About configuration archive

The configuration archive tracks all of the current, trusted, and historical configuration files for each device over time. The archive is updated as configuration changes are made internally and externally.

Your administrator defines how many, and for how long, configurations are archived.

Most devices work with ASCII configuration files and support either of the following scenarios:

• Running configuration file only: Single configuration file that represents the runtime and startup configuration.
• Startup and Running configuration file: The Running configuration file is the active configuration. The Startup configuration file is loaded at start or restart into the Running configuration. The configurations are different from each other because changes are made to one, but not to both configurations.

Other devices allow a configuration to contain binary data, with or without an associated decoded version. Some devices require one or more trails other than, or in addition to, the Startup and Running configuration trails.

Examples

• Cisco Catalyst modular or fixed configuration switches running Cisco IOS software: A separate file called vlan.dat stores the VLAN information. To do a complete snapshot of your configuration, TrueSight Network Automation includes the vlan.dat file in the snapshot. The vlan.dat file is a binary file, but TrueSight Network Automation performs a show vlan command to capture the decoded contents of the file for display.

• F5 BIG-IP: Configuration data is contained in various files in the /config directory; TrueSight Network Automation can back up the files listed in the following table:

  
  F5 BIG-IP configuration trails

  Path and file	Type
  /config/bigip.conf	ASCII
  /config/bigip.license	ASCII
  /config/bigip_sys.conf	ASCII
  /config/bigip_base.conf	ASCII
  /config/BigDB.dat	ASCII
  /config/profile_base.conf	ASCII
  /config/ssh/ssh.crt*.crt	ASCII
  /config/ssh/ssh.key*.key	ASCII
  /config/ssh/sshd_config	ASCII
  /config/ssl/ssl.crt*.crt	ASCII
  /config/ssl/ssl.key*.key	ASCII
  /etc/alertd/alert.conf	ASCII
  User configuration set (UCS) file	Undecoded binary
  Running configuration of version 10.2	ASCII

• Nortel BayStack 450: Configuration data is maintained in the Startup trail. Although the startup configuration file from the device contains binary data, TrueSight Network Automation includes a utility that can decode its contents for display.

When you view the contents, or the contents are used for compliance checking or configuration profiling, the decoded data is used. The binary data is used during Deploy to Stored span action and in configuration export.

Related topic

Maintaining the configuration archive