Backing up a configuration
A Vyatta configuration can be a boot configuration file, or a file with a list of configuration commands. By default, the latest 20 completed commits are saved on the system in /config/archive as archived boot configuration files.
You can take a backup of the current config.boot by switching to user root and copying the file to another location. You can also back up the current configuration commands for your Virtual Router Appliance by running
the operational mode command show configuration commands and then saving the output. Both of these methods are considered a minimum backup for the configuration.
The following example generates the complete list of commands used to configure the system, and then redirects the list of commands into a file in the Vyatta home directory:
vyatta@gateway02:~$ show configuration commands > /home/vyatta/configcomm.bak-07-30-2020
vyatta@gateway02:~$ ls -alh | grep bak
-rw-r----- 1 vyatta users 21K Jul 30 01:10 configcomm.bak
-rw-r----- 1 vyatta users 21K Jul 30 01:12 configcomm.bak-07-30-2020
The next example creates a backup copy of the boot configuration file and places it in /home/vyatta:
vyatta@gateway02:~$ su
Password:
root@gateway02:/home/vyatta# cp /config/config.boot /home/vyatta/config.boot.bak-07-30-2020
root@gateway02:/home/vyatta# ls -alh | grep config.boot
-rw------- 1 root root 12K Jul 30 01:36 config.boot.bak-07-30-2020
The following example uses the configuration mode's save command to backup:
vyatta@asloma-vra-5218-ha1:~$ configure
[edit]
vyatta@asloma-vra-5218-ha1# save /home/vyatta/config-05-14-2021.bak
Saving configuration to '/home/vyatta/config-05-14-2021.bak'...
Done
[edit]
A more complete backup, including log data, involves generating a technical support archive for the system:
$ generate tech-support archive
Saving the archivals...
Saved tech-support archival at /opt/vyatta/etc/configsupport/mpatr-vyatta-one.tech-support-archive
2013-08-27-155554.tgz
You can then copy the generated archive file from the VRA to the storage device of your choice. The archive contains backups of the configuration information, home directories, and logging information.
As an example:
-rw-r--r-- 1 michael michael 7863 Aug 22 12:46 config.tgz
-rw-r--r-- 1 michael michael 112 Aug 22 12:46 core-dump.tgz
-rw-r--r-- 1 michael michael 716033 Aug 22 12:46 etc.tgz
-rw-r--r-- 1 michael michael 3698 Aug 22 12:46 home.tgz
-rw-r--r-- 1 michael michael 1092 Aug 22 12:46 root.tgz
-rw-r--r-- 1 michael michael 4204 Aug 22 12:46 tmp.tgz
-rw-r--r-- 1 michael michael 82976 Aug 22 12:46 var-log.tgz
Consider backing up any notes that you create while configuring the device at a central location accessible to all of your administration staff.
Restoring a configuration
To restore a backup configuration from a config.boot file, copy the file to /config/config.boot and reboot. For example:
root@asloma-vra-5218-ha1:/home/vyatta# cp config.boot.bak-05-14-2021 /config/config.boot
root@asloma-vra-5218-ha1:/home/vyatta# reboot
Alternatively, to restore the configuration from a save, enter the configuration mode, load the backup configuration and commit:
vyatta@cicd-bm-vra2-sa0# save /home/vyatta/config.bak.05-14-2021
Saving configuration to '/home/vyatta/config.bak.05-14-2021'...
Done
[edit]
vyatta@cicd-bm-vra2-sa0# load /home/vyatta/config.bak.05-14-2021
Loading configuration from '/home/vyatta/config.bak.05-14-2021'...
Load complete. Use 'commit' to make changes active.
[edit]
vyatta@cicd-bm-vra2-sa0# commit