# Massive network infra management **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [June 14, 2021, 6:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346 "2021-06-14T18:31:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Parth\_Patel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9a140/32.png) [@Parth\_Patel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Parth_Patel)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2021, 6:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346/1 "2021-06-14T18:31:53Z")
Hi All, Let’s say we have 500 network devices and we use ansible or nornir. If we deploy it from let’s say single configuration management server that single would be single point of failure or let’s say single point of security hit ? What are other strategy to manage such scenario such as doing regular backup of devices and storing running config in some sort of storage ? Thanks and regards, Parth ---
**Author:** ![Antony\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Antony\_Stone](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Antony_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2021, 6:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346/2 "2021-06-14T18:40:53Z")
> Hi All, > > Let's say we have 500 network devices I'm sure there are people here who would not describe that as "massive" 🙂 > and we use ansible or nornir. > If we deploy it from let's say single configuration management server that > single would be single point of failure Keep a mirror of your ansible server and its configuration. Either machine can then perform updates and installations. There's no reason ansible and its configuration needs to exist on only one machine. > or let's say single point of security hit ? Your ansible server should not be exposed to access from the Internet. Your ansible server needs to connect to your managed servers, but it does not need to be reachable by any external system. > What are other strategy to manage such scenario such as doing regular > backup of devices and storing running config in some sort of storage ? Taking backups of devices which are managed / installed by ansible is probably a good idea, but is entirely outside the scope of what ansible needs to do (other than perhaps install the backup system). As for "storing running config", that depends very much on what your managed servers are doing, and how you would intend to recover if one went down, got corrupted, caught fire, or became unreachable. Ansible is a configuration management system. Backups and high availability are separate topics with separate tools. Antony. ---
**Author:** ![Parth\_Patel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9a140/32.png) [@Parth\_Patel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Parth_Patel)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346/3 "2021-06-14T18:45:10Z")
Thanks Antony. I assumed 500 devices as an example. I saw a vedio from redhat about 10000 devices management using ansible it can be considered as massive and makes sense 🙃 What solution you would prefer for taking backups of network devices ? ---
**Author:** ![Antony\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Antony\_Stone](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Antony_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2021, 10:09pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346/4 "2021-06-14T22:09:08Z")
Please define "devices" 🙂 Until we know that - what O/S are they running, what can be installed on them, what network connectivity & bandwidth do they have... there is no simple answer. Even once we do know that, there's probably no simple answer, but at least people can start to make potentially useful suggestions 🙂 Antony. ---
**Author:** ![Parth\_Patel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9a140/32.png) [@Parth\_Patel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Parth_Patel)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 11:52am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346/5 "2021-06-15T11:52:38Z")
I am obviously talking about network devices here ---
**Author:** ![Parth\_Patel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9a140/32.png) [@Parth\_Patel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Parth_Patel)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 11:54am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346/6 "2021-06-15T11:54:59Z")
Here is video which I am referring to if you haven’t walkthrough - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtMeDbGEylU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtMeDbGEylU) ---
**Author:** ![Antony\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Antony\_Stone](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Antony_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 11:56am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346/7 "2021-06-15T11:56:58Z")
What is a "network device"? Do you mean routers, switches, SANs, firewalls, web servers, mail servers, DSL modems...? I ask simply because the term "network device" is (to me, at least) very non- specific, and can basically mean anything which is connected to a network or forms part of a network. Antony. ---
**Author:** ![Parth\_Patel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9a140/32.png) [@Parth\_Patel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Parth_Patel)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 12:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346/8 "2021-06-15T12:03:18Z")
Me referring this as a generalized network devices management with ansible same as video description. My question was generalized if we have 10k network device what should be configuration management strategy evolved. It wasnt specific to particular vendor or switch or router etc… Ref :- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtMeDbGEylU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtMeDbGEylU) Ansible allows network management across virtually any device platform. Any network device can be managed via SSH or an API. We took this cutting-edge network automation to scale with a customer’s global network infrastructure, giving them the ability to manage nearly all of their network devices at one time. ---
**Author:** ![Antony\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Antony\_Stone](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Antony_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 12:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346/9 "2021-06-15T12:18:00Z")
> Me referring this as a generalized network devices management with ansible > same as video description. My question was generalized if we have 10k > network device what should be configuration management strategy evolved. Oh, sorry, I thought we were talking about a backup mechanism for whatever these network devices were. ---
**Author:** ![Parth\_Patel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9a140/32.png) [@Parth\_Patel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Parth_Patel)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 12:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/massive-network-infra-management/35346/10 "2021-06-15T12:23:50Z")
Alright…not a problem. Thanks Antony for prompt response 😊