Brocade Fabric Manager Administrator's Guide (53-10000196-01-HP, November 2006)

11-14 Fabric Manager Administrator’s Guide

Publication Number: 53-1000196-01-HP

Using Baseline Configurations for Configuration Management

See Chapter 9, “Change Management” for information about automatic configuration file backups.

You can use the Save Baseline tool within Fabric Manager to:

• Create a limitless number of baselines.

• Recover fabric and switch settings.

• Propagate a baseline configuration to each new switch that you add to a fabric to ensure that the

switch is compatible with the fabric.

• Propagate the baseline of one fabric throughout a second fabric before you merge the fabrics.

• Propagate a baseline configuration throughout a fabric to ensure consistent Fabric Watch and

SNMP settings.

• Create and store multiple baselines that serve different purposes so you can quickly adapt your

fabric as its function changes.

See the following sections for information on using baseline configurations and templates:

• “Saving a Baseline Configuration to a File” on page 11-14

• “Comparing Switches to a Baseline File” on page 11-16

• “Comparing Switches to a Baseline Switch” on page 11-18

• “Downloading a Configuration” on page 11-19

• “Customizing Baseline Configurations” on page 11-21

Saving a Baseline Configuration to a File

This section describes how to save a baseline configuration from a single switch in a fabric. You can

export the following categories of information from the configuration file to the baseline:

• Settings that you can normally assign with the configure command

• Settings for Fabric Watch and SNMP

• Settings for the security banner and password policy

When you create your baseline in Fabric Manager, you can choose the settings you want to add or omit

from the baseline. For example, you can save Fabric Watch configuration settings to a baseline, then

propagate those settings to an entire fabric and not alter the switch name of any switch in the fabric.

Table 11-2 Baseline Sources

Source Description

Switch Compare multiple switches to one switch that you identify as a baseline.

File

• Save the configuration file of a switch as a file on an FTP server.

• Compare switches to the baseline configuration file.

• Propagate the baseline configuration file to switches.