JNCIA -- Backing up Config Files

Okay, this is cool. You've set up your JunOS device (switch, router, whatever) just the way you want it, so you really should make a copy of the config so that, if the device ever fails, you can restore the configuration to replacement hardware with minimal effort (that whole, "the best sys admin is a lazy sys admin" thing again). Sure, after committing a config, you can always issue the commands to copy the config to an FTP server on your network, but, show of hands,...have you ever forgotten to do it? Look around -- everyone who didn't raise their hands is either very, very new to networking, or is lying ;)

Because we are all human, JunOS provides a very cool feature to work around the human limitation: a setting that dumps your config to an FTP server when you commit the config. Here's how you do it:

[edit]
root@branch-3200# edit system archival configuration

[edit system archival configuration]
root@branch-3200# transfer-on-commit;

[edit system archival configuration]
root@branch-3200# archive-sites {

[edit system archival configuration archive-sites]
"ftp://username:password@myftphost.example.com";


Of course, the ability to save your configuration is not terribly useful without the ability to restore it, so JunOS provides that ability, as well (natch):

[edit] root@branch-3200# edit system archival configuration

[edit system archival configuration]
root@branch-3200# load merge ftp://username:password@myftphost.example.com/branch-3200.conf.gz_20140410_111217

load complete

[edit system archival configuration]
root@branch-3200#