Technical Tip: Configuration differences through GUI or Security Fabric Automation and Show command
Description
This article describes the differences between Configuration details captured via GUI or Security Fabric Automation and shows or show full-configuration commands.
Scope
FortiGate.
Solution
- Backup from the GUI or via Security Fabric Automation:
- This type of backup is more comprehensive and is suitable for full system recovery.
- This method uses the execute backup command
- It includes all system settings, certificates, and other information, such as passwords (encrypted), which are necessary for a complete restoration of the system.
- This backup can be used only on the same model with the same firmware version.
- For scheduling the automated backups via Security Fabric Automation, refer to this Knowledge Base article: Technical Tip: How to send automated backups of the configuration from a FortiGate with an automation stitch, using TFTP/FTP or SFTP Server and a recommendation for configuring a Linux machine
- To backup from GUI or CLI, refer to this document: Configuration backups and reset
- Backup using show or show full-configuration CLI Command:
- Format will be in Plain Text, human-readable.
- The outputs can be copied and pasted anywhere. Can be used for scripts or in other sessions.
- The show command will display only non-default settings
- show full-configuration command will display all settings, including default values.
- The output of both the above commands cannot be used for restoring the configuration.
- They can be mainly used for config inspection during live troubleshooting.
For a complete and restorable backup, it is recommended to use the GUI or the 'execute backup' command.
