There is a saying: prevention is better than a cure. If you apply that to networking devices, then you will be able to understand the importance of device maintenance. Device maintenance is an ongoing activity that helps preventing problems from turning into costly problems, both time and business wise. As such, it requires dedication and patience from network administrators. Thus, in order to have productive device maintenance, a clear plan with the right tools is required. Hence, device maintenance includes activities such as backing up Cisco IOS images and configuration files in a safe location and keeping the IOS images up to date. In this section, file maintenance, image management, and software licensing are covered.
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