Cisco::Conf - A module and utility for managing Cisco configurations via TFTP ==================================================================== 1.) What is it? Are you managing a Cisco router? Perhaps not a single one, but a large set of routers? You have learned how to retrieve a routers configuration to a TFTP server or put a configuration file to the router. In that case this module will save you a lot of work. It offers you methods to - add or delete routers from or to a set of managed routers - edit a routers configuration file; including invocation of the revision control system (RCS) - save a configuration file into the router - retrieve a configuration file from the router Each router has an associated set of administrators: The administrators don't need root permissions, as the cisconf utility (the command line representative of Cisco::Conf) will usually be installed suid root - without a security penalty. (At least no penalty I know of. :-) 2.) Directory layout The recommended directory structure is as follows: A certain directory, by default '/usr/local/cisco/etc' contains the modules main config file ('configuration') and a set of router configurations. If you have the routers 'myrouter' and 'internet', the configuration files will usually be named 'myrouter.conf' and 'internet.conf'. The router configurations may contain comments, any line may contain a comment, introduced by an exclamation mark. Another directory, by default '/usr/local/cisco/tftp', contains stripped versions of the router configurations. This directory is used by the TFTP server for sending and receiving files. 3.) Installation Easy: First you have to install the prerequired Perl modules, the Data-Dumper module, the Net-Telnet module and perhaps the IO-stringy modules. This is done by fetching the archives and doing (for example) like this: gzip -cd Data-Dumper-2.081.tar.gz | tar xf - cd Data-Dumper-2.081 perl Makefile.PL make make test su -c "make install" Installing the Cisco-Conf module is just as simple! The only difference is that the Makefile.PL will ask you a couple of question and allow you (for example) to choose the installation directories, enter the local hosts IP address and similar things. 4.) Adding routers Once the module is installed you should insert your routers into the router list of the main configuration file. For example a machine 'myrouter' is added by running cisconf -a myrouter This will again ask you some questions, for example the hosts IP address and similar things. See the man pages of cisconf and Cisco::Conf for details by running perldoc cisconf perldoc Cisco::Conf 5.) Retrieving configuration files from the router Once you have added a router to the configuration file, it is a good start to fetch the routers current configuration by executing cisconf -l myrouter This will contact the router and save its configuration in '/usr/local/cisco/tftp/myrouter.conf'. 6. Editing configuration files After the routers configuration is fetched, you can invoke the editor by running cisconf -e myrouter For example the first step will typically be inserting the file you have just retrieved from the router. 7. Saving configurations into the router Modifications are saved with cisconf -s myrouter or cisconf -s myrouter -w The former will modify the routers running configuration only, the latter will save the modifications into the non-volatile memory. 8. Author and Copyright This program is Copyright (C) 1998 Jochen Wiedmann Am Eisteich 9 72555 Metzingen Germany Phone: +49 7123 14887 Email: joe@ispsoft.de All rights reserved. You may distribute this module under the terms of either the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file. 9. See also the Cisco::Conf(3) manpage, the Cisco::Conf::Install(3) manpage, the tftpd(8) manpage