Technical Tip: Automated configuration backups with variable names based on the date

[Anonymous]

Description	This article describes how to configure automation stitch settings to generate configuration files with different names based on the date the script triggers.
Scope	FortiGate v6.4.9+ and v7.0.2+GA releases, v7.2.4.
Solution	Create a trigger with the type 'Schedule'. The following script will be triggered daily at 20:00 (according to the time configured on FortiGate). config system automation-trigger     edit "TFTP_Backup_Daily"         set trigger-type scheduled         set trigger-frequency daily         set trigger-hour 20     next end Create an action with the 'CLI Script' type with a %%date%% variable: config system automation-action     edit "backup_date"         set action-type cli-script         set script "execute backup config tftp Μy_Config_Name%%date%%.conf IP_Address Username Password"         set accprofile "super_admin"     next end Note 1: For multiple VDOM Scenario (for example global VDOM): set script "config global execute backup config tftp Μy_Config_Name%%date%%.conf IP_Address Username Password" Or: config global execute backup config tftp Μy_Config_Name%%date%%.conf IP_Address Username Password For more information, refer to: Technical Tip: How to configure Automation Stitches for Multi VDOM for automated Firewall configurat... Create an automation stitch (see automation stitches): config system automation-stitch     edit "date_test"         set trigger "TFTP_Backup_Daily"             config actions                 edit 1                     set action "backup_date"                     set required enable                 next             end end The configuration backup files on the TFTP server will then look like this: Μy_Config_Name2022-08-19 Μy_Config_Name2022-08-20 Μy_Config_Name2022-08-21 Μy_Config_Name2022-08-22 Note 2:  In v7.2.4, %%date%% and %%time%% do not work as expected in an automation stitch. Use %%log.date%% and %%log.time%% instead. For example: config system automation-action     edit "backup_date"         set action-type cli-script         set script "execute backup config tftp Μy_Config_Name%%log.date%%_%%log.time%%.conf IP_Address Username Password"         set accprofile "super_admin"     next end Note 3:  %%time%% or %%log.time%% not working for some of the TFTP/SFTP/FTP servers as it analyzed as bad characters for the title. Here is the output: Note 4: To check if the backup configuration is working with variables (date/ time) needs to be done using automation stitch only and does not change the variables if checking from CLI console or SSH. Due to Windows limitations, the Windows FTP server will not allow file saves with ':' in them for automation stitch with variable date and time, therefore it will only save the configuration file name with variable date. Note 5: FortiSwitches also support automation stitches. However, prior to versions 7.4.7 and 7.6.2, the variable '%%date%%' was not processed correctly. As a result, the stitch would not complete and backups would not be created. This behavior was fixed in the aforementioned versions and the feature is now available to be used. See the release notes about bug ID 1117174 under Resolve Issues. Related article: Technical Tip: How to configure Automation Stitches for Multi VDOM for automated Firewall configurat...