Multiple ASA Configs for Cold Spare

[kerryjcox]

I have a few sites all running Cisco ASA 5510s. They all share the same asa (8.4(4)1) and asdm (6.4.9) version, but their configs differ significantly. I have a cold spare sitting in my office in the event we have a physical failure.

Is there a quick and simple way I can load up multiple configs and then boot up the cold spare to then run the config from Site_A or Site_B?  Just looking for a quick solution rather than doing a full restore should something fail spectacularly. 

Nice to say upon bootup, using confreg perhaps, to boot Site_A config rather than Site_C.

Ideas?  Suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Kerry

[Patrick Moubarak]

Hi Kerry,

You can store different config files in the flash or on an external FTP/TFTP server; and name them for ex SiteA.cfg SiteB.cfg SiteC.cfg... When you start the cold standby, either have an empty startup-config or you can clear the running-config after it boots:

conf t

clear configure all

then you can quickly copy the saved site config as the running-config and save it

copy flash:/SiteA.cfg running-config

wr me

NOTE: copy flash:/SiteA.cfg run actually merges SiteA.cfg with the current running config; that's why I recommend a clear configure all first

Option 2 would be using the boot config command:

conf t

clear configure all

boot config disk0:/SiteA.cfg

wr me

reload

NOTE: this requires a reboot to validate that the cold standby actually booted the correct config; therefore will take a bit more time to get the ASA ready.

Hope this helps

Patrick