Managing Cisco Configs

[moetop]

This all spawned out of having a rotating guest wireless password. We have about 30 ish wireless Access points and another 100 ish routers and switches (all Cisco).
We need a tool to allow us to make changes to these devices in mass. In a previous job I have used Cisco works and WLSE, as well as custom Perl Scripts. CiscoWorks is a bit unwieldy and overbearing for our needs. Cisco WLSE is EOL and from the demo I am running it looks like Cisco WCS 4.x doesn’t support changing a key on an individual SSID, (nor pushing generic commands) (Cisco WCS 4.x is the last version to support autonomous access points (from what they say) and adding wireless controllers to this mix is cost prohibitive. The Custom Perl scripts would work, but it’s kludge.

I have been looking at Manageengine’s Device Expert Network Configuration management software. (they have a video and live demo under the demo tab). It has more features than we need, but is relatively cheap at $2500 for the amount of devices we need to manage. I have briefly used their tools in the past, and they seem to be easy to use and manage.

What I am looking for are suggestions / comments on this tool or others. Here is a list of what we are looking for.
- Be able to change configurations in mass
- Easy to maintain
- Easy to use

We are open to opensource as long as it’s not a bear to maintain / configure.


EDIT - Just spotted Kiwi Cat tools, and remembered Cisco's CNA.. Still looking for suggestions / comments
EDIT 2 - CNA requires HTTP HTTPS to be turned on. No good.

 

[just2cool]

HP Network Automation Server (NAS). De facto standard in the financial industry. Manage tens of thousands of devices... we run it on an oracle backend and sync the DB across 3 global locations. Each regional server is primarily responsible for devices in that region unless there's a failure.

It can blast changes, run IOS scripts, see who changed what and when, restore configs, etc. Having used both, Ciscoworks is absolute shit in comparison.

It's definitely pricey, though... but you should try the trial:
https://h10078.www1.hp.com/cda/hpms/display/main/hpms_content.jsp?zn=bto&cp=1-11-271-273^14681_4000_100__

 

[k1pp3r]

SecureCRT is amazing, i just don't want to pay for it lol

 

[calvinj]

Why is that wireless lan controller out of the question. You have that many access points it should justify the cost. I understand it wouldn't take care of your other network devices, but would at least take care of all of the access points maybe making the network devices more managable

 

[archivalbackup]

I am running it looks like Cisco WCS 4.x doesn’t support changing a key on an individual SSID, (nor pushing generic commands) (Cisco WCS 4.x is the last version to support autonomous access points (from what they say)

I swear I just read today that WCS 6 will still manage autonomous APs .... I may have to look again, I can't remember for sure.