Backup/Restore Cisco Router/Switch/Access Point Configuration Files

 Backup/Restore Of The Configuration Files

It is very important to know how to backup/restore your configuration files in case of emergency or in case you want to test something in your current configurations. Before you start doing any new configurations on your Cisco router/switch/access point keep a backup just in case.

**Before you use the information in this blog, make sure that you meet these requirements:

• A tftp server is installed on a client of your network
• You tftp server can communicate with your Cisco router/switch/access point (try if it can ping)

Procedure

1) You need to setup a tftp server on a client of your network. I am suggesting you the tftpd32 for Windows Users , TftpServer for Mac OS X users and tftpd for Linux Users.

• Tftpd32 is a free, opensource IPv6 ready application which includes DHCP, TFTP, DNS, SNTP and Syslog servers as well as a TFTP client and you can download it from here:  http://tftpd32.jounin.net/tftpd32_download.html 

•  TftpServer is a utility which helps you to utilize and configure the TFTP server shipped with the standard Mac OSX distribution and you can download it from here: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11116/tftpserver/ 

•  tftpd is a server for the Trivial File Transfer Protocol. The TFTP protocol is extensively used to support remote booting of diskless devices or loading operating systems. Debian or Ubuntu can use  the HPA's tftp server. To donwload the hpa tftp server you need these commands : 

     sudo apt-get install tftpd-hpa 
         or
         apt-get install tftpd-hpa

Backup/Restore a Configuration File 

This procedure is how to copy the running configuration file to the TFTP server (Backup) 

RT#copy running-config tftp:
Address or name of remote host []? 192.168.1.2
Destination filename [ce_2-confg]? backup_router
!!
1030 bytes copied in 2.489 secs (395 bytes/sec) RT#


**Open the configuration file with a text editor. Search for and remove any line that starts with "AAA" to remove any security commands that can lock you out of the router.

Copy the configuration file from the TFTP server to a new router in privileged mode (Restore)
 
RT#copy tftp: running-config
Address or name of remote host []? 192.168.1.2
Source filename []? backup_router
Destination filename [running-config]?
Accessing tftp://192.168.1.2/backup_router...
Loading backup_router from 192.168.1.2 (via FastEthernet0/1): !
[OK - 1030 bytes]
1030 bytes copied in 9.612 secs (107 bytes/sec)
RT#

**To be able to restore back your configurations you have to do the basic configurations and your routers can communicate with the TFTP server.

KC