Network Management & Monitoring

Using RANCID Part II

Notes:

Commands preceded with "$" imply that you should execute the command as a general user - not as root.
Commands preceded with "#" imply that you should be working as root.
Commands with more specific command lines (e.g. "RTR-GW>" or "mysql>") imply that you are executing commands on remote equipment, or within another program.

Exercises

Become the RANCID user

Make sure you are the root user first. If not, then do:
```
$ sudo bash
```
To become the RANCID user do:
```
# su -s /bin/bash rancid
```

Note the IP addresses for the routers

10.10.254.xxx  where xxx goes from 1 to 26

Update /var/lib/rancid/.cloginrc

Change the file to look like this:
```
$ editor /var/lib/rancid/.cloginrc


add user 10.10.254.* sysadmin
add password 10.10.254.* pass enable_pass
```
(This tells RANCID that all hosts called "10.10.254.*" use the same password and user -- no need to add every router by hand! The first match in the file wins)
Update the router.db
```
$ editor /var/lib/rancid/all/router.db
```
Add some other classroom routers to the file. You should end up with something like:
```
10.10.254.5:cisco:up 
10.10.254.6:cisco:up 
10.10.254.7:cisco:up 
10.10.254.8:cisco:up
```
(Note that "cisco" means this is Cisco equipment -- it tells Rancid that we are expecting to talk to a Cisco device here. You can also talk to Juniper, HP, ...)
Run rancid again:
```
$ /usr/lib/rancid/bin/rancid-run
```
(Should take a few seconds)

Check out the logs:

$ cd /var/lib/rancid/logs
$ ls -l

... Pick the latest file and view it

$ less all.YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS

Look at the configs
```
$ cd /var/lib/rancid/all/configs
$ less 10.10.*
```
If all went well, you can see the configs of ALL routers
Change the configuration on the router (change the description on an interface, for example)
Run rancid again
```
$ /usr/lib/rancid/bin/rancid-run
```

Play with clogin:

$  /usr/lib/rancid/bin/clogin -c "show clock" 10.10.254.x

What do you notice ?

Add the RANCID CVS repository in to CVSweb

If you are still logged in as user rancid, get back to root
```
$ exit
#
```
Install CVSweb:
```
# apt-get install cvsweb
```

Edit the file /etc/cvsweb/cvsweb.conf

# editor /etc/cvsweb/cvsweb.conf

Below the line

'local'   => ['Local Repository', '/var/lib/cvs'],

add

'rancid'   => ['Rancid Repository', '/var/lib/rancid/CVS'],

Save and exit

Fix a link:
```
# cd /var/www
# ln -s /usr/share/cvsweb .
```
Open a web browser to the link:
```
http://pcXXX/cgi-bin/cvsweb/
```
Select the RANCID repository and browse the files under the 'all' directory.

Rancid looking glass

Rancid can also provide a web interface for support staff to perform limited queries on routers, without letting them know the passwords.

To use it, install the rancid-cgi package, and point your web browser at http://pcXXX/cgi-bin/lg/lgform.cgi

You need to copy your routers.db to /etc/rancid/routers.db and your .clogin file to /var/www/.clogin, and make them readable only to the www-data user. Beware that if there are other CGIs running on your Apache server, they will be able to read these passwords.

Configuration file is /etc/rancid/lg.conf. Additional info is in man lg_intro and files in the directory /usr/share/doc/rancid-cgi, especially README.lg