Restoring a backup between devices

[bpnz]

What's the general go around restoring backup files between devices? I know a couple of times I've gone to restore between two WS-12-250-DC (possibly with different revisions of board) or between say a WS-8-250-DC and a WS-12-250-DC and it pretty much locks the switch up... I know with UBNT devices you can restore, eg between a PB620 and a PB500.. when I've tried it it's always been with the switches running the same firmware... Is it just a not possible thing? or is there a trick...

[Dave]

I will ask Stephen to get back to you on this after the long weekend...

[lligetfa]

I like the way Hewlett Packard (ProCurve) PCM+ does it. They save the config in human readable clear text that can be viewed and edited or copy/pasted so that differences in hardware can be compensated for. Even without PCM+, one can use "show running-config" at the console and save the output. The output is in the same CLI format as is used to config a new switch so you can copy/paste any part of the config to the new switch.

[Dave]

thanks for the info...

[Stephen]

Going between different model's doesn't work. Problem is if the variance is from an AC to DC or vice versa, they have several different config variables sometimes the same that are used differently depending on the model type. Also if the port count is different then it drastically confuses the different process's relying on the config. Best option is to restore from same model, same firmware. The easiest way to deal with config backups is the Netonix Manager. Which will handle generating them for you for every device it's connected too any time their is a change to that device.

[bpnz]

Thanks, I do use (and love) the Netonix manager... very handy for exactly that reason... whilst I also have good documentation around the switch settings (eg what VLANs thye're running etc) it's just sometimes if you need to swap a switch out or something it makes it easier if you can just restore a backup than program it up from scratch..