Best way to set up and maintain a cold spare for pfSense 2.8.0 CE

[girkers]

Hi all,

I’m running pfSense 2.8.0 CE on my main router and I’d like to build a cold spare in case the primary fails.

Main box: 4 ports in use → WAN / LAN / IoT / Guest

Spare box: Only 3 ports available → I’d drop the Guest network if I needed to switch over

I know I can install pfSense cleanly on the spare, but I’m unclear on the best way to:

1. Transfer my current configuration to the spare.

2. Keep that configuration up to date as I make changes on the main router.

Questions:

• Is it best practice to back up and restore configs manually, or is there a cleaner way to sync across different hardware (since the interfaces don’t match)?

• How do others handle maintaining a cold spare so it’s ready to go at short notice?

Any practical tips, workflows, or “gotchas” to watch out for would be really appreciated.

Thanks!