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    How Auto Configuration Backup works....

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    7 Posts 5 Posters 1.1k Views
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    • occamsrazorO
      occamsrazor
      last edited by occamsrazor

      The new (for non-Gold users) Auto Configuration Backup feature is nice to have. The changes that get backed up seem extremely granular, which is impressive. From what I'm seeing the service stores the last 100 backups. However here lies a sort of problem, because of the granularity it seems (at least from what I can see) that those 100 changes can be used up extremely quickly, resulting in the last backup available perhaps being less than a day old if you've made a bunch of changes, and some things that are automatic get registered as changes.

      For example my configuration change list is filled up with stuff like this, each of which appears to count as 1 out of the 100 backups:

      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 10:30:45 +0300 	(system): Removed cron job for /usr/local/bin/perl /usr/local/www/lightsquid/lightparser.pl today 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 10:30:48 +0300 	(system): Removed cron job for /usr/local/bin/perl /usr/local/www/lightsquid/lightparser.pl yesterday 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 10:30:51 +0300 	(system): Installed cron job for /usr/local/bin/perl /usr/local/www/lightsquid/lightparser.pl today 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 10:30:54 +0300 	(system): Installed cron job for /usr/local/bin/perl /usr/local/www/lightsquid/lightparser.pl yesterday 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 11:24:19 +0300 	xxxxxxxxxx@192.168.0.16 (Local Database): Updated traffic graphs widget settings via dashboard. 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 11:51:16 +0300 		
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 13:00:13 +0300 	(system): Suricata pkg: updated status for updated rules package(s) check. 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 18:17:10 +0300 	(system): Intermediate config write during package removal for pfBlockerNG-devel. 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 18:17:14 +0300 	(system): pfBlockerNG: saving Unbound config 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 18:17:17 +0300 	(system): pfBlockerNG: saving DNSBL changes 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 18:17:21 +0300 	(system): pfBlockerNG: saving Aliases 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 18:17:26 +0300 	(system): Removed cron job for pfblockerng.php cron 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 18:17:29 +0300 	(system): Removed cron job for pfblockerng.php dcc 	
      Mon, 24 Sep 2018 18:17:32 +0300 	(system): Removed cron job for pfblockerng.php bl
      

      Obviously I can't complain because this is a free service but if we are to stick to the 100 backups threshold, which is quite reasonable, then I personally would prefer an option to manually set the backup interval to say once per day (hour/week), enabling me to have less granularity but 100 days of backups. Or am I misinterpreting how this works?

      pfSense CE on Qotom Q355G4 8GB RAM/60GB SSD
      Ubiquiti Unifi wired and wireless network, APC UPSs
      Mac OSX and IOS devices, QNAP NAS

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • C
        coreybrett
        last edited by

        Perhaps related...

        https://forum.netgate.com/topic/133694/feature-suggestion-for-backup-history

        occamsrazorO 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • occamsrazorO
          occamsrazor @coreybrett
          last edited by

          @coreybrett Yes that would be good as well. A different option... I'd like both available.

          pfSense CE on Qotom Q355G4 8GB RAM/60GB SSD
          Ubiquiti Unifi wired and wireless network, APC UPSs
          Mac OSX and IOS devices, QNAP NAS

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            Steve_B Netgate
            last edited by Steve_B

            Currently the ACB system makes a backup whenever the firewall configuration is changed. This works well for deliberate config changes, but not so well where you have packages (such as pfBlockerNG) that write to the config system as part of their
            continuous operation. In future versions, we will be refining this operation, as well as working with package maintainers to make better use of the system.

            Als ik kan

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • M
              msf2000
              last edited by

              Is there a way to have the Cron package invoke the Auto Config Backup on a set time-interval (such as nightly)?

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • S
                Steve_B Netgate
                last edited by

                Scheduled backups have beed added to the system and will appear in the next snapshot/release.

                Als ik kan

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                • GertjanG
                  Gertjan
                  last edited by

                  I've been using in parallel this https://github.com/KoenZomers/pfSenseBackup : runs from a Windows PC every day.

                  No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                  Edit : and where are the logs ??

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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