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FAQ
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Frequently Asked Questions about rancid - last updated 20091111.
This FAQ contains information that may not apply directly to versions of
rancid prior to 2.3. It also contains paths containing tags such as
<PREFIX>, which refer to paths that are site-specific and are determined
by how rancid was configured at installation time. These are explained
briefly in the configure --help output. Below are the defaults used in
rancid.
PREFIX configure --prefix= option. default: /usr/local/rancid
EPREFIX configure --exec-prefix= option. default: <PREFIX>
BINDIR configure --bindir= option. default: <EPREFIX>/bin
The location of clogin, etc.
SYSCONFDIR configure --sysconfdir option. default: <PREFIX>/etc
The location of rancid.conf, etc.
LOCALSTATEDIR configure --localstatedir option. default: <PREFIX>/var
The location of the CVS repository, log files, etc.
The most recent FAQ can be found at http://www.shrubbery.net/rancid/FAQ
1) Platform specific
Q. I have a Cisco Catalyst 6500 series switch running the IOS (NOT catOS)
software, is the router.db device type cisco or cat5?
A. A catalyst running IOS is type "cisco". The 'show version' output will
have banner including a phrase similar to "Cisco Internetwork Operating
System Software". See the router.db(5) manual page.
Q. I have Hybrid Cisco switch, like a cat5k with an RSM. How do I collect
both the routing engine and switch configurations?
A. Recommended way is to use two entries in the router.db, one for each.
For example:
cat5k_rsm.domain.com:cisco:up
cat5k_sw.domain.com:cat5:up
Q. I have a Cisco ??? on which collection stopped working, but clogin works
as expected.
A. Check if 'write term' produces output. Some IOS combined with large
configs and low free memory produce zero 'write term' output, esp. combined
with a memory leak. The device will have to be rebooted and/or upgraded.
Q. I have a Cisco Catalyst switch. clogin connects, but after receiving the
prompt, it stalls until it times out. Why?
A. This may be due to your prompt. CatOS does not include an implicit '>' in
it's prompt, like IOS does. clogin looks for '>' during login, so specify
your prompt with a trailing '>'. Also see cat5rancid(1). For example:
cat5k>
cat5k> enable
Password:
cat5k> (enable)
Q. Polling a ZebOS box fails from cron, but is successful from the command-
line.
A. This is the tty/pty handling of either your O/S or ZebOS. Supposedly,
changing the TERM in <SYSCONFDIR>/rancid.conf to the following seems to
fix it.
TERM=vt100;export TERM
COLUMNS=160; LINES=48; export COLUMNS LINES
2) CVS and filesystem permissions
WARNING: Be careful when mucking around with the repository!
Q. I am new to CVS, where can I find additional information?
A. The manual page for CVS is quite complete, but can be be overwhelming even
for someone familiar with RCS. There are some excellent resources on the
web. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concurrent_Versions_System and
http://cvshome.org/.
Q. Errors are showing up in the logs like:
cvs [diff aborted]: there is no version here; run 'cvs checkout' first
A. The directory was not imported into CVS properly or was not properly checked
out afterward, so CVS control files or directories do not exist. rancid-cvs
should always be used to create the directories and perform the CVS work.
If it is just the directories that have been created manually, save a copy of
the router.db file, then remove the group's directory, use rancid-cvs, and
replace the router.db file. If the CVS import was also performed manually,
cd to <LOCALSTATEDIR> and use 'cvs co <rancid group>' to create all the CVS
control bits.
Q. I keep receiving the same diff for a (or set of) devices, but I know the
data is not changing repeatedly. Why?
A. This is probably a CVS or filesystem permissions problem. Check the log
file from the last run for that group for clues first; it may provide the
exact cause.
Note: It is very important the following be done as the user who normally
runs the rancid collection from cron.
Check the cvs status of the device's file. example:
guelah [2704] cvs status rtr.shrubbery.net
===================================================================
File: yogi.shrubbery.net Status: Up-to-date
Working revision: 1.197 Tue Jul 10 15:41:16 2001
Repository revision: 1.197 /usr/local/rancid/var/CVS/shrubbery/configs/rtr.shrubbery.net,v
Sticky Tag: (none)
Sticky Date: (none)
Sticky Options: (none)
The Status: should be Up-to-date. If the status is "Unknown", then somehow
the file has been created without being cvs add'ed. This should be
corrected by removing that device's entry from the group's router.db file,
run rancid-run, replace the entry in router.db, and run rancid-run again.
If the Status is anything else, someone has most likely been touching the
files manually. Sane state can be achieved by removing the file and running
cvs update <file> to get a fresh copy from the repository.
Check the ownership and permissions of the file and directory and the
directory and file in the cvs repository (<LOCALSTATEDIR>/CVS/). They
should be owned by the user who runs rancid-run from cron. At the very
least, the directory and files should be writable by the rancid user. Group
and world permissions will determined by the umask (default 027), which is
set in <SYSCONFDIR>/rancid.conf. Likely the easiest way to fix the
ownership on the cvs repository is
chown -R <rancid user> <LOCALSTATEDIR>/CVS <LOCALSTATEDIR>/<GROUPS>
Q. I am renaming a device but would like to retain the history in CVS. How
is this done?
A. CVS does not provide a way (AFAIK) to rename files or to rename or delete
directories. The best way is to copy the CVS repository file manually
like this (disclaimer: BE VERY CAREFUL mucking around with the repository):
% su - rancid_user
% cd <LOCALSTATEDIR>
% echo "new_device_name:device_type:up" >> <GROUP>/router.db
% cp -p CVS/<GROUP>/configs/old_device_name,v \
CVS/<GROUP>/configs/new_device_name,v
% cd <GROUP>/configs
% cvs update
where GROUP is the name of the rancid group that the device is a member of.
Once the renaming is complete, remove the old name from the router.db file
and leave the CVS clean-up of the old filename to rancid.
If one wanted to move a device to a different group and maintain the
history, the same procedure would work, substituting the new group name
appropriately and editing the router.db of both old and new groups, of
course.
SVN provides a rename function; but we suggest that you use it's
copy function instead, and leave the clean-up of the old name
to rancid. So, you would use the copy function (proper
substitutions, of course) in place of the cp in the CVS example,
then commit the new file.
Q. I am new to svn. Where can I find more information?
A. The svn so-called "red book" is the definitive guide.
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/svn-book.html
Q. I am removing a group and would like to remove all traces of it from the
rancid directory and the CVS repository. How is this done?
A. As far as I know, CVS does not provide a way to remove directories. First,
remove the group from <SYSCONFDIR>/rancid.conf. If rancid is running,
wait for it to complete. Then just recursively remove the
directory. For example, a group named "fubar":
% su - rancid_user
% cd <LOCALSTATEDIR>
% rm -rf fubar CVS/fubar
Q. I would like to place my CVS repository on a remote machine. How do I do
that?
A. Assuming that you're starting fresh, its quite simple. Before running
rancid-cvs for the first time, adjust CVS_RSH & CVSROOT in rancid.conf
similar to the following:
CVS_RSH=ssh; export CVS_RSH
CVSROOT="myhost:/fqpn/CVS"; export CVSROOT
Note that CVS_RSH is not found in the sample rancid.conf that is distributed
with rancid.
Q. I need a web interface to the rancid CVS repository, for the CVS unsavvy.
A. cvsweb works with rancid. Other similar software may as well.
http://www.freebsd.org/projects/cvsweb.html
cvsweb.conf:
@CVSrepositories = (
'rancid' => ['RANCID CVS, '/full_path_to_the_RANCID_CVS'],
where the path will be <LOCALSTATEDIR>/CVS.
3) General
Q. I have a (set of) device(s) on which collection fails. How can I debug
this?
A. Our usual diagnostic procedure for this is:
- Make sure that the appropriate *login (example: clogin for cisco) works.
This tests to make sure you don't have routing or firewall issues, DNS
or hostname errors, that your .cloginrc is correct, your banner does
not have some character that *login does not like, and that the *login
script doesn't have a bug of some sort. For example:
clogin cisco_router
Should login to cisco_router and produce a router prompt that you can
use normally, as if clogin were not used (i.e.: telnet cisco_router).
- See if commands can be executed on the router via clogin. This will
exercise the *login functionality needed for rancid. For example:
clogin -c 'show version; show diag' cisco_router
Should login to cisco_router, run show version and show diag, then
disconnect and exit. The output will be displayed on your terminal.
- Then see if the correct rancid commands work against the router. For
example:
rancid cisco_router
Should produce a cisco_router.new file (cooked to a golden rancid-style
colour) in the current directory. If it does not, try again with the
-d option, so that the cisco_router.new file will not be removed if
an error is detected. Note: if you have NOPIPE set in your environment,
a cisco_router.raw file will be produced that is the raw output of the
dialogue with the device.
If all of these work, make sure that the device's entry in the group's
router.db file is correct and check the group's last log file for errors.
Q. I am receiving persistent diffs for up/down/added/deleted devices in
router.db, but nothing has changed and the cvs repository is up to date.
A. Check that the configure process run during the installation of rancid
determined the proper options for diff(1); look for diff in the
control_rancid script.
If you also run rancid from the command-line, be sure that your locale
environment variables are consistent between your interactive and non-
interactive (ie: cron) environments. On some O/Ses, the locale will
affect the operation of sort(1).
Q. Are there any characters in the banner that rancid has problems with OR
I changed the device's command prompt and now collection is failing?
A. The trickiest part about clogin (et al) is recognizing the prompt
correctly. clogin looks for '>' and '#' to figure out if it is logged
in or in enable mode. So if you have a '>' or '#' in your login banner
(or other motd), then clogin gets confused and will not be able to log
in correctly, and thus rancid will fail.
Don't use '>' or '#', or whatever the termination character of the given
device's prompt is, in your prompt or in your banner or other motd.
Q. I use <BINDIR>/*login -c to run commands on multiple boxes. Sometimes
these are commands that take secondary input, like a filename. How can I
enter the data for that secondary prompt?
A. Two methods will work. Write an expect script to be used with clogin's
-s option, for which a few examples come with rancid like cisco-load.exp.
OR provide all the input in one command with the -c option like so:
Router#clear counters
Clear "show interface" counters on all interfaces [confirm]
Router#
clogin -c 'clear counters\n'
The specific return (\n) will be entered after 'clear counters' followed
by the normal return after the command. Some devices apparently eat the
linefeed of the typical Unix \r\n sequence and require that a carriage-
return be used instead (\r).
Q. I would like to collect device configurations every hour, but only receive
diffs every Nth collection or every N hours. Is this possible?
A. Certainly, but rancid does not provide such a mechanism natively. Two
approaches are recommended:
1) Using your preferred mail-list software, add a list with a digest
and configure your MTA (example: sendmail) to send diffs to the
list. Configure the mail-list software to force the digest at the
interval desired. This allows folks to choose which type they
prefer, after each collection or every N hours.
This method also provides easy methods to archive the diff mail and
retrieve previous diffs.
2) Write a script to send diffs, which saves the time it last ran
and passes this to the -D option of CVS.
Obviously, the first option is the cleanest and most featureful, which is
why the script mentioned in the second option is not provided.
Q. I'd like to have RANCID automatically begin collection when someone
finishes configuring a router. How can I do this?
A. Using a syslog watcher script, one can trigger RANCID from the syslog
line emitted by, for example, an IOS router after configuration mode is
ended.
Here's a simple example using the Simple Event Correlator:
(http://simple-evcorr.sourceforge.net/)
If the syslog line in your logs looks like this (wrapped for readability):
Apr 5 09:56:52 acc1.geo269.example.com 72: 000069: *Mar 6 21:40:13.466 \
AEDT: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by gwbush on vty0 (10.1.1.1)
You would use a SEC configuration stanza like this:
# example rancid trigger
#
type=SingleWithSuppress
ptype=RegExp
pattern=\s\S+:\S+\S+\s(\S+)\.example\.com.*SYS-5-CONFIG_I
action=shellcmd /opt/rancid/bin/do-diffs -r $1
window=1800
This will execute the command '/opt/rancid/bin/do-diffs -r acc1.geo269'
when it is fed a line like that syslog line. The command will be run at
most once every 1800 seconds. If you do not get hostnames in your
log lines that match your router.db entries, either fix your reverse
DNS or remove the '-r $1' part.
Q. I would like to limit the permissions of the rancid user on my devices. Is
this possible?
A. Strictly speaking, no. Rancid needs permission to read device configuration
and other data which is often not available to underprivileged users.
However, if you use TACACS+, you can limit the commands that are available
to a user.
For example, to allow ping and show, but not "show tcp", and nothing else:
user = rancid {
cmd = "ping" {
permit .*
}
cmd = "show" {
deny tcp.*
permit .*
}
# the default is to deny other commands
}
For RADIUS, Justin Grote suggested privilege levels:
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/ios122/122newft/122t/122t13/ftprienh.htm
Q. For approximately X hosts (configs) what size server should we be
considering - speed and data storage?
A. On modern machines it is unlikely you will have issues with disk space or
memory - A heavily laden access router with a complex config won't consume
more than a few megabytes of disk space for its configs over several
years time (roughly 3 times the sum of all the config or */configs/* over
2 years is a decent approximation).
Rancid is typically CPU bound if you have adequate network bandwidth.
Experience shows rancid takes around 50 Mhz * minutes / device of processing
power. This means that a 1Ghz machine can poll:
1000 Mhz * 60 (min/hour) / 50(Mhz min / device) = 1200 devices/hour
That's obviously a ball park estimate which varies with many different
factors such as the CPU type and the types of devices on your network.
Q. How can I run rancid to make the most efficient use of resources (i.e.
run in the shortest amount of time)?
A. You can adjust PAR_COUNT in rancid.conf to achieve maximum efficiency
during polling. You can watch the output of the standard unix command
vmstat command during polling to determine whether or not the cpu is being
wholly utilized - there should be little idle time and no process blocking
(see vmstat).
Another simpler method is to look at the time stamps on the rancid log
files, and adjust PAR_COUNT until the least amount of time is taken
during polling. Make sure all devices are being polled by rancid before
using this method - failing devices can extend the amount of time rancid
takes to finish by a *LONG* period and throw your times way off.
It may help to run rancid niced (man nice) if it will be sharing
resources with other processes, as it may eat whatever is available if
PAR_COUNT is set high. This is done by changing the crontab to be
something like:
5 * * * * nice -19 /usr/local/rancid/bin/rancid-run
If you _do_ share resources with other processes but want rancid to
run efficiently, probably the vmstat method above will work better -
rancid may take a little longer to run but you won't be stepping on
other people's toes.
Q. I'm still stuck on this problem. Where can I get more help?
A. A discussion list is available, [email protected]. You must
be a subscriber to post. Subscribe like this:
shell% echo "subscribe" | mail [email protected]
Q. What else can I do with rancid?
A. The possibilities are endless...rancid is non-toxic when applied properly.
see Joe Abley and Stephen Stuart's NANOG presentation:
http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0210/abley.html
or our NANOG presentation:
http://www.shrubbery.net/rancid/NANOG29/
4) License
Q. Please explain the RANCID license.
A. Quite simple; read it. It is a slightly modified BSD license; it has an
additional clause.