Post by Andrew BrennanWhile 3Com's older switches are menu driven, I believe the 3300s and
4xxx models all permit you to "overload" the command - effectively using
it as though there was a standard CLI. You can't dump the config to
text where RANCID would then parse it, but you can script up a rather
simple wrapper and run a TFTP daemon to collect the configs (which are
text files, so if RANCID were then reading the files from the dump
directory ...)
Hmm, I didn't know the configs saved through tftp were text files, I'd
always assumed they were binary. But then I don't think I've ever looked
... in that case your solution may well be viable and maybe I'll give it a
whirl one day (although to be honest while we have a huge legacy of the
older kit, most of our development concentrates on the newer H3C stuff).
I'm also minded to comment that there are two philosophies for using
rancid; it is certainly useful as an actual backup tool, but you have to
be aware that restoring one of those backups requires some care,
especially if you've been stripping out sensitive information like SNMP
strings (I can't remember the last time I actually needed the backup of a
switch config).
In my environment, it's actually the other functions of rancid that are
its most useful features - the notification of config changes and the
ability to review changes over time through CVS. I work in a team of
several, and it works well for us to get notified of the changes others
are making day-to-day.
Jethro.
Post by Andrew BrennanIf you're familiar with Expect and the "autoexpect" script, either SSH or
system backupConfig save <tftpd-ip> <filename> <notes-field>
... and you'll have your configs (mostly) backed up. The backup process
leaves out a few security related bit of data (ssh keys, etc.) so you may
need to include those later before you restore a config to a switch. The
autoexpect script builds a script to run exactly what you have typed. If
you modify that script to read a few arguments when you start it, you'll
be 95% done with your 4400 backup project.
andrew.
Post by Steve OusleyMany thanks for the quick response Jethro, this is not the answer I wanted
(We use 3Com 4400's) but I'll have to live with it. I can see why it's not
possible, and it's not too much of a problem, we will have to investigate
some other method of doing this.
Cheers again.
Steve
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Jethro R Binks
Computing Officer, IT Services
University Of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK