[c-nsp] Automated configuration backups

[A.L.M.Buxey at lboro.ac.uk]

Hi,
> Hello,
> 
> I would like to do an automated backup of router's configuration. How 
> can I do this? Everything that I've found was to use rsh command. Are 
> there any other ways? Maybe some tool from Cisco?
> 
> I've got Cisco 2821 and want to make backups from Linux box.

many others have already pointed out RANCID. which is a good tool.
we had issues when using it against several hundred devices (and havent
looked at it recently to see if this is fixed). however, another option, 
which we followed, was to write our own little 'expect' scripts. these
scripts take a list of hosts from a hosts file and then (as well as doing
other tasks) dump the running config to a local file (eg 2950-buildingA-flr1-1.tmp), a check is made to see if the stored '.running' file is different..if not
then the temp file is removed...if it is different, then a quick 'log rotate style' operation is done (so we have 8 running config backups in historical order)
a simplemans 'cvs' if you like.

of course, the big boys all use 'git' instead of CVS or subversion...but we
dont have time..... ;-)

alan