Cisco-Conf - README

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

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

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