Backing up and restoring the configuration of an appliance

You can use the backup procedure to save a copy of the configuration. The backup file created by the web UI is a text file with the following naming convention: FDD-<serialnumber>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.conf. If you use the CLI to create a backup, you specify the filename.

The backup feature has some basic uses:

• Creating a snapshot of the current configuration for future reference or for restoring the system to a known functional configuration.
  Always backup the system configuration before upgrading or downgrading firmware.
• Saving the configuration as CLI commands that a co-worker or Fortinet support can use to help you resolve issues with misconfiguration.

There are 3 ways to perform a Backup and Restore:

• Through the Web UI — for detailed steps, see To backup the system configuration from the Web UI.

• Using CLI via TFTP — for detailed steps, see To back up the configuration using the CLI to a TFTP server.

• From the Administrative User drop-down menu at the top right of the Web UI — Configuration > Backup/Restore selections work the same way as the Web UI.

Before you begin:

• If you are restoring a system configuration, you must know its management interface configuration in order to access the web UI after the restore procedure is completed. Open the configuration file and make note of the IP address and network requirements for the management interface. You also must know the administrator user name and password.
• If you are restoring a system configuration to a system that already has a configuration, and the new configuration has fewer SPPs defined than the existing system, it can take as long as 30 minutes for the system to remove the now-unused extra SPPs. To avoid this, factory reset all SPPs before upgrading the new configuration.

To backup the system configuration from the Web UI

1. Go to System > Maintenance > Backup & Restore.
2. Follow the instructions in the table below to complete the configuration.
3. Save the configuration.

Backup and Restore configuration guidelines

Action	Guideline
Backup
Backup (button)	Click the Backup button to start the backup. Rename (if desired) and store the file at the prompt. Default file name is FDD-<serialnumber>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.conf
Restore
Choose File	Type the path and backup file name or click Browse to locate the file.
Restore (button)	Click the Restore button to start the restore procedure. Your web browser uploads the configuration file and the system reboots with the new configuration. The time required to restore varies by the size of the file and the speed of your network connection. Your web UI session is terminated when the system reboots. To continue using the web UI, refresh the web page and log in again. If the restored system has a different management interface configuration than the previous configuration, you must access the web UI using the new management interface IP address. WARNING: Restoring a configuration results in a system REBOOT which can interrupt traffic if your traffic links do not have fail-open capability. NOTE: Configuration errors that are present in a backup file will be skipped when that file is restored. After restoring a configuration file, always • Use the CLI to run “get system restore-status” which will display any issues with the configuration restore • Check the Event Log to see if any configuration error messages are present. If you see errors, contact Fortinet Support.

To back up the configuration using the CLI to a TFTP server

1. If necessary, start your TFTP server.
2. Log into the CLI as the admin administrator using either the local console, the CLI Console widget in the web UI, or an SSH or Telnet connection. Other administrator accounts do not have the required permissions.
3. Use the following command: execute backup config tftp <filename> <ipaddress>



<filename>	Name of the file to be used for the backup file, such as Backup2022-01-20.conf.
<ipaddress>	IP address of the TFTP server.

To restore a configuration:

execute restore config tftp <filename> <ipaddress>

filename>	Name of the file, such as Backup2022-01-20.conf.
<ipaddress>	IP address of the TFTP server.

For example: execute restore config tftp Backup2022-01-20.conf 192.0.2.1

TFTP is not secure, and it does not support authentication. You should run it only on trusted administrator-only networks, and never on computers directly connected to the Internet.