Restore settings
This functionality is available in the System Settings > Settings management tab.
With this function, you can restore configuration settings if they have been saved to a file. If a settings file is not on the "Manually saved settings" list, it should be uploaded. For this purpose, the "Upload settings file" button should be used, and through the "Browse" option, select the file to upload. To complete the action, the "Upload" button must be clicked. After the file is uploaded to the "Manually saved settings" list, you can proceed to restore the settings. To this end, use the "Restore" option from the context menu.
Alternatively, the restoring process will start if the "Apply settings after uploaded" option is enabled during the upload of the settings file.
Regardless of which option has been chosen ("Restore" or the "Apply settings after uploaded"), a popup will appear. There are two types of settings that can be restored:
- System and storage settings which restore the following settings:
- Network, GUI and console configuration, services configuration, time and date settings, e-mail notifications, SNMP, CHAP users access discovery
- Pools settings that restore the following settings:
- Targets, shares, and virtual aliases together with their settings
Note that the structure of the pool itself, i.e. its disk groups, datasets, zvols, snapshots, and clones will not be restored. Also, please remember that only pools imported at the moment of saving the settings will be restored. This applies to a single node configuration and to an HA cluster configuration when the cluster services are stopped.
You can select which types of settings described above (only System and storage settings, only Pools settings, or both) to restore by enabling the respective toggle button. To confirm, click the "Reboot & Restore" action button. For security reasons, additional verification is needed. On the following popup that appears, the word "reboot" must be typed, and then the “Reboot" button pressed to confirm the execution of restoring the settings. The system will auto-save the current settings before it restores the settings from the selected file. The restored settings are available after the reboot.
HA Cluster configuration
The restoring process needs to be done on both nodes separately when it comes to a cluster configuration. Ensure that the same file with the saved configuration is located on both nodes on the "Manually saved settings" list. The files don't synchronize between nodes, so they must be uploaded separately. After the settings file has been uploaded on both nodes:
- Stop the cluster.
- Restore the settings on the first node.
- Restore the settings on the second node.
- Start the cluster.
Note that during this procedure access to data will be temporarily lost as a result of rebooting.
Advanced Settings
Note that the zpool settings will not be restored after performing this procedure. The steps outlined below are recommended if you want to restore the previously working LDAP database version containing the same configuration (list of users, groups).
- Follow the steps from 1 to 3 from the Simple Settings procedure.
- After restoring the settings, the synchronization between the nodes is disabled. However, the LDAP remains active, and the cluster starts. The synchronization is disabled due to security reasons. The database in the restored settings can be different from the one available on the second node (the settings are saved per node, not per cluster).
- To synchronize the database again, the user has to select the database that will be the current one from both of the available nodes and reset the database on the second node.
- Before making a reset, a zpool/zpools from the node to be reset should be moved to the second node. Then, a database reset should be made.
- The database reset will cause the LDAP shutdown.
- The LDAP should be started again, and then the synchronization in the cluster should start and the database from a node will synchronize with a node where the database is empty.
- The moved zpools should be restored to their proper places.
What to do if system settings were restored on one of the nodes while the cluster was working?
Since settings were related to the LDAP database, there is a possibility that databases on both nodes might be different. Due to security reasons, synchronization between nodes has been disabled. To restore it, follow the steps below:
- Select the database that should be the current working one.
- The database that will not be used has to be reset. The database reset will stop LDAP.
- LDAP should be restarted on the node where the database was reset.
- After starting LDAP, the synchronization will work again, and the database that was set as the current working one, will be synchronized on both nodes.
Note: It is not possible to restore pool settings while restoring settings when the HA cluster is working. Restoring the pool settings is possible only in a situation when the pool is located in a node for which the settings are restored. In a HA cluster configuration, the cluster should be stopped while performing the restore operation. It will prevent exporting the pool on the second node while restarting the system, which is required when restoring settings.