Sheet SYN-10 · Network Operations Manual
On-Site Collector & Configuration Backup
The on-site collector, SSH inventory, versioned configuration capture, and diffs between any two versions.
Scope
Some network equipment has no cloud API. The on-site collector adds that equipment to the inventory and keeps a versioned copy of each device’s running configuration. This guide covers capture and configuration history.
How the collector works
The collector is a small on-site component. It polls the platform for work, connects to devices over SSH, runs a fixed set of read-only show commands, and sends the output back. The platform parses the output into the same inventory other integrations feed, plus a configuration snapshot. Device families come through the plugin bridge. Cisco IOS switches and routers are one example.
The collector only makes outbound connections, with one exception: it listens for flow export when traffic visibility is on. See the traffic visibility guide.
Versioned capture
Each sync of a collector-backed integration captures the device’s running configuration:
- Synapse creates a new version only when the text changes. It compares captures by content hash. A device unchanged for six months of nightly polls has one version.
- Versions are never overwritten or deleted.
- Versions are numbered in sequence for each device.
Configuration history
The configuration view on a device has three parts:
- Version list, newest first, with capture times.
- Raw view of the full configuration text of any one version.
- Diff view: pick any two versions to see a unified diff, with added and removed lines marked.
Changing configuration
Synapse can push configuration changes through the collector. Each change is a device-write action in the actions and journeys framework. It waits for approval, and the run records the before-and-after diff. See the governed actions guide.