Installing Rancid w/ViewVC under Debian/Ubuntu
by deaves
When managing a network there are tools out there like Solarwinds, Cisco NCS or even Cisco Works that allow engineers to backup configurations; but tools like them can sometimes be unwieldy and/or clunky at their best. In the enterprise I general run ARCHIVE on Cisco routers and switches to automatically back up my configs to a Linux TFTP server. For other devices like the ASA and non-cisco gear, that do not have ARCHIVE functionality, I use a tool called RANCID and ViewVC for config backup and change tracking purposes.
There is a lot of documentation on the internet about setting up rancid, so the following is a very condensed step-by-step on getting Rancid up and running on a Debian distro.
Package Installation
sudo apt-get install rancid viewvc
Configure Rancid
Set the CVS folder
sudo pico /etc/rancid/rancid.conf
Add LIST_OF_GROUPS=”**rancid**“ to the config file.
sudo -u rancid /usr/lib/rancid/bin/rancid-cvs
Configure /etc/cron.d/rancid
sudo pico /etc/cron.d/rancid
MAILTO=root
# Run config differ hourly
0 23 * * * rancid /usr/lib/rancid/bin/rancid-run
# Clean out config differ logs
50 23 * * * rancid /usr/bin/find /var/log/rancid -type f -mtime +2 -exec rm {} \;
Configure ~rancid/.cloginrc
sudo -u rancid pico ~/.cloginrc && chmod 600 ~/.cloginrc
add user * rancid
add password * RANCIDPW RANCIDPW
add method * ssh telnet
Configure device database
sudo -u rancid pico /var/lib/rancid/rancid/router.db
Example: DEXTER-CS01;cisco;up;Dexters Lab Core Switch
Remember! For IPv6 compatibility RANCID now uses semicolons as a deliminator.
Create Symbolic Lync for clogin
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/rancid/bin/clogin /usr/local/bin/clogin