Hack the Route Start free Open app Automation and APIs
Running and startup config
What a device does now against what it loads when it starts: unsaved changes vanish at the next reload.
Every command typed changes the running config at once. The startup config is a file read at boot;
copy running-config startup-config (write memory) saves one into the other. Comparing the two shows what
changed since the last save. A backup is a copy kept off the device (TFTP, SCP, SFTP). Loading a backup into the
running config is a merge: its lines are added and nothing is removed, so a bad line stays. A replace
(configure replace, or the backup as startup config and a reload) makes the config exactly the backup.