Dell PowerConnect W Airwave 7.1 User Manual Download

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Dell PowerConnect W AirWave 7.1

| User Guide

Creating and Using Templates |

183

Management

mode. This removes the APs from Monitor mode (read-only) and instructs the AP to pull down

its new startup configuration file from AWMS.

Using Template Syntax

Template syntax is comprised of the following components, described in this section:



Using AP-Specific Variables



Using Directives to Eliminate Reporting of Configuration Mismatches



Using Conditional Variables in Templates



Using Substitution Variables in Templates

Using Directives to Eliminate Reporting of Configuration Mismatches

AWMS is designed to audit AP configurations to ensure that the actual configuration of the access point exactly
matches the Group template. When a configuration mismatch is detected, AWMS generates an automatic alert
and flags the AP as having a

Mismatched

configuration status on the user page.

However, when using the templates configuration function, there will be times when the running-config file and
the startup-config file do not match under normal circumstances. For example, the

ntp clock-period

setting is

almost never identical in the running-config file and the startup-config file. You can use directives such as

<ignore_and_do_not_push>

to customize the template to keep AWMS from reporting mismatches for this type

of variance.

AWMS provides two types of directives that can be used within a template to control how AWMS constructs the
startup-config file to send to each AP and whether it reports variances between the running-config file and the
startup-config file as "configuration mismatches." Lines enclosed in

<push_and_exclude>

are included in the AP

startup-config file but AWMS ignores them when verifying configurations. Lines enclosed in

<ignore_and_do_not_push>

cause AWMS to ignore those lines during configuration verification.

Ignore_and_do_not_push Command

The

ignore

and

do not push

directive should typically be used when a value cannot be configured on the device, but

always appears in the running-config file. Lines enclosed in the ignore and do not push directive will not be
included in the startup-config file that is copied to each AP. When AWMS is comparing the running-config file
to the startup-config file for configuration verification, it will ignore any lines in the running-config file that start
with the text within the directive. Lines belonging to an ignored and unpushed line, the lines immediately below
the line and indented, are ignored as well. In the example below, if you were to bracket NTP server, the NTP clock
period would behave as if it were bracketed because it belongs or is associated with the NTP server line.

Push_and_exclude Command

Instead of using the full tags you may use the parenthesis shorthand, (substring). The push and exclude directive
is used to push commands to the AP that will not appear in the running-config file. For example, some

commands that are used to remove SSIDs or remove configuration parameters do not appear in the running-

Note: Devices can be placed into Management mode individually from the

APs/Devices > Manage

configuration page.

Note: The line <ignore_and_do_not_push>ntp clock-period</ignore_and_do_not_push> will cause lines starting with "ntp clock-
period" to be ignored. However, the line <ignore_and_do_not_push>ntp </ignore_and_do_not_push> causes all lines starting with
"ntp" to be ignored, so it is important to be as specific as possible.