System network administration

RANCID – Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ

RANCID monitors a router’s (or more generally a device’s) configuration, including software and hardware (cards, serial numbers, etc) and uses CVS (Concurrent Version System), Subversion or Git to maintain history of changes.

Rancid currently supports Allied Telesis switches running AW+, Cisco routers, Juniper routers, Catalyst switches, Foundry switches (now Brocade), Redback NASs, ADC EZT3 muxes, MRTd (and thus likely IRRd), Alteon switches, and HP Procurve switches and a host of others.

RANCID is free and open source software.

RANCID performs this activity with the following process:

  • login to each device in the router table (router.db),
  • run various commands to get the information that will be saved,
  • cook the output; re-format, remove oscillating or incrementing data,
  • email any differences (sample) from the previous collection to a mail list,
  • and finally commit those changes to the revision control system.

Website: shrubbery.net/rancid
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Henry Kilmer, John Heasley
License: BSD-style license


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Read our verdict in the software roundup.


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