01By vendor
Collection commands, the quirks of each system, and what to automate.
- MikroTikRouterOS and SwOS: text export, .rsc versus .backup, RouterOS 7 hiding passwords, and scheduling.
- HuaweiSmartAX OLTs and VRP routers and switches: commands, paging, and saved versus running configuration.
- ZTEC300 and C320 OLTs: commands, card versions, and what to do about the enable password.
- DatacomDmOS devices: running-config without paging, firmware and system.
- VSOLVSOL OLTs over SSH: privileged mode, paging, and what ends up in the file.
- JuniperJunos on MX, SRX and EX: show configuration, local rollback, and restoring with commit confirmed.
02Guides
Topics that apply to any vendor.
- Backup best practices for ISPsWhat to back up, how often, where, for how long, and how to know the backup is working.
- How to restore a configuration from backupFull or partial restore on MikroTik, Juniper, Huawei and OLTs, with what to check before and after.
- Comparing configuration versionsHow to read a diff, tell real changes from noise, and use the history to find the cause of an incident.
03What a configuration backup is
Every router, OLT or switch stores its own configuration: interfaces, VLANs, routes, BGP sessions, ONU profiles, firewall and NAT rules, users. A configuration backup is a copy of that content kept outside the device.
It is not the same as backing up the operating system or firmware. Firmware can be downloaded again from the vendor; the configuration is unique to your network and only exists where you stored it.
On most devices the configuration is text. Kept as text, the backup is good for three things:
- Restoring the device after a failure, a hardware swap or a configuration mistake.
- Comparing two dates and seeing exactly what changed (see Comparing configuration versions).
- Looking up how something was configured without logging in to the device.