Technical Tip: Configuration differences through GUI or Security Fabric Automation and Show command

[kgeorge]

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

1. 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 automatio...
• To backup from GUI or CLI, refer to this document: Configuration backups and reset

2. 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.