[rancid] ASR1006 - IOS XE 3.1S, CRS-1 - IOS XR 3.9.1

[Mark Tinka]

Hello all.

IOS XE 3.1S (and maybe later) has a bug on the ASR1006
platform where an empty file called 'foo.bar' (no, really),
gets created on the hard drive file system.

Deleting this file does not help, and the router recreates
it.

The file is regularly modified, so RANCID is always catching
changes each time it runs. Bug ID CSCth48537 has been opened
for this, but no news on when a fix will be available.

On the CRS-1, a file called 'volt_cont' is constantly being
written to. This file stores environmental monitoring of
system voltages. This is not a bug, and is working as
designed.

Is there any way we can get RANCID to silence the changes in
these files, without losing any changes to any other files
in the same file systems?

Cheers,

Mark.

[Lee]

Post by Mark Tinka
Hello all.
IOS XE 3.1S (and maybe later) has a bug on the ASR1006
platform where an empty file called 'foo.bar' (no, really),
gets created on the hard drive file system.
Deleting this file does not help, and the router recreates
it.
The file is regularly modified, so RANCID is always catching
changes each time it runs. Bug ID CSCth48537 has been opened
for this, but no news on when a fix will be available.
On the CRS-1, a file called 'volt_cont' is constantly being
written to. This file stores environmental monitoring of
system voltages. This is not a bug, and is working as
designed.
Is there any way we can get RANCID to silence the changes in
these files, without losing any changes to any other files
in the same file systems?

As a temporary work-around, you could change rancid to ignore them -
take a look at sub ShowFlash and/or sub DirSlotN.

If the file size changes you might also want to ignore the " bytes
available " line. We've got some routers acting as a DHCP server and
saving the DHCP database to flash. It's a bit puzzling ar first to
see the free space change with no file changes listed.

Regards,
Lee

[Mark Tinka]

Post by Lee
As a temporary work-around, you could change rancid to
ignore them - take a look at sub ShowFlash and/or sub
DirSlotN.

For IOS XR, RANCID already has this:

# filter frequently changing files from IOX bootflash
if ($dev =~ /bootflash/) {
next if (/temp_cont\s*$/);
next if (/uptime_cont\s*$/);

Would adding another line for 'volt_cont' be all that's
needed?

Chers,

Mark.

[Lee]

Post by Mark Tinka

Post by Lee
As a temporary work-around, you could change rancid to
ignore them - take a look at sub ShowFlash and/or sub
DirSlotN.

# filter frequently changing files from IOX bootflash
if ($dev =~ /bootflash/) {
next if (/temp_cont\s*$/);
next if (/uptime_cont\s*$/);
Would adding another line for 'volt_cont' be all that's
needed?

If volt_cont is showing up in bootflash:, yes, that would probably do it

Regards,
Lee

[Mark Tinka]

If volt_cont is showing up in bootflash:,..

Yes, it is:

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:lab#dir bootflash:
Fri Oct 15 20:46:29.630 MYT

Directory of bootflash:

12582915 -rw- 60984 Tue Jun 29 05:26:20 2010 uptime_cont
12582918 -rw- 24 Tue Jun 29 05:26:20 2010 env_hist
12582920 -rw- 764 Tue Jun 29 05:26:20 2010 env_cont
12582923 -rw- 232 Tue Jun 29 05:27:56 2010 temp_static_data
12582927 -rw- 548 Tue Jun 29 05:27:56 2010 volt_static_data
12582931 -rw- 1516 Tue Jun 29 05:27:59 2010 temp_hist
12582933 -rw- 29155 Tue Jun 29 05:27:59 2010 temp_cont
12582936 -rw- 2460 Tue Jun 29 05:27:59 2010 volt_hist
12582938 -rw- 37488 Tue Jun 29 05:27:59 2010 volt_cont
12582941 -rw- 1304 Tue Jun 29 05:30:31 2010 uptime_hist
12582947 drwx 48 Tue Jun 29 05:39:25 2010 disk0
1769534 -rw- 24 Tue Jun 29 05:43:45 2010 errmsg_hist
1769536 -rw- 6475 Tue Jun 29 05:43:45 2010 errmsg_cont
1769541 -rw- 0 Tue Jun 29 05:48:30 2010 mbi_image
8847362 -rw- 32 Tue Jun 29 05:51:44 2010 uptime_static_data
8847370 -rw- 28 Tue Jun 29 05:52:25 2010 env_static_data
8847421 -rw- 24 Tue Jun 29 06:16:16 2010 diag_hist
8847424 -rw- 24 Tue Jun 29 06:16:16 2010 diag_cont

62390272 bytes total (50585352 bytes free)
RP/0/RP0/CPU0:lab#

yes, that would
probably do it

I've had it in there for about 6hrs now, but RANCID keeps
picking it up (30-minute intervals).

The comment for this line in the script says:

"filter frequently changing files from IOX bootflash"

Uncertain what 'frequently' actually means.

Cheers,

Mark.

[Lee]

This post might be inappropriate. Click to display it.

[Mark Tinka]

Post by Lee
I guess the next thing to check is the line in router.db
for that router. Is it xxx:cisco:up or some other
device type? Take a look at rancid-fe for what gets
called for what device type. If you've got the router
defined as "cisco-xr" you'd need to modify DirSlotN in
xrrancid to ignore that file

Yes, it's setup as ':cisco-xr'. I'll patch 'xrrancid'.

Post by Lee
Probably that the file changes often enough that nobody
wants to see it showing up in the diffs

Ignore that :-), clearly IOS XR has its own script and I
didn't catch that.

Will let you know how it goes.

Cheers,

Mark.

[Mark Tinka]

Post by Mark Tinka
Will let you know how it goes.

Works!

Cheers,

Mark.

[Lee]

Post by Mark Tinka

Post by Mark Tinka
Will let you know how it goes.

Works!

Yay! I'm glad you got it working

Regatds,
Lee

[Lee]

Post by Mark Tinka
Hello all.
IOS XE 3.1S (and maybe later) has a bug on the ASR1006
platform where an empty file called 'foo.bar' (no, really),
gets created on the hard drive file system.
Deleting this file does not help, and the router recreates
it.
The file is regularly modified, so RANCID is always catching
changes each time it runs. Bug ID CSCth48537 has been opened
for this, but no news on when a fix will be available.
On the CRS-1, a file called 'volt_cont' is constantly being
written to. This file stores environmental monitoring of
system voltages. This is not a bug, and is working as
designed.
Is there any way we can get RANCID to silence the changes in
these files, without losing any changes to any other files
in the same file systems?

As a temporary work-around, you could change rancid to ignore them -
take a look at sub ShowFlash and/or sub DirSlotN.

If the file size changes you might also want to ignore the " bytes
available " line. We've got some routers acting as a DHCP server and
saving the DHCP database to flash. It's a bit puzzling ar first to
see the free space change with no file changes listed.

Regards,
Lee