This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
A backup is the file you will need when the change fails. The script generator drafts a pull. It does not log in until you run it, and you run it only against a device you administer. The diff tool compares two files you already hold.
The file can contain keys, communities, and passwords. Store it with the secrets, not in a public git repository. Redact a copy if a ticket needs to show a stanza. Rotate anything that already leaked.
One device this hour, so you know the path works. A fleet job is the same script later, with an inventory you are allowed to hold. A backup you have never restored is a hope. In the lab, restore once or write why you cannot.
Do not pull a device you do not administer.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.
Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name one device.
- Draft the pull.
- Store the file outside git.
- Redact any copy that enters a ticket.
- Confirm you can tell this file from the last one.
- Do not back up a device you do not run.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Automated Config Backups goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A backup committed to a public repo.
- A secret left in the ticket copy.
- A script aimed at an inventory you do not own.
- No one has ever opened the file.
- The only copy stored on the device itself.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Automated Config Backups: The device is yours. The file is in the secret store. The ticket copy is redacted. You can tell two revisions apart. And the device is not the only copy.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: One device was pulled. The store location is written. A redacted stanza is the sample. The revision is identifiable. And no foreign device was contacted. If one of those fails, stop.
Before you leave the device
Automated Config Backups ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.
0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, a community string, or a pre-shared key you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the store.
One change is the window. A VLAN and a routing protocol and a VPN do not share it. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next feature waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied config produces a device nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the device name and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the device alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not a permission to touch a network you do not administer. The pillar guide owns the wider design. This page owns one lab proof.
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