Looking for a way to back up network device configurations nightly. Can I do this anyway with PRTG?


Cacti and Nagios are both using plugins and it's the same way for PRTG.
It should be even easier, since you can use kron on the Cisco appliance to run commands on a schedule. So my approach would be:

  1. Install a TFTP server on your PRTG server and configure it accordingly
  2. Setup kron to execute the following command. Make sure it points to your PRTG core server:
    copy system:running-config tftp:[[[//location]/directory]/filename]
  3. For every configuration, create a File sensor that triggers upon file content changes
  4. Use the following script to archive your configurations as they get updated as a notification with %sensor as parameter. Make sure that the sensor name matches the configuration file:
param($fileName = "Test.cfg")

#region configuration
[string]$date            = (Get-Date -Format "ddMMyyyy-HH.mm.ss")
[string]$currentFile     = [string]::Format("D:\prtg\router-config-backups\{0}",$fileName);
[string]$backupFileName  = [string]::Format("{0}-{1}",$date,$fileName);
[string]$backupFilePath  = [string]::Format("D:\prtg\router-config-backups\archive\{0}",$backupFileName);
#endregion

Copy-Item $currentFile $backupFilePath

You could also use a hardcoded name within the configuration, the solution above probably better.


Disclaimer:
The information in the Paessler Knowledge Base comes without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk. Before applying any instructions please exercise proper system administrator housekeeping. You must make sure that a proper backup of all your data is available.