Quickly updating large IOS-XR configuration

[Evan Roggenkamp]

Hello, 

Recently we've grown past our TenGig capacity, so we are building a lag. 

The problem is we have many many subinterfaces on our TenGig interface. So L2VPN configuration is rather large. 

There are probably a hundred or more p2p and bridge groups that would have to be updated from Te0/6/0/6.x to Bundle-Ether20.x

Is there a command in the configuration or a workaround that will update these or is the only solution manual correction of each P2P/Bridge interface?

Thanks

[Aleksandar Vidakovic · Accepted solution]

There's cool config command exactly for this purpose: "replace". You can replace interface config or any pattern. There's also a "dry-run" option of the command to show you what will be done if you decide to commit the changes.

hth,

Aleksandar

[Evan Roggenkamp]

Hi Aleksander,

This is good news. Do you have a link or an example you could provide? My google-fu is failing me and only seems to yield results of "commit replace" which is obviously not what I want to do. 

Thanks for the reply!

[Aleksandar Vidakovic]

hi Evan,

indeed, we didn't do quite well in documenting the functionality.

I've just created this document:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/12702266/replacing-patterns-ios-xr-router-configuration

I hope it helps.

Regards,

Aleksandar

[Evan Roggenkamp]

Aleksander,

THANK YOU for providing the document - that is very good to have. Something we will look forward to in 5.3.1 (we are not quite there yet ;)

One last thing I would like to confirm - this replace command - it does not function like we would expect in the fact that changes are immediate? Meaning you do not need to commit to apply? (Would make sense due to the dry-run option.) Very good to know especially when the possibility of one regex mistake haiving wide effects.

[Aleksandar Vidakovic]

hi Evan,

glad to hear that you found the command useful.

The command functions just like any other configuration command, i.e. it requires the "commit" to have the changes applied. The "dry-run" was added as an easy-to-use extra cautionary measure because regular expressions are very powerful but at the same if not used properly can lead to unexpected results.

Regards,

Aleksandar

[xthuijs]

Oh one additional note, cisco live id 2904 from this year (2015) sandiego session has a section on usability. the replace command is discussed there also with some nice examples on how to use it.

that and many more enhancements in case you're interested.

cheers!

xander