[rancid] distributed RANCID setup

[William]

Hi list,

Has anyone implemented RANCID where the collectors are distributed?

We currently have FreeBSD boxes dotted around sites for management
purposes, with a central server that sits in our office and can
communicate with each stub server. Currently our central server does
all the RANCID/CVS work, however, there are some devices that we
cannot reach for reasons out of my control.

What I would like to do is have each stub server access the devices
within its reach, keeping its own repository then sync with the
central whenever possible, meaning we can check our local (central)
server to us to check configs but also not miss that critical config
change when our links are down to our various stub servers.

Setups/configs/comments/papers/man pages/clues are all appreciated,

Thank you for your time.

Regards,

Will