Jul 14, 2013 6:36 PM
New Zenpack : ZenPacks.TwoNMS.Rancid
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Hi,
I've just released a new ZenPack to integrate the Shrubbery Networks tool RANCID for configuration backups. This Zenpack fully integrates Rancid in the Zenoss interface and displays all config changes as device components. The configs can be viewed in Zenoss directly but integration with an external viewer like ViewVC is possible as well.
If anyone would be interested to test and give feedback that would be greatly appreciated. Installation is straight forward however there are few system requirements (tar, subversion, gzip, expect) before starting the installation.
The full documenation and screenshots can be found here : http://mwallraf.github.io/ZenPacks.TwoNMS.Rancid/
cheers
Maarten
Can I just say, that looks awesome. I'd try it, but I don't think RANCID supports Blade or HP Procurve switches that well...
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James Pulver
ZCA Member
CLASSE Computer Group
Cornell University
Hi James,
Actually RANCID supports HP Procurve switches, you just need to fill in "hp" in the zRancidDeviceType. It will use the rancid script "hrancid" in the background
http://www.shrubbery.net/rancid/
Maarten
Yes, I did find that out. Just wish there was one that supported Blade / IBM System Networking switches as those are our core switches that are "important"...
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James Pulver
ZCA Member
CLASSE Computer Group
Cornell University
Maarten,
This is great, thanks for sharing creating and sharing this! I have a couple suggestions/questions if you have time.
It might help some people save a few minutes of troubleshooting if you add "telnet" and "sendmail" to your list of prerequisites on your ZenPack page.
Also, I had to add "community.twonms.python.RancidMap" as a modeler plugin for the devices in Zenoss, otherwise the "Rancid Configs" component wouldn't show up. Is that normally a required step? And if so, it might help people to add that to your page.
Device names (the name used in Zenoss) needs to be able to resolve to an IP address (people who have been using RANCID already know this). Is there a way you can think of to automatically add each host to the /etc/hosts file or to use the IP address instead of name? Most of our device names are not resolvable, although I guess I could change our naming conventions and make them resolvable.
Again, thanks a bunch, this is a very nice ZenPack!
-Nate
Hi Nate,
Thanks very much for using this Zenpack and for providing the feedback.
I've added your suggestions to the documenation page http://mwallraf.github.io/ZenPacks.TwoNMS.Rancid/
Perhaps I can implement them in the next version.
The modeler plugin is something I took for granted because that's a general way of working with Zenoss but indeed it's needed in order to integrate the Rancid results into the Zenoss GUI. By the way, not sure how you're using this, but personally I never check the configs inside Rancid because it's a bit slow but do I use the direct links to redirect the device configs to my ViewVC page using the zRancidViewerPath zproperty.
The zenpack uses the zenoss device id andindeed these have to resolve to IP addresses for Rancid to work. I always make sure that my host is known in DNS or in /etc/hosts and then I add devices to Zenoss based on that hostname. But another method is to automatically sync the Zenoss devices to /etc/hosts. This can be easily done and I think there are some example scripts available in the Zenoss forums. The Zenrancid script cannot do this because it runs as the zenoss user and by default the /etc/hosts file requires root permissions to change.
Using IP addresses would indeed be an option but I prefer to see the hostnames in ViewVC or in the Rancid config folders (via command line) so that's why I decided not to use ip addresses. Perhaps I can make this an option in the next release
Thanks again for the suggestions!
Maarten
Maarten,
I agree, I would rather see the hostnames instead of the IP addresses. I was just looking for a way to have it completely automated and not need to manually edit the /etc/hosts file. Your suggestion to sync the /etc/hosts file with Zenoss sounds great, I'll definitely look into that.
I also did set up ViewVC like you suggested on the documentation page, that works great. You did a great job documenting this ZenPack!
Thanks,
Nate
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