kamakazikamikaze/nect

An aide for changing configuration of Network Equipment between vendors and models

Network Equipment Configuration Toolkit

What is "NECT"?

NECT is an earnest attempt at a network equipment configuration parser that enables the user to change the model and/or vendor of their new equipment without the need to know all of the required CLI commands. Inspired by the fantastic CiscoConfParse library, NECT takes it one step further to help network engineers and sysadmins make the transition to a new vendor much, much easier.

What can/will it do?

Read in a configuration file from your equipment and convert it to a vendor-free format. It can be a complete configuration or just sections you've cut out. Interface names, VLAN tagging, stacking, compatible commands, etc. are all handled for you where possible.

You can:

• Change VLAN names
• Add AAA parameters
• Modify interface configuration
• Add memembers to a stack
• Change the target model

When you're done, spit it back out to a target model configuration. Section ordering and syntax are all done for you; you can save it as the startup-config or copy-paste into the configuration terminal.

What can't it do?

Sadly, not every configuration line can be converted. For example, alias commands are vendor-specific and targeted for a very narrow purpose. It's impossible to read something like that and just know what exactly you want done with it. You also have password hashes (ex. Cisco type 4 and Aruba SHA256) that you won't be able to read in and convert on-the-fly. While we will try to accommodate for this, there will never be 100% coverage and compatibility.

But that's ok; this is here to help you, not replace you.

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Why bother?

I've had several engineers criticize my attempt to create a project such as this. See my response in the documentation.