How to install RANCID on FreeBSD Latest

RANCID (Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ) is an open-source tool that helps you to monitor network devices configurations for changes. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install RANCID on FreeBSD Latest.

Prerequisites

Before beginning the installation, make sure that:

• Your FreeBSD system is up-to-date.
• You have root privileges.
• You have an active internet connection.

Step 1: Install Required Packages

To install RANCID on FreeBSD, we need first to install some essential packages:

# pkg install subversion \
libverto teTeX2 \
tex-jadetex perl5 \
p5-Net-SNMP p5-IO-Tty

Step 2: Download and Install RANCID

1. Download the RANCID source code from the official website: http://www.shrubbery.net/rancid/. For example, to download the version 3.13, run:

# fetch http://www.shrubbery.net/rancid/dist/rancid-3.13.tar.gz

2. Extract the downloaded file:

# tar -zxvf rancid-3.13.tar.gz

3. Go into the rancid-3.13 directory:

# cd rancid-3.13

4. Install RANCID:

# ./configure
# make
# make install

Step 3: Configure RANCID

1. Create the rancid.conf configuration file:

# cp /usr/local/etc/rancid.conf.sample /usr/local/etc/rancid.conf

2. Edit the rancid.conf file with your favorite text editor to reflect your environment. The important things you need to configure are:

## DEVICE INFORMATION
- add devices that you want to monitor. 

## EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS
- Set the mail-to address 

## GROUP NAMES
- set group names 

## LOGGING
- set logging options

Step 4: Run RANCID

1. To run RANCID:

# rancid-run

This will run the RANCID job and retrieve the configuration files for the devices that you have specified in your rancid.conf file.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured RANCID on FreeBSD Latest. Now you can start monitoring and tracking changes in your network configurations.

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