Understanding Resynchronization of Device Configuration
In a network managed by Network Director, three separate repositories about device configuration are maintained:
The configuration information on the devices themselves. Each switch maintains its own configuration record.
The configuration information maintained by the Junos Space Network Management Platform. When a device is discovered, either by Junos Space or Network Director, Junos Space stores a record of the configuration on that device.
Network Director uses the configuration record maintained by Junos Space to determine what configuration commands need to be sent to the device when you deploy configuration on the device in Deploy mode.
The configuration information maintained by Network Director in Build mode. This information takes the form of the profiles assigned to the device, plus the additional configuration, such as LAG , that you can do under device management.
In Network Director, the configuration state of a device is shown as In Sync when the configuration information in all three repositories match. If there is a conflict between the configuration information in one or more of the repositories, Network Director shows the device configuration state as Out of Sync.
An Out of Sync state is usually the result of out-of-band configuration changes—that is, configuration changes made to a device using a management tool other than Network Director. Examples of such changes include changes made by:
Using the device CLI.
Using the device Web-based management interface (the J-Web interface or Web View).
Using the Junos Space Network Management Platform configuration editor.
Restoring or replacing device configuration files.
You cannot deploy configuration on a device when the device configuration state is Out of Sync.
This topic describes how Network Director enables you to resynchronize the device configuration state. It covers:
The Resynchronize Device Configuration Task
Network Director provides a task in Deploy mode that enables you to resynchronize the repositories of configuration information. When an out-of-band configuration change is made, you can use this task to resynchronize both the Junos Space configuration record and the Build mode configuration with the configuration on the device.
How Network Director performs resynchronization depends on the system of record (SOR) mode set for the Junos Space Network Management Platform. There are two possible modes:
Network as system of record (NSOR). This is the default mode.
Junos Space as system of record (SSOR).
You set the mode in Junos Space under Administration > Applications > Network Management Platform > Modify Application Settings.
How Resynchronization Works in NSOR Mode
In NSOR mode, the network device is considered the system of record for device configuration, which means the configuration maintained by the device takes precedence over the configuration maintained by Junos Space and Network Director. Thus when you perform a resynchronization, the Junos Space configuration record and the Network Director Build mode configuration are updated to match the device configuration.
When an out-of-band change is made on a managed device when Junos Space is in NSOR mode:
Junos Space detects that a configuration change has occurred on the device and informs Network Director about the change.
Both Junos Space and Network Director set the device configuration state to Out of Sync.
Junos Space and Network Director automatically resynchronizes its configuration record to match the device configuration and set the device configuration state to In Sync when the synchronization completes. Network Director performs auto-synchronization when it is operating in the Network as System Of Record (NSOR) mode. The auto-resynchronization parameters are defined in the Preferences page. These parameters enables auto-resynchronization after the interval specified in the Preferences page. For more information see, Setting Up User and System Preferences.
When the device out-of-band changes does not conflict with Network Director, Network Director automatically resynchronizes the network changes and retains the local changes in Network Directory. The configuration state of the device and the profile associated with that device remain unaffected. For example, if you modify the MTU value of the port ge-0/0/1 in Network Director and another user modifies the MTU value of port ge-0/0/2 on the same device, Network Director automatically resynchronizes the changes on ge-0/0/2 into Network Director and retains the local changes on ge-0/0/1. The profile corresponding to ge-0/0/1 continues to remain in Pending Deployment state and the profile corresponding to port ge-0/0/2 is in Deployed state.
When the device out-of-band changes conflict with the changes made in Network Director, Network Director does not automatically resynchronize the device changes into Network Director. The device is marked as Conflict. You must manually resynchronize the changes by using the Resynchronize Configuration task. After this, the local changes are discarded and are replaced by the latest network configuration. For example, if you modify MTU of ge-0/0/1 from Network Director and another user modifies MTU of the same port on the device, Network Director does not automatically synchronize and marks this device as Out Of Sync.
When a profile associated with a device is either added or removed from that device while another user tries to change the attributes corresponding to that profile, Network Director does not automatically synchronize the device and marks the device as conflict, and you must manually resynchronize the changes by using the Resynchronize Configuration task.
When you make local changes to profiles, the changes are merged with the new profiles if there is no conflicting configuration. If there are conflicting changes, Network Director receives an Out Of Sync message from Junos Space and you need to manually choose the appropriate profile value.
When you do not make any local changes on a profile, the device association with the profile is deleted and a new device association is created. However, when a profile has local changes, the device association of the profile is not deleted.
Automatic resynchronization, as described in Step 3 above, is a default setting for the Junos Space Network Management Platform. If automatic resynchronization is disabled, you must manually resynchronize the Junos Space configuration with the device configuration. You can do as follows:
Use the Resynchronize with Network action in Junos Space. The Junos Space configuration is synchronized with the device configuration. However, the Build mode configuration is not synchronized, so the device state in Network Director remains Out of Sync. You must use the Resynchronize Device Configuration task in Deploy mode to resynchronize the Build mode configuration.
Use the Resynchronize Device Configuration task in Deploy mode. In this case, Network Director resynchronizes both the Junos Space configuration and the Build mode configuration with the device configuration.
How Resynchronization Works in SSOR Mode
When Junos Space is in SSOR mode, Junos Space is considered the system of record for device configuration. In this mode, when an out-of-band configuration change occurs on a device, you can choose whether to accept the change or to overwrite the change with the configuration maintained by Junos Space.
When an out-of-band change is made on a managed device when Junos Space is in SSOR mode:
Junos Space detects that a configuration change has occurred on the device and informs Network Director about the change.
Junos Space sets the device configuration state as Device Changed, and Network Director sets the device configuration state to Out of Sync.
Network Director sets the device configuration state to Out of Sync even if the configuration change does not affect configuration you can perform in Build mode. This allows you to resolve the Device Changed configuration state for Junos Space from Network Director.
In Network Director, use the Resynchronize Device Configuration task to accept or reject the out-of-band changes:
If you accept the out-of-band changes, both the Junos Space configuration record and the Network Director Build mode configuration are resynchronized to reflect the out-of-band configuration changes.
If you reject the out-of-band changes, the configuration on the device is overwritten by the configuration record maintained by Junos Space. The Network Director Build mode configuration remains unchanged.
Both Junos Space and Network Director set the device configuration state to In Sync.
The above process differs somewhat when out-of-band configuration changes are made through the Junos Space configuration editor. In this case:
Junos Space sets the device configuration state as Space Changed after the configuration change is saved.
At this point, the changes have been made only in the Junos Space configuration record and the changes have not yet been deployed to the device. Network Director shows the device configuration state as In Sync.
Note:Because the device configuration state is In Sync in Network Director, you can deploy configuration on the device from Network Director at this point. If you do so, the Network Director changes are deployed on the device, but the Junos Space changes are not. The device state in Junos Space remains Space Changed.
When the changes are deployed to the device from Junos Space, Junos Space changes the device state to In Sync, while Network Director changes the device state to Out of Sync.
In Network Director, use the Resynchronize Device Configuration task to resolve the Out of Sync state. In this case, because the Junos Space configuration record and the device configuration are in sync, you cannot reject the changes. When you resynchronize the device in Network Director, the Build mode configuration is updated to reflect the configuration changes.
Network Director sets the device configuration state to In Sync.
If you use Junos Space instead of Network Director to resolve out-of-band configuration changes in SSOR mode, note the following:
If you reject an out-of-band change, the device state becomes In Sync in both Network Director and Junos Space.
If you accept an out-of-band change that does not affect the Build mode configuration, the device state becomes In Sync in both Network Director and Junos Space.
If you accept an out-of-band change that affects the Build mode configuration, the device state becomes In Sync in Junos Space but remains Out Of Sync in Network Director. You must use the Resynchronize Device Configuration task to resolve the Out of Sync state.
How Network Director Resynchronizes the Build Mode Configuration
When you use the Resynchronize Device Configuration task to resynchronize the Build mode configuration to the device configuration, Network Director launches a resynchronization job. This job deletes all profile assignments configured for the device. The profiles themselves are not deleted—just the assignments of the profiles to the device are deleted. It then reimports the device configuration, as if the device were a newly discovered device. It reassigns existing profiles and creates new profiles as necessary. Profiles that were originally assigned to the device will be reassigned to the device if the profiles were unaffected by the out-of-band changes. All profiles assigned to the device are in a deployed state at the end of the process. Any profile that is not reassigned to the device and is not assigned to any other device will be in a unassigned state.