Did you specify only the part you wanted to restore when you backed up the config? You can't backup the entire config and restore only the firewall rules, for example. You need to backup the firewall rules, then restore them.
This was not clear to me, but it does explain the errors I was getting. I guess I have to save individual parts of the configuration, and then restore them. From the GUI its not clear at all that you cannot selectively restore part of an entire configuration.
I thought I explained this in my original post, but the new CA manager presently requires you to create a CA, create a cert, then enable https using the cert. If you are restoring a 1.2 config with https webgui, you will need to create the cert to use https. In my case, I was able to connect via http to configure.
I'm trying to restore an "earler" 1.3 config (from around the beginning of Sept. I believe). It seems that with the new CA manager, its not possible to restore an entire configuration anymore.
I guess I'll have to start from scratch, and then load those bits of the configuration that are important to me to get back the "previous" state…Perhaps when I get some time.... :-}