Viewing a Configuration Comparison report
The Configuration Comparison report allows you to compare templates to templates, templates to configurations, and configurations to configurations.
To generate a Configuration Comparison report by using the wizard
- Open the Configuration Comparison report wizard page by navigating to Reports > Status Reports > Configuration Comparison.
- New in 8.9.03Optionally, enter an annotation (to identify this report when it appears in a list among other reports) and enable an email notification to be sent when the report generation is complete and the report is ready for viewing.
- Select the types of files that you want to compare and then, select the two files.
- Click
to display the list of templates, devices, or groups, then choose one.
The example shown in the following figure compares a configuration for a single device against a template. - If the selected template contains runtime parameters, click the Params button and enter the runtime parameter values.
You can specify up to 2000 characters in each runtime parameter value. - Click Next.
- For a network span, select the type of configurations to compare.
- Click Next to begin the report generation and New in 8.9.03to display its progress on the Report Activity page.
- Click Refresh until the report is completed, or wait until you receive the notification email. If the report is aborted, the Progress column indicates so, to alert you that the report data is partial. You can view the partial report, but be aware it is partial. You should refine your selections (if you asked for too-large a report) or re-generate the report (if it was aborted due to a system shutdown) in order to obtain a complete report. Then delete the aborted report as soon as possible. For more information about the Report Activity page, see Viewing-report-activity.
- Click the Configuration Comparison link in the Report column to display the report.
Verify that the report is complete. If the report was aborted, the title and the report generation information in the footer inform you so, and the footer informs you about the user who aborted it. An aborted report will be missing one or more devices or templates.
The Configuration Comparison report shows a summary of differences (deleted, added, changed lines, image changed) between the selected files. (Optional): Perform one of the following tasks by using the menu options that are available on the Configuration Comparison report page:
Menu option
Description
Back (Applicable for 8.9.02 and earlier versions)
Refine (Applicable for 8.9.03 and later versions)Return to the wizard to change report parameters and generate a new version of the report.
Print View
Print a copy of the report.
Export
Export the report to one of the following formats:
- HTML
- RTF
Email
Email the report to one or more recipients in one of the export formats.
Help
Display Help.
- Click the View Diff Details Report
icon to display the Difference Details report.
Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*