Installing RANCID on OpenSUSE

RANCID (Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ) is a free tool which helps to monitor network devices configurations, changes and backups. It allows storing the configurations in a version control system and alerts network administrators on configuration changes. In this tutorial, we will install RANCID on OpenSUSE.

Prerequisites

Before starting the installation, ensure that your OpenSUSE system is up-to-date.

sudo zypper update

Install RANCID on OpenSUSE

1. Open the terminal and execute the following command to install the RANCID package.

sudo zypper install rancid

2. Once the installation is completed, create a directory to store the configurations. In this tutorial, we will create a directory named rancid under /opt.

sudo mkdir /opt/rancid
sudo chown rancid:rancid /opt/rancid
sudo chmod 775 /opt/rancid

3. Create a cloginrc file with login credentials for the devices. Replace username and password with the actual credentials.

sudo vi /opt/rancid/.cloginrc

add user * username
add password * password
add method * ssh

4. Create a rancid.types.conf file with the list of devices to monitor. Replace device1, device2 etc. with the actual device names and IP addresses.

sudo vi /opt/rancid/etc/rancid.types.conf

# List of devices to monitor
router;script;rancid -t router;login;router1
router;script;rancid -t router;login;router2
switch;script;rancid -t switch;login;switch1
switch;script;rancid -t switch;login;switch2

5. Enable and start the RANCID service.

sudo systemctl enable rancid
sudo systemctl start rancid

6. Verify the RANCID installation.

sudo rancid-run

This command initiates the backup process for all the devices listed in the rancid.types.conf file.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have successfully installed RANCID on OpenSUSE and initiated the backup process for the devices. RANCID is a robust and powerful tool that can help to monitor and manage network devices efficiently.

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