Problems with backup file from 2440 to 6100

Rusha11988

Hello dear pf-sense forum,

I hope you can help me. Unfortunately my backup from my SG-2440 does not work on my new 6100.

Initial situation:
My 2440 is unfortunately defective, does not boot anymore. According to support dead. Now I bought a 6100 as successor. The backup is from 12/2021. Since then nothing has been changed on the pfsense, except a firmware update. That means the backup file is from a 2019 firmware. The firewall is only used to connect between another pfsense using IPSec at another location to allow backup between two NAS. It is connected as follows:
FritzBox!6591->Unmanaged Switch TP-Link->pfsense6100->NAS.

Problem:
There are several problems and oddities, I'll try to summarize.

1st Step: I imported the backup to the firewall using laptop over network. The pfsense asked me how I want to assign the other ports now. This I did. After that the backup was imported, but it wanted to install some packages, which didn't work. An update didn't work either, because the WAN port was configured correctly, but it didn't want to connect to the FritzBox! All packages were lost.

2nd Step: After I couldn't get the WAN port to work, I reset the pfsense to factory settings. Now I could configure the WAN and everything worked directly, I could update to 23.01. Now after I tried to import the backup again, I always got a php error. I was not asked how to set the network ports. I could not get to the pfsense anymore. Although I was able to reassign the network ports with putty, that did nothing, I had to reset the pfsense again - this time with putty - to factory defaults. I repeated this step three times - each time with the same result.

3rd step: I changed the configuration file manually (set all ports, igc0, ix3 etc.). Now there was no php error anymore when importing, but now I can only get to the firewall sporadically. The WAN port and other still does not work. Also strange that the port name is not correct, for example LAN1 has the identifier igc1, although it should be igc0. All very strange and not clearly comprehensible.

What should I do now? Reset the pfsense to factory settings again and enter everything manually? Since I didn't configure the pfsense myself, I don't know if I can do it that easily. I can read everything from the backup files using the text editor, but I don't understand everything there and I don't know for all values what they stand for and where I would have to enter them in the GUI.

Maybe you have an idea?

Many thanks

Patrik

NightlyShark

@rusha11988 Do you have access to a PC you can install virtual box on? If yes, can you whip up a pfsense installation there with the image with your release from 2019 and the same number of network adapters, assign your interfaces to the new adapters with the same names you had then, load the config there, if successful try to update, if successful download the config from the updated install? (takes breath)

Rusha11988

@nightlyshark thanks for quick answer. I'm not familiar with virtual box, but I understand your idea. But: why should it work with virtual box, but not with 6100? What's the difference? I checked all WAN-settings many times and think, that it was a bug and no wrong setting.

rcoleman-netgate

@rusha11988 said in Problems with backup file from 2440 to 6100:

I hope you can help me. Unfortunately my backup from my SG-2440 does not work on my new 6100.

When you imported the 2440 config on the 6100 you would have been directed to reassign your interface matchups. Did you migrate the VLANs, too? This should work easily and without issue.

I suspect all of this comes down to an initial issue on import.

Open a ticket at https://go.netgate.com and attach your XML file. Please tell us which interfaces go on which devices (see https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/netgate-6100/io-ports.html#networking-ports for the list of what the ports are called on the software-level)

This conversion is typically reserved for systems with built-in switches but can also be done for others when there is trouble getting the config moved.

If you are using bridges, however, we will want to break that bridge before we attempt a conversion.

NightlyShark

@rusha11988 You can load the old (2021 not 2019, sorry, got confused) edition of pfsense that made the backup, and then upgrade both the install (of the VM) to the current one, and thus, upgrade the backup, too.

NightlyShark

@rusha11988 In retrospect (after @rcoleman-netgate posted) maybe go that route.

rcoleman-netgate

@nightlyshark said in Problems with backup file from 2440 to 6100:

You can load the old (2021 not 2019, sorry, got confused) edition of pfsense that made the backup

This isn't necessary and will likely make things worse as the packages in the repo from then might be out of date and not be reliably accessible today.

NightlyShark

@rcoleman-netgate Didn't think of that. To tell the truth, I didn't even know that having the config rectified for a device was an option.

Rusha11988

@rcoleman-netgate thanks for help. I opened a ticket and attaeched xml-file. I will inform you, when I got solution.