >> Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be viewed

2. In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed under 'Configs'

3. Check the "Current Version" against "Running Configuration" / "Startup Configuration" whichever is required

 

Viewing Baseline Version (Running & Startup)

1. Go to "Inventory >> All Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be viewed

2. In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed under 'Config details'

3. Check the "Baseline Version" against "Running Configuration" / "Startup Configuration" whichever is required

 

Viewing History of Running/Startup Configuration

The history of changes that were done over the Running/Startup Configuration are listed with version numbers representing the change. In addition, other details such as who effected the changes at what time and also the reason for the change are also listed.

To view the running configuration history,

1. Go to "Inventory >> Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be viewed

2. In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed under 'Configs'

3. Click on the "Current Version" against "Running Configuration" / "Startup Configuration" whichever is required to view the history

 

Managing Configurations

 

Editing Configuration Files

You can choose any version in the startup/running history and edit them as draft.

To edit configuration files,

1. Go to "Inventory >> Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be edited

2. In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed

3. Click "Edit as Draft" available beside the running/ startup configurations (current configuration). You may now edit the content. Click "Save".  You may upload it to the device immediately (as startup/running configuration) by clicking the link "Save & Upload"

4. If you want to edit any previous versions. Click on the "Current Version" against "Running Configuration" / "Startup Configuration" whichever is required.

5. In the GUI that opens, check for config changes to see the previous versions. Click "Edit as Draft" available beside the configurations to edit the content. Click "Save"

 

Creating New Drafts

Instead of editing the startup/running configuration, you can create fresh draft configuration to upload only a few commands - say for updating SNMP community.

To create a draft,

1. Go to "Inventory >> Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be edited

2. In the GUI that opens up, Click on 'Add Draft' from the more actions button

3. In the text editor that opens up, you can create the draft with the required commands and "Save". 

 

Important Note: When you upload a new draft to the running configuration of a device, the difference is merged with the previous version. On the other hand, when it is done on the startup configuration, only the draft contents are uploaded - that means, the previous version will be replaced by the draft contents. So, exercise care while uploading draft to the startup configuration.

 

Comparing Configuration Versions

One of the powerful features of Network Configuration Manager is its capability to provide side-by-side difference between any two configuration versions. You can compare two configuration versions of the same device or of different devices.

To compare configurations,

1. Go to "Inventory >> Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device whose configuration is to be compared

2. In the GUI that opens up, the configuration details are displayed

3. Under 'Configs', click on the "Current Version" against "Running Configuration" / "Startup Configuration" whichever is required

4. In the GUI that opens up, the current configuration is shown. "Configuration Changes" provides the list of all previous configuration versions. Click on the required version, which is to be compared with another version.

5. Go to 'More Action' and select an option from the drop-down (Diff with Previous, Diff with Baseline, Diff with Startup/Running, Diff with Any)

 

Option to Exclude Specific Lines/Text

While generating configuration difference between anytwo versions, there might be requirements to exclude certain specific lines or text. For example, lines containing Cryptochecksum information, speed token, NTP clock-period should be ignored while taking the difference. While Network Configuration Manager itself takes care of excluding information like the ones above, users can specify exclude criteria based on specific needs. Once the criteria is specified, Network Configuration Manager will exclude the lines matching the specified criteria for all devices belonging to the device template for which the exclude criteria is created.


You may make use of Regular Expressions while specifying the Exclude Criteria. For instance, if you wish to exclude the lines containing the text "logging" followed by an IP address, you may specify the criteria as logging.*

To specify the exclusion criteria,

• Go to "Settings">>"Device Management">>"Exclude Criteria" 

• In the UI that opens up, click "Add Criteria"

• Select the required template name in the drop-down, add the criteria and click "Save"

Once you do this, the specified criteria will be enforced for the selected devices and the lines matching the criteria will be ignored while taking configuration difference.

 

Performing Various Actions on Devices/Configurations

From the "Inventory" >> "Device Details" page, you can perform various actions on the device such as enabling real-time configuration change detection, executing various 'show' commands on the device, edit device properties, edit credentials and launching telnet connection with the device.

 

Executing 'show' commands

You can execute 'show' commands such as 'Show Version', 'Show Interfaces', "Show Tech Support", "Show Access Lists", "Show Logging", "Show IP Traffic" and "Show Buffers" on specific devices from the inventory tab. Network Configuration Manager executes the command and displays the result.

To execute 'show' commands,

1. Go to "Inventory >> Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device on which the show command is to be executed

2. Go to "More Actions" and click the link "Show Commands" in the drop-down. The various commands that are applicable for the selected device, are displayed. Click the desired command. The result of the command is displayed

 

Note: If you want to execute show commands on multiple devices at one go, make use of the script execution in configuration templates.

 

Enabling Real-time Change Detection

Refer to the section Real-time change detection

 

Establishing Telnet Connection

You can launch telnet connection with the device from the Device Details page. Once you provide the credentials needed, you would be able to have a telnet console and work with it.

To launch telnet connection,

• Go to "Inventory >> Devices" and click the hostname of the particular device for which you wish to open a telnet session

• Click the icon "TERMINAL" present on the top

• In the UI that opens up, provide the following credentials:

 

 

• Click "Connect"

• Telnet console would be launched

 

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