Backup contains the configuration and personal settings of your IPFire. Backups are possible both with and without log files. Including your logs can take a lot of time, depending on the amount of data. Log files are not necessary for a regular backup.
Configuration
First you must specify how to backup your files. The following options are available.
- with log files - this will include log files in the backup
- without log files - this will save the config files and settings
- create ISO - this will create an ISO image with your current settings, which can be burned to a CD-R in order to install the complete system again including your settings. This is especially useful in case of hardware failure.
Creating the ISO includes the download of the standard .iso file from the IPFire site. Problems in reaching download.ipfire.org result in a .iso with size 0. A common reason for the failure is a broken DNS.
Attention: Before downloading the ISO backup, wait until the backup is complete (i.e., the file size is no longer changing). If you download the ISO before the backup is complete, it will not be usable. Use the System/Backup menu to refresh your browser (instead of ctrl-r) to prevent creating additional backups.
Data Backup
Data backup offers two modes: backup your settings and backup your Addons.
The Data Backup includes settings for the following areas:
- DHCP server settings;
- IPSec and OpenVPN settings;
- DynDNS and firewall settings;
- Port forwarding and external access;
- User-defined paths in:
/var/ipfire/backup/include.user
and/var/ipfire/backup/exclude.user
Regarding the last point, few examples of its use (note the absence of the leading slash character):
root/metrics/
will backup everything in the metrics directory including any subdirectories; you can use wildcards to indicate specific files in directories as well, e.g.:
- root/metrics/disk-space*
will save all files in that directory starting with disk-space; you can also add multiple lines for that directory with different wildcards;
- root/metrics/*[!p,a]
means that all files in the directory should be backed up except those that end in pa
Backing up your addons won't save the actual addons themselves. They will, however, back up their configuration files. After restoring, it is necessary to manually install the addons and then restore the configurations.
These include settings for:
Restore
Please note that it is important that you restore the desired file using the appropriate button.
The passwords for "admin" and "root" will be set to those that are in the backup, so if you used different passwords in the machine that you are restoring the backup in, you will be prompted for username/password in the GUI. Simply use the ones from the restored installation.
When you restore a backup on a different machine, the IP address will NOT be restored. You have to change this by starting "setup" from a shell.
Legend
| creates a backup | |
| downloads the backup to your local PC | |
| removes a backup from IPFire | |
| restores a backup |
Useful paths
| Backup files path: | /var/ipfire/backup |
| ISO files path: | /var/tmp/backupiso |
Note - The ISO files path will change in the near future. See this Mailing List post:
Backup console commands
See the backup console commands here --> Using the Backup Console