Cisco Cisco IOS Software Release 12.2(25)S

and template. The Configuration Agent prepares an instantiated configuration file by substituting all the 
parameter values specified in the template with valid values for this device. The configuration server 
forwards the configuration file to the CNS web server for transmission to the routing device.

The CNS configuration agent accepts the configuration file from the CNS web server, performs XML 
parsing, checks syntax (optional), and loads the configuration file. The routing device reports the status 
of the configuration load as an event to which a network monitoring or workflow application can 
subscribe.

Once the network is up and running, new services can be added using the CNS configuration agent. 
Incremental (partial) configurations can be sent to routing devices. The actual configuration can be sent 
as an event payload by way of the event gateway (push operation) or as a signal event that triggers the 
device to initiate a pull operation.

The routing device can check the syntax of the configuration before applying it. If the syntax is correct, 
the routing device applies the incremental configuration and publishes an event that signals success to 
the configuration server. If the device fails to apply the incremental configuration, it publishes an event 
that indicates an error.

Once the routing device has applied the incremental configuration, it can write the configuration to 
NVRAM or wait until signaled to do so.

The CNS identifier (ID) is a text string that is used exclusively with a particular CNS agent. The CNS 
ID is used by the CNS agent to identify itself to the server application with which it communicates. For 
example, the CNS configuration agent will include the configuration ID when communicating between 
the networking device and the configuration server. The configuration server uses the CNS configuration 
ID as a key to locate the attribute containing the Cisco IOS CLI configuration intended for the device 
that originated the configuration pull. 

The network administrator must ensure a match between the CNS agent ID as defined on the routing 
device and the CNS agent ID contained in the directory attribute that corresponds to the configuration 
intended for the routing device. Within the routing device, the default value of the CNS agent ID is 
always set to the host name. If the host name changes, the CNS agent ID also changes. If the CNS agent 
ID is set using the CLI, any change will be followed by a message sent to syslog or an event message 
will be sent. 

The CNS agent ID does not address security issues.

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