One of the most annoying things I found out about the ACE module was that I couldnt just ‘write erase’ a context from within it. For example, lets say I just wanted to erase the current config and paste in a new one because of massive changes or I’ve got a test context that changes a lot etc….well I couldnt find an easy way to do it.

What I do now to overcome this is use checkpoints. When I create a brand new context; the first thing I do is create a checkpoint – a blank one:

checkpoint create blankcontext

Then, paste in your new config and if its stable then create a new checkpoint. Checkpoints are also useful for instant rollbacks of any changes – just create a new checkpoint whenever you are about to make changes.

Having the blank checkpoint has come in handy a few times. Note that checkpoints are only visible within the same context – so you need to create them in multiple contexts as appropriate.