Showing posts with label configs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label configs. Show all posts
Monday, August 15, 2016
Backup Cisco Configs Using Putty
Backup Cisco Configs Using Putty
You can easily capture the configuration file from any network devices like Cisco Routers, Switches etc.. with putty. Follow below steps..
1. Launch putty and connect to your Cisco router/switch
2. Enter the user exec mode (router> enable)
3. Enter the terminal length 0 command (router# terminal length 0) in order to force the router to return the entire response at once, rather than one screen at a time. This allows you to capture the configuration without extraneous ??more?? prompts generated when the router responds one screen at a time.
4. Right-click on the menu bar of the Putty screen and select “Change Settings”
5. Go to Session and click on Logging, select “Log all session output”
6. Click on Browse and choose the location and name of the file (I like to place my config file on my desktop – C:Documents and SettingsAdministratorDesktopconfig.txt)
7. Click apply.
8. Now enter the show run command (router# show run), then log out and see the output in config.txt on your desktop (or the location you chose).
This is a pretty simple thing to do and can be a real life saver if you happen to lose the config on a device. It sure is a lot easier to copy and paste it back in instead of recreating it from scratch. Cisco equipment is great but I have seen instances where the running config wasnt saved to the memory and after a restart it reset back to an old startup config or back to brand new (worst case).
You now have the power!
1. Launch putty and connect to your Cisco router/switch
2. Enter the user exec mode (router> enable)
3. Enter the terminal length 0 command (router# terminal length 0) in order to force the router to return the entire response at once, rather than one screen at a time. This allows you to capture the configuration without extraneous ??more?? prompts generated when the router responds one screen at a time.
4. Right-click on the menu bar of the Putty screen and select “Change Settings”
5. Go to Session and click on Logging, select “Log all session output”
6. Click on Browse and choose the location and name of the file (I like to place my config file on my desktop – C:Documents and SettingsAdministratorDesktopconfig.txt)
7. Click apply.
8. Now enter the show run command (router# show run), then log out and see the output in config.txt on your desktop (or the location you chose).
This is a pretty simple thing to do and can be a real life saver if you happen to lose the config on a device. It sure is a lot easier to copy and paste it back in instead of recreating it from scratch. Cisco equipment is great but I have seen instances where the running config wasnt saved to the memory and after a restart it reset back to an old startup config or back to brand new (worst case).
You now have the power!
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Archive Cisco Switch and Router Configs Using TFTP and Configuration Archive
Archive Cisco Switch and Router Configs Using TFTP and Configuration Archive
The worst time to realize you dont have a current backup of your switch or router is when that device is having issues or worst case dies and it is actually needed. For a great comprehensive list of Cisco IOS commands I recommend THIS BOOK. Its for Amazon Kindle.
Administrators have the ability to run a manual backup of the configs or you can set it to do this automatically or every time you do a "write memory" to save a config change.
Given how easy this is to setup theres no reason for you not to have this on your switches.
Lets dive into how easy this is to setup.
First youll need a good TFTP server program. Personally I like the free Solarwinds TFTP Server. This like is for the Windows version. You can run it on a server or a workstation if needed. The price is right, setup is simple, and youll have this going in a couple of minutes.
Next its time to setup the switch or router to do the automatic backups for you.
Lets look at a couple of way to set this up.
The first way is to just backup each time you do a "write memory". This is my favorite setup as it does not generate unnecessary network traffic and I know that the files on my TFTP server are the latest config as long as they were saved.
R1(config)#archive R1(config-archive)#path tftp://192.168.1.10/R1-config R1(config-archive)#write-memory R1(config-archive)#exit |
Now one of the details I add after the IP address and forward slash is the name of the device so when it creates the automatic backup file I know which device it came from based on the devices host name.
Another way to set this up is to do backups daily for you automatically without the need to a manual update. This setup will archive every day or if you do a "write memory" command on the switch.
R1(config)#archive R1(config-archive)#path tftp://192.168.1.10/R1-config R1(config-archive)#write-memory R1(config-archive)#time-period 1440 |
Now these two methods ensure your switch configs are backed up either as you do a change and save it or automatically each day.
Finally the great thing about these auto backups is you can also restore them using the same functions. One thing to note is that this command does not merge the settings with what is currently running, it fully replaces it so use caution.
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