

Of course, the recommendation would be to store it off the router and that way you have an automatic backup of your configuration in case the router's flash goes bad.

You have the option to store the archived configuration in the router's flash or just about any other destination, on or off the router (off the router, using HTTP, FTP, RCP, or TFTP). From here, the minimum requirement to configure archiving is to enter a path to where the archive files will be stored.

This is done by entering the archive command. To configure archiving, you go into global configuration mode and then enter archive mode. Have you ever made a router configuration change, have something blow up the next day, and wish that you could go back to the old one? What if you neglected to save the config before you changed it? Can you figure out exactly what you did and try to put it back the way it was? The new Cisco IOS feature can help you solve that problem - or at least make it easier.Ĭisco IOS 12.3 introduced the Cisco IOS archive and archive config commands. How do you archive your router configuration? I'll show you the basics of configuring Cisco IOS archiving. Like many Cisco IOS features, the archive command has many options. (See my article " Configure Cisco Routers to Use Active Directory Authentication - the Router Side.") I would recommend Windows AD integrated authentication. From a security perspective, this is very powerful! Of course, you would want to make sure that you had individual usernames for all users logging in to the router. These archives can either be created manually by the admin or automatically by the router.Īlso, and equally as important, the archive command can be used to automatically log all commands on a router and the name of the person who entered that command. For example, it can help you create archives of your router configuration. The Cisco IOS archive command actually has a number of functions. Do you want to create archives of your configuration before every configuration change is made? What was the difference between the configuration you saved last year and the one you saved today? The archive command can help you answer these questions and more.
