RANCID (Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ) is an open-source tool that helps in managing network device configuration files. It is widely used by network administrators who need to keep track of changes to configurations across multiple devices, and also helps to detect unauthorized changes and prevent downtime.
In this tutorial, we'll walk you through the process of installing RANCID on POP! OS Latest, a popular Linux distribution based on Ubuntu.
Before we begin, ensure that you have:
First, we'll update the package list and install some required packages:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install make gcc expect git perl ssh
Next, we'll clone the RANCID repository from the official website to the local machine:
cd /opt
sudo git clone https://github.com/dotwaffle/rancid-git.git rancid
We'll now install RANCID by running the installation script provided in the cloned repository:
cd rancid
sudo ./INSTALL
Follow the on-screen prompts, and when asked to enter the location for the RANCID base directory, choose any directory that suits your environment (e.g. /var/lib/rancid).
Once the installation is complete, you'll need to update the configuration file with device information:
sudo nano /var/lib/rancid/.cloginrc
Add the device login credentials to this file in this format:
add user@device {password} {device-type}
For example:
add admin@192.168.1.1 password cisco
Save and close the file.
RANCID should now be installed and ready to use. You can test it by running the following command:
sudo /usr/local/rancid/bin/rancid-run
This command will fetch configuration files from the devices listed in .cloginrc and store them in the RANCID base directory.
In this tutorial, we showed you how to install RANCID on POP! OS Latest. By following these steps, you can now manage network device configuration files and prevent downtime.
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