Configuration Backups

GridNMS automatically backs up the configuration of your network devices over SSH, keeps a version history, and shows you exactly what changed between any two versions. When a config changes, the change is also recorded in your logs — so you can see “what changed on this device” right next to the events it may have caused, and even alert on config changes with a detection.

How it works

Once a day (by default), the collector connects to each SSH-enabled device and pulls its running configuration. GridNMS compares the result to the last stored version:

• Nothing changed — nothing is stored. Timestamps and other lines that churn on every pull (like “Last configuration change” comments) are ignored, so you don’t get phantom versions.
• The config changed — a new version is saved, and a log entry records the change with the number of lines added and removed.

GridNMS keeps the most recent 50 versions per device.

Prerequisites

Config backup uses the same SSH access as SSH monitoring:

1. Enable SSH on the device’s class (Configure → Device Classes → your class → SSH) and set the username/password GridNMS should log in with.
2. The device must actually expose SSH — GridNMS skips devices where port 22 isn’t open.

That’s it — the Config Backup collector ships enabled in the core network pack and starts pulling on its daily schedule.

Choosing the backup command

The default pull command is show running-config, which works on most Cisco-style CLIs (IOS, IOS-XE, Arista EOS, Aruba AOS-CX, and others). If a device family needs a different command, set the Backup script field on its device class — every device in that class (and its subclasses) will use it instead. Examples:

Platform	Command
Cisco IOS / IOS-XE, Arista, Aruba	show running-config (default)
Juniper Junos	show configuration | display set
FortiGate	show full-configuration
MikroTik RouterOS	/export

You can also change how often backups run: Configure → Monitoring Packs → Core Network → Config Backup collector interval.

Viewing versions and diffs

Open any device and switch to its Config tab:

• The left column lists every stored version — when it was captured, its size, and a short fingerprint.
• Changes shows what changed between the selected version and the one before it: added lines in green, removed lines in red.
• Full config shows the complete configuration as it was captured.
• Download saves the selected version as a text file.

Alerting on config changes

Every captured change writes a log entry (source type gridnms:config) with the device and the number of lines added/removed. To get notified when a config changes — on all devices or just critical ones — create a detection over those log entries and turn on its notifications.