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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Using TELNET to backup Cisco Router and Switch's configuration

Aboriginal Art and Ponds, in Hualian County, Taiwan
I believe you agree that you hardly attach a console cable to your routers or switches in daily maintenance. Your network devices are always locked up on a rack in a room so far away! TELNET is a more frequently used software on Windows.

To backup configuration of a Cisco router or switch, I share with you a tip using TELNET. (However, this tip is only applicable on Windows XP!) If your PC comes with Windows Vista or 7, you should install TELNET client first.



TELNET -F log-file.txt 192.168.1.1

where "log-file.txt" is the screen capture file name. "192.168.1.1" is your router/switch's management IP address. You should be very familiar with what to do next after you login!

For example, you might want to issue the following commands:

enable
terminal length 0
show run
show start

In above commands we set the "terminal length" purposely to zero to stop output paging with lots of annoying "--- MORE ---".

Now everything including the configurations you want to backup is "captured" in "log-file.txt". Not bad, isn't it?
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12 comments:

  1. My boss asked me to back up our router and switches configuration.. It really helped me :-) Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  2. Welcome! I am really glad to know it helps you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice ...
    It worked fine on windows 7 .. just need to enable telnet client there.
    Thanks much
    leo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @leo You are correct! Now I updated the post with your help. Thank you very much!

      Delete
  4. thanks...really helps...

    ReplyDelete
  5. how can I upload this file back to the router via telnet?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In fact, you can do xmodem file upload just within the TELNET connection to overwrite the startup configuration. However, you should use other TELNET client, such as HyperTerminal.

      Delete
  6. Where will the file be saved. How do i access this file?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It will be saved as "log-file.txt" right at the current working directory. You can use any text editor such as Notepad to open and process this file.

      Have you succeeded on this?

      Delete
    2. Yes, i have succeeded. Thanks so much.

      Delete

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