Automating Firewall Configuration Backups to SFTP in FortiManager

[robinh007]

Hi,

I manage several firewalls using FortiManager, and I’d like to automate the regular backup of each firewall’s configuration. So, how can I set up this automation within FortiManager to export all managed firewall configurations to SFTP?

FortiGate FortiManager 

[atakannatak · Accepted solution]

Hi @robinh007 ,

FortiManager does not need per-device scripts to back up FortiGate configs. All configuration revisions for every managed firewall live inside FortiManager’s own database, so you simply schedule a system-wide “all-settings” backup that FortiManager pushes to your SFTP server.

These below two official Fortinet sources confirm that every scheduled (or on-demand) all-settings backup is saved as an encrypted archive and FortiManager records the file’s MD5 hash in the event log, so you can validate the integrity of the nightly backup generated on your SFTP server. At any time you can run execute backup all-settings sftp … for an on-demand copy or execute restore all-settings sftp … to recover.

These below references demonstrate that a scheduled all-settings SFTP job is the Fortinet-supported method to automate complete, nightly backups of every managed FortiGate configuration.

• CLI command config system backup all-settings with SFTP parameters and schedule options

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortimanager/7.6.3/cli-reference/233420/backup-all-settings

• Administration Guide section “Backing up the system”—shows same scheduler syntax and notes that it backs up every ADOM and device database

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortimanager/7.6.3/administration-guide/112240/backing-up-the-sys...

BR.

If my answer provided a solution for you, please mark the reply as solved it so that others can get it easily while searching for similar scenarios.

CCIE #68781

[robinh007]

@atakannatak Thank you, mate.