How to Install RANCID on Windows 10

RANCID (Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ) is a tool that helps network administrators to manage and monitor their network configurations. It is open-source software that can be used on various platforms, including Windows 10. In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install RANCID on Windows 10.

Prerequisites

Before installing RANCID, you need to make sure that you have the following prerequisites:

• Windows 10 operating system
• Git Bash or a similar command-line interface installed
• Perl programming language installed

Steps for Installation

Follow the below steps to install RANCID on Windows 10:

1. Download RANCID

• Go to the RANCID downloads page and download the latest RANCID version.
• Extract the downloaded zip file to a directory of your choice. For example, extract it to "C:\Program Files\rancid-3.14".

2. Set Environment Variables

• Press the "Windows" key on your keyboard and type "Advanced System Settings".
• Click on "Advanced System Settings".
• Click on the "Environment Variables" button at the bottom right of the window.
• Under the "System variables" section, click on "New".
• Enter the following details:

Variable name: RANCID_HOME

Variable value: C:\Program Files\rancid-3.14 (change this to the directory that you extracted RANCID to)

• Click "OK" to save the changes.

3. Install Required Perl Modules

• Open Git Bash or a similar command-line interface.
• Navigate to the RANCID directory by running the following command:

cd "${RANCID_HOME}"

• Run the following command to install the required Perl modules:

perl -MCPAN -e install YAML Expect Net::Telnet Mail::Sendmail DBI DBD::mysql DBD::Pg

4. Configure RANCID

• Navigate to the "etc" directory inside the RANCID directory.

cd "${RANCID_HOME}\etc"

• Copy the "rancid.types.base" file to "rancid.types".

cp rancid.types.base rancid.types

• Edit the "rancid.types" file using a text editor like Notepad or Sublime Text.

nano rancid.types

• Add a new section to the file for the devices that you want to monitor. For example:

switch;script;rancid
switch;login;clogin
switch;module;Arista;arista

• Save the changes.

5. Create Directory for Device Configurations

• Create a directory for device configurations by running the following command:

mkdir "${RANCID_HOME}\var\config"

6. Run RANCID

• Open Git Bash or a similar command-line interface.
• Navigate to the RANCID directory by running the following command:

cd "${RANCID_HOME}"

• Run the following command to start RANCID:

bin/rancid-run

• RANCID will now start monitoring the devices specified in the "rancid.types" file and saving their configurations in the "${RANCID_HOME}\var\config" directory.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed RANCID on Windows 10. You can now use this tool to manage and monitor your network configurations.

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