Installing A Difference Viewer; For Windows; For Linux Or Solaris; Enabling Ssh For Secure Communications - Extreme Networks Ridgeline Installation Manual

Chapter 3: Installing the Ridgeline 3.1 Server

Installing a Difference Viewer

Ridgeline provides a Diff feature that allows you to compare configuration files using a Difference
Viewer. This feature requires that a Difference Viewer be installed on the client system. A Difference
Viewer can automatically compare and highlight the differences between two files. The Diff feature does
not work with a standard text editor.
You can use any Diff viewer that is installed on the system where your Ridgeline client is running.
Select Difference Viewer from the Tools menu to tell Ridgeline the location of the viewer. If you do not
have a Diff viewer already installed, you must install one on your client system in order to use the Diff
feature.

For Windows.

You can obtain a Diff viewer from the following sources:
WinMerge.exe; downloadable from
●
Araxis Merge; 30 day free trial evaluation downloadable from
●

For Linux or Solaris.

sdiff (in

Enabling SSH for Secure Communications

By default, the Ridgeline server communicates to the devices it manages using unencrypted access, and
unencrypted file transfers. In addition, the communications between the Ridgeline server and its clients
are also unencrypted by default.
By installing an SSH enabling key, you can use SSH2 instead of Telnet to communicate to the devices
●
Ridgeline manages, and securely upload and download configuration files to and from your Extreme
devices.
By installing an SSH2 server co-resident with the Ridgeline server, and by installing SSH2 clients on
●
the systems where your Ridgeline clients reside, you can use SSH2 to encrypt the communications
between the Ridgeline server and Ridgeline clients. See the Appendix in the Ridgeline Service Advisor
Concepts and Solutions Guide for details on setting up secure client-server communication.
There are three requirements for enabling Ridgeline to use SSH2 to communicate with the devices it
manages:
The Ridgeline SSH enabling key must be installed. Due to export restrictions, you must obtain this
●
module from Extreme Networks. It is not included with the Ridgeline software distribution.
Your switches must be running versions of ExtremeWare or ExtremeXOS that support SSH, and SSH
●
must be enabled on those devices. Due to export restrictions, a special license is required.
To request versions of ExtremeWare or ExtremeXOS that support SSH, contact Extreme Networks
Technical Support.
SSH must be enabled in Ridgeline for the devices to which you want to communicate using SSH.
●
NOTE
If the SSH enabling key is not installed in the Ridgeline directory, you will not be able to configure SSH
in Ridgeline. The relevant fields will be grayed out.
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http://winmerge.sourceforge.net
) is assumed as the default Diff viewer.
/usr/bin/sdiff
http://www.araxis.com
Ridgeline Installation and Upgrade Guide