Making Backups in the WebGUI¶

Making a backup in the WebGUI is simple:

Navigate to Diagnostics > Backup & Restore
Set any desired options, or leave the options at their default values.
Click Download Configuration as XML (Figure WebGUI Backup).

WebGUI Backup¶

The web browser will then prompt to save the file somewhere on the PC being used to view the WebGUI. It will be named config-<hostname>-<timestamp>.xml, but that may be changed before saving the file.

Backup Options¶

When performing a backup, GUI options are available to control what is contained within the backup file.

Backup Area: Limits the backup contents to a single configuration area, rather than a complete configuration backup.

Note

When restoring a configuration containing only a single area, the Restore area value must be set to match.
Skip Packages: When set, omits installation data and settings for packages from the backup. This is useful to quickly remove all traces of packages from a configuration.
Skip RRD Data: When set (default), the data used to generate monitoring graphs (Monitoring Graphs) is exported and included in the backup, so that when the configuration is restored later, the graph data is also restored.
Encryption: When set, Password and confirmation fields are presented, the contents of which are used by pfSense to encrypt the contents of the backup file with AES-256 before download.