Trigger XMLRPC sync programmatically for cold standby router?
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I've got a router running pfSense and I love it. But if it ever breaks, I want to be able to just fire up another machine until I can fix the first one. Theoretically this shouldn't be that hard, and I used the XMLRPC sync feature to make it happen. Everything works great except I don't want the secondary machine running all the time. I just want to turn it on once a week, sync it up with the first one, and then turn it back off. Firewall rules and RADIUS users are examples of things that need to be backed up.
The problem is that if the backup machine is not running, I get warnings in the primary machine because the XMLRPC sync operation can't happen. That's okay, but I don't like the warnings.
I want to be able to trigger the XMLRPC sync operation myself (using a shell command), rather than having it happen automatically at random times that I don't understand, because the backup machine is usually not running. Does anybody have any idea how this can be done?
The backup machine comes online once a week, and I want to sync it up at that time only.
Also open to suggestions if anyone has a better way to maintain a cold backup router.
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It's not intended to be used that way, so there is no way to make that work easily. You'd have to keep XMLRPC disabled (remove the user/pass/URL) and then fill it in only when the backup is online.
It would be better to keep backups of your running system and restore a full to the second box when needed, or always keep it online.
The sync doesn't happen randomly, it happens any time there is a configuration change.
