Deploying to the running configuration

A job with the Deploy to Active action updates the device's active Running configuration. As outlined in Managing device configurations and Managing-configuration-compliance, Deploy to Active can be used for:

• Rolling back a configuration to a prior configuration
• Making configuration changes by using a target configuration
• Making configuration changes by using templates (from library or ad-hoc)
• Making configuration changes by using rules
• Enforcing compliance to assigned rules (that is, audited configuration policies)

You can request TrueSight Network Automation to perform a Scan Syntax before making the configuration change. If the Scan Syntax fails on a device, the configuration change is not made to that device. When a change completes successfully, you can also request that the resulting Running configuration be marked as Trusted and copied to the Startup configuration (that is, Commit). TrueSight Network Automation also performs a snapshot after the Deploy to Active action to update the archive.

To run the Deploy to Active action

1. On the Add Job page, select Add Actions > Span Actions > Deploy to Active.

2. Enter information in the following fields:

   The [confluence_table-plus] macro is a standalone macro and it cannot be used inline. Click on this message for details.
   This macro generates standalone content. As a consequence you need to make sure to use a syntax that separates your macro from the content before and after it so that it's on a line by itself. For example in XWiki Syntax 2.0+ this means having 2 newline characters (a.k.a line breaks) separating your macro from the content before and after it.
   

3. In the Configuration field, select the configuration, template or rule(s) to merge with the device's Running configuration.
   • Trusted Running: Deploy the device's Trusted Running configuration.
   • Target: Deploy the device's Target configuration.
   • Template: Deploy the selected template. If the template references runtime parameters, select Params to assign the parameter values. To correctly format templates, see the tips under Understanding-template-formatting.

   • Ad-Hoc Template: Deploy the ad-hoc template created specific to this action. The ad-hoc template belongs to the job and is deleted when the job is deleted. The ad-hoc template does not appear in the template list.
     
     Click Create/Edit Template and enter the configuration commands that are to be sent to the device during the deploy operation.
     
     To insert substitution parameters into the template, click Substitution Parameters, select the category, and use your desktop's native copy/paste function to copy the substitution parameter name into the template. See also Using-substitution-parameters-in-templates.

     Note

     You can edit the ad-hoc template after the job is saved if the job is draft, scheduled, or waiting for approval state. If the job is copied, the ad-hoc template is copied with the job and can be edited. To correctly format the ad-hoc template, see the tips under Understanding-template-formatting.

   • Historical Running: Deploy the device's selected historical configuration.
   • Remediate With: Select one or more rule sets and rules to remediate or correct. There are conditions under which Network Automation can make the current running configuration compliant based on the rule grammar and device type.
   • Remediate With All Assigned: Remediate or correct all or a subset of the assigned rule sets, to correct rules actively in violation.
     Click Filter Rules to set rule filter criteria. For example, you might want to enforce assigned rules based on Violation Severity. See Managing-policies for recommendations for how to configure a policy to automatically correct assigned rules based on filter criteria.
   • Historical Trail(s) By Date: Deploy the selected historical trail(s) to the devices in the selected network span, to their active configuration.
     Use this option when several different trails should always be deployed together, when they have inter-related settings. Select one or more trails, other than the running trail from the drop-down menu of mergeable trails, then choose the configuration active at that date/time. Only those trails applicable to a particular device are deployed to that device.

   • Historical Trail: Deploy a selected configuration to the selected device. Select the trail to be deployed, then select the particular configuration.
     
     

     Note

     When you select Historical Trail or Historical Trail(s) By Date, SmartMerge is not used.

4. Select any of the following options, as relevant:

   The [confluence_table-plus] macro is a standalone macro and it cannot be used inline. Click on this message for details.
   This macro generates standalone content. As a consequence you need to make sure to use a syntax that separates your macro from the content before and after it so that it's on a line by itself. For example in XWiki Syntax 2.0+ this means having 2 newline characters (a.k.a line breaks) separating your macro from the content before and after it.
   

   1. For advanced options related to the Deploy to Active action of the configuration file, click Advanced Options, and then select from the following options, as relevant.

      Note

      Depending on the vendor, Network Automation supports such Deploy to Active options when you have selected a configuration (for example, Trusted Running, Historical Running, Target). 

       

      Option	Description
      Full Merge	The entire configuration file is merged onto the device by 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 scripts that include only those commands that are necessary to transform the current Running configuration into the selected configuration (rollback) or to enforce the selected rules. The SmartMerge script is merged onto the device.
      Stop on Syntax Errors (Only Tunneled Transfers)	Select this option to stop the Deploy to Active action if the device reports a command error, skipping all commands that follow the command in error The device must support the Tunneled file transfer mode for this option to be applicable.
      Force Tunneled Transfer Mode	Force Network Automation to ignore the device's file transfer mode setting and use tunneled mode instead. The device must support the Tunneled file transfer mode for this option to be applicable.

5. Click Save to add the action to the job.

You can preview the scripts that are to be deployed by clicking the Preview icon . To assess the change against the current configuration, click the Report icon . Network Automation displays a Configuration Comparison Report or Compliance Report for analysis. These Actions icons are shown in the following figure:

Additional information regarding remediation

When you choose Remediate With All Assigned, a device must be actively in violation of a rule for the Deploy to Active corrective actions of the rule to be executed. When you choose Remediate With, a device need not be in violation.

Only the Deploy to Active corrective actions in a rule are executed by a Deploy to Active span action. Any corrective action that is a Deploy to Stored, Deploy OS Image, or a custom action is ignored when running a Deploy to Active span action.

The Deploy to Active span action expands into one or more Deploy to Active sub-actions, each of which performs one corrective action. For example, you might have selected to remediate some rules whose corrective action pushes a template and other rules that push a compliant configuration. These would be represented as two sub-actions under the top-level Deploy to Active action. You can observe this action and sub-action hierarchy on the Preview Sub-Actions and Scripts page, the Job Details page, and the Job Summary report.