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ConnectMyAssets
Comparison

ConnectMyAssets vs RANCID

RANCID (Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ) has been the standard for network configuration management for two decades. Below is what it does well, where it falls short in 2025, and why network teams are replacing it with ConnectMyAssets.

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What RANCID Does Well

RANCID deserves credit for pioneering automated configuration collection at scale. It solved a real problem and influenced an entire generation of network engineers. Its strengths are real:

✓
Version-controlled config history
RANCID stores device configs in CVS (or Git with rancid-git), providing a history of every change. For teams that already manage CVS/Git, this integrates naturally with existing workflows.
✓
Email diff notifications
When a configuration changes, RANCID emails a unified diff to a configurable mailing list. Simple, reliable, and requires no additional tooling, just an SMTP server.
✓
Open source & free
RANCID is free to use and modify. For organizations with Perl expertise and a preference for self-hosted tools, there are no licensing costs and complete access to the source code.
✓
Battle-tested multi-vendor support
RANCID has had 20+ years to build expect scripts for dozens of vendors. Its vendor coverage for legacy Cisco, Juniper, and HP equipment is extensive and reliable.

Where RANCID Falls Short Today

RANCID was last significantly updated in the early 2010s. The network management landscape has changed dramatically. These are the gaps that drive teams to look for alternatives:

✗
No web interface
RANCID has no UI. Engineers interact through the filesystem, email, and terminal. Onboarding new team members means teaching them the RANCID directory structure and CVS commands.
✗
No real-time alerting
RANCID detects changes only at scheduled collection intervals, typically every few hours. An unauthorized change made at 2am may not be detected until the next morning. Email diffs are sent in batch, there is no instant notification channel.
✗
No RBAC
RANCID has no role-based access control. Anyone with shell access to the RANCID server can see all device configurations. There is no way to restrict visibility to specific devices or sites by user role.
✗
No REST API
RANCID cannot be integrated with modern ITSM tools, SIEM platforms, or CI/CD pipelines via API. Any integration requires custom Perl scripting around the filesystem, which is fragile and difficult to maintain.
✗
No compliance engine
RANCID has no concept of compliance frameworks. It cannot automatically check configurations against NIS2 Article 21, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, or any other regulatory framework. Compliance audits require manual extraction and analysis.
✗
No configuration rollback UI
Restoring a previous configuration in RANCID means manually retrieving the correct version from CVS and pushing it to the device via CLI. ConnectMyAssets provides one-click configuration rollback with a full diff preview and approval workflow.

Feature Comparison

FeatureRANCIDConnectMyAssets
Web interface✗✓
Real-time change alerting✗✓
Configuration rollback UI✗✓
Role-based access control (RBAC)✗✓
REST API✗✓
NIS2 / DORA compliance reporting✗✓
Multi-vendor support (100+ vendors)✓✓
Version-controlled config history✓✓
Configuration diff per change✓✓
Scheduled automated backups✓✓
No cloud dependencies, all data on your infrastructure✗✓
Audit trail with user attribution✗✓
Active development & support✗✓
Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP)✗✓
CMDB / asset inventory✗✓
SSH bastion with session recording & command risk scoring✗✓
Firewall policy audit (shadow rules, permissive ACLs)✗✓
IPAM — IP address management & CIDR tree✗✓
Network topology map (LLDP/CDP-based, interactive)✗✓
Encrypted credential vault (RSA end-to-end, no plaintext exposure)✗✓
AI Insights — natural language queries, local inference✗✓
CVE tracking per device across all vendors✗✓
OT / ICS / SCADA device support✗✓
SHA-256 integrity checksums on every backup✗✓
Open source✓✗

Migration Path from RANCID

01

Export Your RANCID History

Run the ConnectMyAssets RANCID import tool against your CVS or Git repository. The tool reads your RANCID device list, maps each device to the correct ConnectMyAssets driver, and imports the full configuration history with timestamps preserved.

02

Configure ConnectMyAssets Collectors

Deploy a ConnectMyAssets collector in your network, a lightweight agent that replaces the RANCID cron job. Configure your devices' SSH credentials in ConnectMyAssets (Telnet and NETCONF are also supported for legacy or vendor-specific equipment). The platform begins taking scheduled backups immediately, covering the same devices RANCID managed.

03

Decommission RANCID

Once ConnectMyAssets has taken at least one successful backup of all devices and your team is comfortable with the new interface, disable the RANCID cron jobs and retire the RANCID server. Your full history is in ConnectMyAssets, and all future backups are handled automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about migrating from RANCID

Ready to Move Beyond RANCID?

Keep your full configuration history. Gain a web interface, real-time alerting, compliance reporting, RBAC, and an API. Migration takes less than a day.

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