About network span actions

Span actions are interaction "types" between TrueSight Network Automation and the devices being managed. Span actions target a single device or multiple devices via multiple device selection, groups, realms, or the entire network. These target devices are referred to as the "span" and the type of interaction selected is the "action" to be performed. TrueSight Network Automation supports actions on network spans such as Snapshot, Deploy to Stored, Commit, and Reboot. Actions are initiated by users, web services clients, and policies. A single job might execute one or more of the following actions:

Span action	Description
Assign Target	Assigns a Target configuration to a device. Once assigned, the Target configuration can be modified, audited for compliance to standards (that is, assigned Rules) and merged/restored to a device.
Commit	Copies the device's Running configuration to the Startup configuration to ensure changes are applied at restart (for example, for Cisco performs a `write mem`)
Compliance Status	Displays the compliance status information from the archived compliance data recorded during prior Snapshot and Refresh Device Status actions.
Custom Action	Custom actions are scripts written by the site to perform custom device interaction. The scripts are written by using the TrueSight Network Automation XML scripting language, which is easy to learn and hides complex I/O operations so you can focus on the task at hand. For details, see Developing a custom action adapter. Custom actions are most commonly used to: Implement a configuration change based on polled device state information. Gather device information for monitoring, reporting, analysis and planning purposes (for example, Show VLANs, Get System Serial Number).
Deploy OS Image	Deploys an OS binary image to a device.
Deploy to Active	Makes configuration changes to the Running configuration. Deploy to Active is used to: Rollback to any prior configuration. Make configuration changes by using a template (from the library), Ad-Hoc Template (as entered), or a rule. Load a Target configuration. Note: See Changing device configurations for more information about when it is best to use template, rule, or Target configuration to make configuration changes. TrueSight Network Automation supports the following types of Deploy to Active operations: Full merge: The entire configuration file or template is merged onto the device by TrueSight Network Automation. The result of this Deploy to Active operation depends on the device's internal logic for resolving differences between the current Running configuration and the selected configuration. Incremental merge: SmartMerge technology creates a script that includes only those commands that are necessary to transform the current Running configuration into the selected configuration, or to enforce the selected Rule.
Deploy to Stored	Copies a configuration to a device's Startup configuration.
Mark as Trusted	Designates a device's trusted configuration or desired state for discrepancy monitoring, reporting, and notifications.
Reboot	Restarts a device. This causes a device to invoke a prior configuration change or a newly loaded OS image.
Refresh Device Status	Refreshes the compliance violation, discrepancy status, configuration profiled dynamic fields, and offline status for a network span. If you modify a non-CAP dynamic field with auto-grouping enabled, you have to run this action to refresh the status. For information about when to use this action see Testing rules, Understanding when to refresh, and Tips on when to force a compliance check .
Remediate	Makes corrections to the in-violation compliance rules, based on the corrective actions of each rule.
Scan syntax	Validates the syntax of a CLI script without changing the device's configuration. Used when testing new templates or rules.
Snapshot	Copies the Running and Startup configuration from the device to the configuration archive. The configuration files are only added to the archive when changes are detected.
Snapshot OS Image	Copies the current OS binary image from the device to the OS image library.
Telnet/SSH Session	Launches a Telnet/SSH session with a device where TrueSight Network Automation proxies the session; logs the command/response interaction in the job transcript, and shows a side-by-side difference report of all the changes made during the session.

About network span actions

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