In 2.4 the configuration Archive Method changed slightly. The NetMRI will only
archive a startup or running configuration if there is a difference between the
collected configuration and the latest archived copy. If there is no differences
between the two,then the NetMRI will silently discard the retrieved configuration.
The timestamps on the archived configuration files will not change. This is
intentional to easily show when the last changes were made to a device.
There are a few interesting facets to this that can cause some confusion:
1. Config Activity Issues are being displayed, yet there are no configuration
changes detected or The archived config file time stamp is a few months old.
- On Cisco devices, if the 'copy run start', 'write mem' or 'config' commands
are issued, a trap is generated stating that configuration activity has
occurred.
Execution of these commands do not necessarily mean that an actual
configuration change was made. Example below is from a lab device that I
simply logged into and typed 'config t':
09-05-2008 10:40:41 Local7.Notice 172.23.31.56
60: *Sep 5 01:22:00.472: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by
taciossim on vty1 (172.23.31.53)
You can configure the Cisco device to send traps to the NetMRI. When this
type of trap is received, the config activity issue is fired and the NetMRI
will collect the configuration and compare it against the current archived
configurations. If there are no changes, then the archived configuration
will remain as the current config.
2. Configuration appears to be collected, but is not showing up in the archive or I
clicked the get config button but nothing happened.
- In 2.4.2 a 'Last Checked' field has been added to the 'Config Files --> View'
screen. This displays a timestamp for when the last configuration was
gathered and compared to the current archived configuration. If no changes
were detected, the current archived config will remain. This was added to
show that the config was gathered and no differences were detected.
EX: Last Checked: 2008-09-04 07:00:48
3. I made changes to a configuration, yet the latest archived configuration is
still older than when the changes were made
- If changes were made to a device and the current archived configuration
timestamp is older than when those changes were made, try the following:
> Check the 'Last Checked' time stamp to verify that a configuration
was collected
> If last checked time stamp is older than when the changes were
made, then check the Config Files --> Errors page to see if there
were any errors reported from the previous collection. If no
errors are reported, navigate to the Config Files --> Settings page
and click the 'Get Configs' button. Wait a few minutes and see if
the Last Checked field is updated.
If not, then:
a. export the current configuration
b. manually obtain a copy of the latest config from the device
c. Navigate to 'Settings --> Database --> Send Tech Data'
and download the Config Logs
d. Send the above outputs to support@netcordia.com
> If the last checked time stamp is newer than or around when the
changes were made:
a. export the current configuration
b. manually obtain a copy of the latest config from the device
c. Navigate to 'Settings --> Database --> Send Tech Data'
and download the Config Logs
d. Send the above outputs to support@netcordia.com
4. On the 'Config Files --> History' Page the config change log has two completely
different time stamps. For Example:
NetMRI Timestamp Device Timestamp Syslog Entry
008-09-02 07:37:46 Aug 7 16:27:15 edt Configured from console by
taciossim on vty0 (172.23.31.53)
The above output shows that the NetMRI gathered the syslog message of 'Configured
from console by taciossim on vty0 (172.23.31.53)' with a time stamp on
Aug 7 16:27:15 edt via the 'show logging' command, which the NetMRI executed on
2008-09-02.