GVE DevNet Backup Config Script

For many users and service providers, it is important to make regular back-ups of your configuration files, so you can easily revert back to a working state. Cisco IOS-XE is an open and flexible operating system. In this Proof of Value (PoV), we take a three step approach to back-up our running configs and send the back-up to a server:

1. First, we read in a list of devices, which is a yaml file. In the list of devices, each device has a hostname, username, password and device_type. In this repository, we have uploaded a few Always-On DevNet Sandboxes.

For more information on the DevNet Sandboxes, click here

2. Next, we loop through the list of devices and for each device, we make a connection and we run the command show running-config to obtain the running coniguration. After obtaining the running configuration, we save it temporarily.

3. Last, we send the running configuration to a server using an scp command. We repeat the process for each device in the list of devices.

Contacts

• Simon Fang (sifang@cisco.com)

Solution Components

• Python 3
• Netmiko
• SSH
• IOS-XE
• CentOS server

Installation/Configuration

The following commands are executed in the terminal.

1. Create and activate a virtual environment for the project:

    #WINDOWS:
    $ py -3 -m venv [add_name_of_virtual_environment_here] 
    $ [add_name_of_virtual_environment_here]/Scripts/activate.bat
    #MAC:
    $ python3 -m venv [add_name_of_virtual_environment_here] 
    $ source [add_name_of_virtual_environment_here]/bin/activate
   

For more information about virtual environments, please click here

2. Access the created virtual environment folder

    $ cd [add_name_of_virtual_environment_here]
   

3. Clone this repository

    $ git clone [add_link_to_repository_here]
   

4. Access the folder gve_devnet_backup_config_script

    $ cd gve_devnet_backup_config_script
   

5. Install the dependencies:

    $ pip install -r requirements.txt
   

6. Open the .env file and add the environment variables. Please note that all the variables below are strings.

   SERVER_USERNAME = '<insert_server_username>' # e.g. 'admin'
   SERVER_HOST = '<insert_server_host>' # e.g. '10.10.10.10'
   DST_FOLDER = '<insert_dst_folder>' # e.g. '/path/to/file/'
   DEVICE_PASSWORD = 'C1sco12345' # Note: this is just an example password

   The first three variables relate to the server, but the last variable refers to the password of the devices that we are logging into. We are assuming that each device has the same password, but this might be different in your production environment. Please change this accordingly.

7. Add your devices to the devices.yaml file, which has the following format under the key devices:

• host

• username

• password

• device_type

  An example devices.yaml is added to the repository. These devices are part of the Always-On DevNet Ssandboxes. Please note: the password in the devices.yaml are masked and loaded in as an environment variable.

Usage

Now it is time to run the script. Simply type the following command in your terminal:

$ python main.py

Screenshots

LICENSE

Provided under Cisco Sample Code License, for details see LICENSE

CODE_OF_CONDUCT

Our code of conduct is available here

CONTRIBUTING

See our contributing guidelines here

DISCLAIMER:

Please note: This script is meant for demo purposes only. All tools/ scripts in this repo are released for use "AS IS" without any warranties of any kind, including, but not limited to their installation, use, or performance. Any use of these scripts and tools is at your own risk. There is no guarantee that they have been through thorough testing in a comparable environment and we are not responsible for any damage or data loss incurred with their use.
You are responsible for reviewing and testing any scripts you run thoroughly before use in any non-testing environment.

Use Case