Compare Configurations for Routers and Switches
Implement config compare software to more easily spot config differences
Use a config-to-config diff view to identify configuration diffs
Sometimes, configuration changes are only made to the in-memory config. However, if the device loses power, these changes are lost. It’s important to also save permanent configuration changes to the startup configuration. When you use network configuration management to compare NVRAM (running) with startup (saved) configs, you can identify any unsaved changes.
SolarWinds® Network Configuration Manager (NCM) is designed to support various config compare methods for viewing config diffs. You could contrast two diff configs on separate nodes or two diff versions of the same config file on the same node. Exclude specific lines and blocks to avoid flagging inconsequential changes.
Comparing different versions of the same config with NCM can help you more easily spot config changes and comparing configs on different nodes can help ensure they match. You can also run config compare tasks in multi-vendor environments to compare configurations between different vendors.
Automate config compare monitoring
Config modification monitoring and alerting through NCM enables you to accurately know when and how a config is changed. NCM could also show you reports of config comparisons to enable proper corrective action. NCM is built to use automation tools to test config changes, simplifying the process of correcting or updating device configs.
NCM can also help automatically identify potential network vulnerabilities for Cisco IOS, Cisco ASA, Cisco Nexus, and Juniper by importing NIST firmware vulnerability warning and correlating this data with currently managed nodes. If there’s a match, NCM displays information about the vulnerability and number of affected nodes on the Config Summary page.
Provide in-depth config insights
You can gain access to config monitoring metrics, review interface config changes, and backup plus restore config files on NCM. This can help you manage configuration comparison and improve overall performance.
NCM is designed to support search, filter, and other identification methods for auditing access control lists. This gives you complete control over your configuration compare and config insights, enabling you to use NCM configuration comparison tool to optimize network performance.
Access config compare historical metrics for reference
Sometimes device configurations are changed without notice or authorization. These out-of-process changes can cause network problems. When you use Network Configuration Manager to compare device configurations against a baseline or prior version of the configuration, you can quickly identify where specific changes were made to quickly and confidently reverse any unwanted changes.
NCM is designed to automatically organize config comparisons by device and version, allowing you to easily find desired config archives. You could also organize devices into personal preferred groupings for further control.
NCM enables you to enact quick recovery from config failures, plus reduce errors and downtime when adding or replacing a faulty device. Backup operations through NCM could further aid recovery missions, and NCM could automate backups for consistent config backlog data.
Help demonstrate compliance with policies and standards
To make devices more secure, they’re often configured according to risk prevention controls. For example, do all devices have strong passwords? Are only trusted devices allowed to access the network? Network Configuration Manager helps you quickly and reliably determine whether network devices are using these required controls using config compare to compare each config to a custom policy file. Network Configuration Manager can determine whether any controls are missing or have been improperly implemented. If a problem is found, Network Configuration Manager will highlight it, allowing for quick remediation.
Get More on Config Compare
Do you find yourself asking…
Config compare can help you maintain optimal configurations across your environments by allowing you to more easily view side-by-side comparisons of configuration files or configuration and policy files to identify changes, missing requirements, and other issues.
Config compare can help you maintain optimal configurations across your environments by allowing you to more easily view side-by-side comparisons of configuration files or configuration and policy files to identify changes, missing requirements, and other issues.
Use config compare to optimize router and switch configuration file management
Network Configuration Manager
- Make sure changes made to running configs are saved
- Quickly identify and fix unauthorized or failed config changes
- See config-to-config and baseline-to-config diff views
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