[rancid] Re: RANCID as an Element of a CMDB System

[Lance Vermilion]

Traiano,

There are commercial tools that do that (AlterPoint, Tripwire, etc).
For opensource the only thing I know of off hand is a config collector
for Cacti. It is very basic but it does work and it does store the
config in mysql.

As for Rancid doing what you want I don't think it would be all that
hard to simply import the configs then inject them into mysql. To keep
the mysql in sync with the rancid repo you could take good note of
what rancid looks for and create the proper fields and tables to hold
what you want. Rancid and grab what ever you want it to. Hell you can
even make it do an snmp query to get info you want.

-Lance

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 1:39 AM, Traiano Welcome <twelcome at tenet.ac.za> wrote:
> Hi All
>
> We've recently been tasked with putting together a CMDB system, and one
> aspect of this system is the storage (and further analysis) of router
> configurations. Currently, this is handled  in the following way:
>
> 1. A rancid instance pulls router configs into the usual "config" directory,
> resulting in a collection of ,v files.
> 2. A "cmdb agent script" regularly polls the directory and extracts all new
> configs and changed router configs into a MySQL database schema. at this
> point the router configs are considered to be within the CMDB proper.
> 3. Staff with access to a php web interface can view the physical elements
> of routers (chassis, Slots, PSU, Processor, Feature Cards etc ...) and their
> serial and part numbers and thus conduct Asset Tracking and Stores
> Management.
>
> At this point, the system is functional, but a major problem I forsee is
> keeping the database schema up to date so that when new router models appear
> with new hardware element fields and formats I would have to modify the
> schema and some back-end import code to cater for new fields.
> Ideally, what I want is a pre-canned sql schema for each model router config
> (or a single generic one!) which would allow me to easily import a router
> config into a database.
>
> Does such a thing exist? Alternatively, is there a RANCID variant out there
> which already imports router configs to SQL databases?
>
> Thanks in Advance,
> Traiano
>
>
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