Backing Up and Restoring LAN Operational Mode Setups, Release 12.2.2

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Last updated: April 8, 2024
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New and Changed Information

The following table provides an overview of the significant changes up to this current release. The table does not provide an exhaustive list of all changes or of the new features up to this release.

Release Version Feature Description

NDFC release 12.2.2

Unified backup and restore

Beginning with NDFC release 12.2.2, a unified backup and restore is now available at the Nexus Dashboard (ND) level, where a backup and restore performed at the ND level backs up not only the configuration information for ND, but also for any services (such as NDI, NDO, or NDFC) running in that ND. See the Unified Backup and Restore for Nexus Dashboard and Services article for more information.

With this unified backup and restore feature, the backup and restore functionality for NDFC is essentially provided at the following levels:

  • At the lower-level fabric level: For individual LAN and SAN fabrics within NDFC, the backup and restore functionality is still provided within the NDFC GUI, just as it was prior to the NDFC 12.2.2 release.

  • At the upper-level NDFC level: Beginning with the NDFC 12.2.2 release, you no longer backup and restore at the NDFC level through the NDFC GUI, and you will backup and restore at this level using the unified backup and restore functionality through the ND GUI instead.

Backing Up and Restoring LAN Fabrics

The following sections describe how to back up and restore LAN fabrics.

Guidelines: LAN Fabrics

Following are the guidelines on backing up and restoring LAN fabrics:

  • Beginning with NDFC release 12.2.2, you will no longer back up or restore the Fabric Group fabric template type through the NDFC GUI; you will use the unified backup and restore function through the ND GUI, introduced in this release. See the Unified Backup and Restore for Nexus Dashboard and Services article for more information.

    You will continue to back up and restore all other fabric template types other than Fabric Group through the NDFC GUI, as described in this section.

  • If you add or remove devices to the fabric, you can’t restore a fabric from a current date to an earlier date.

  • The backup and restore procedures described in this document apply only for NDFC 12.x systems.

  • You cannot take backups of external fabrics in monitor-only mode. You can take a backup of external fabrics in monitor-only mode, but you cannot restore them. You can restore this backup when the external fabric is not in monitor-only mode.

  • You can take backups of Multi-Site Domain (MSD) fabrics. When you initiate a backup from the parent in a MSD fabric, the backup process is applicable for the member fabrics as well.

Backing Up a LAN Fabric

You can back up all fabric configurations and intents automatically or manually. You can save configurations in Cisco NDFC, which are the intents. The intent may or may not be pushed out to the switches.

The backup has the information related to intent and fabric configurations in addition to the associated state of the resource manager in terms of used resources on the fabrics. Cisco NDFC backs up only when there is a configuration push.

The following sections describe the necessary steps to back up a fabric:

Setting the Maximum Number of Backups Per Fabric

To set the maximum number of backups per fabric, navigate to:

Admin > System Admin > System Settings > Server Settings > LAN-Fabric

Locate the Maximum Backups per Fabric field and enter the number of backups that you want to have stored per fabric. The default entry in this field is 2.

When new backups take place, the oldest (non-golden) backup gets removed automatically. Increase the value in this field only after guidance from Cisco TAC.

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The backup count also includes golden backups. Cisco NDFC supports a maximum of two golden backups per fabric. See Marking a Backup as Golden for more information.

Enabling an Automatic (Scheduled) Fabric Backup

Cisco NDFC triggers an automatic backup only if you did not trigger any manual backup after the last configuration push.

To enable an automatic (scheduled) backup for fabric configurations and intents:

  1. Navigate to the Fabrics window:

    Manage > Fabrics

  2. Select a fabric from the list of configured fabrics, then click Actions > Edit Fabric.

  3. Click the Configuration Backup tab, then enter the necessary information in the fields in this tab.

    Fields Descriptions

    Hourly Fabric Backup

    Check this box to enable an hourly backup only if there is a configuration deployment since the last backup.

    Scheduled Fabric Backup

    Check this box to schedule an automatic backup at a specified time, entered in the Scheduled Time field.

    Scheduled Backup

    This field becomes editable if Scheduled Fabric Backup is enabled.

    Enter the time that you want the automatic backup to occur, in a 24 hour (UTC) format (00:00 to 23:59).

  4. Click Save when you have completed the configurations in this tab.

Enabling a Manual Fabric Backup

To enable a manual backup for fabric configurations and intents:

  1. Navigate to the Fabrics window:

    Manage > Fabrics

  2. Double-click on a configured fabric to bring up the Overview window for that fabric.

  3. Click Actions > More > Backup Fabric.

  4. Enter a name (tag) for the manual fabric backup, then click Create Backup.

Marking a Backup as Golden

Once you have a fabric backup configured (either a manual or an automatic backup), you can mark that fabric backup as golden, indicating that you don’t want to delete that backup even after you reach the archiving limit. Golden backups will not be removed automatically to make space for new backups.

Note the following guidelines with golden backups:

  • NDFC archives only up to ten golden backups.

  • You can’t delete golden backups of fabrics. However, you can remove the golden backup designation on a particular backup as described below, which would then allow you to delete that backup, if necessary.

You can mark a backup as a golden backup while restoring the fabric. To mark a specific backup as golden:

  1. Navigate to the Fabrics window:

    Manage > Fabrics

  2. Double-click on a configured fabric to bring up the Overview window for that fabric.

  3. Click Actions > More > Restore Fabric.

  4. Select the backup that you want to mark as golden, then click Actions > Mark as golden.

    If you want to remove a golden mark on a particular backup, select that backup in this window and click Actions > Remove as golden.

Restoring a LAN Fabric

To restore a LAN fabric that was backed up (either an automatic backup or a manual backup):

  1. Navigate to the Fabrics window:

    Manage > Fabrics

  2. Double-click on a configured fabric to bring up the Overview window for that fabric.

  3. Click Actions > More > Restore Fabric.

  4. Review the backups shown on this page.

    The following table describes the columns that appear on the Restore Backup tab.

    Fields Descriptions

    Backup Date

    Specifies the backup date.

    Backup Version

    Specifies the version of backup.

    Backup Tag

    Specifies the backup name.

    NDFC Version

    Specifies the version of NDFC.

    Backup Type

    Specifies the backup type (for example, a golden backup).

    The following table describes the fields that appear on the Action tab.

    Actions Descriptions

    Mark as golden

    To mark an existing backup as a golden backup, choose Mark as golden. Click Confirm in the confirmation window.

    Remove as golden

    To remove an existing backup from a golden backup, choose Remove as golden. Click Confirm in the confirmation window.

  5. In the Select a Backup step, click the radio button for the fabric backup that you want to restore, then click Next.

  6. In the Restore Preview step, verify that the information is correct for the backup that you want to restore.

    You can preview the details about the configuration in the backup file. You can also view the name and serial numbers for the switches in the Fabric backup. Click on Delta Config to view the configuration difference on the switches in the fabric.

  7. Click Restore Intent.

  8. In the Restore Status step, you can view the status of restoring the intent.

  9. Click Next to view the preview configuration.

  10. In the Configuration Preview step, you can resync the configurations on specific switches.

    For the desired switch, check the Switch Name check box, and click ReSync.

  11. Click deploy to complete the Restore Fabric operation.

Restoring Switch Configurations

NDFC supports restoring configurations for individual switches from certain fabric backups. This is supported in the following LAN fabric types:

  • Custom Network

  • Classic LAN

  • Multi-Site External Network

  • External Connectivity Network

To restore configurations for individual switches in one of these fabric types:

  1. Navigate to the Fabrics window:

    Manage > Fabrics

  2. Double-click on a configured fabric from the list above to bring up the Overview window for that fabric.

  3. Click the Switches tab, then select the appropriate switch and click Actions > More > Restore Switch.

  4. Select the backup that you want to restore from and click Next.

  5. Click Get Config to view the backed up configuration and the current running configuration, and to perform a side-by-side comparision.

  6. Click Restore Intent to restore the configuration for the switch.

Backing Up and Restoring NDFC Configurations

Beginning with NDFC release 12.2.2, a unified backup and restore is now available at the Nexus Dashboard (ND) level, where a backup and restore performed at the ND level backs up not only the configuration information for ND, but also for any services (such as NDI, NDO, or NDFC) running in that ND. With this unified backup and restore feature, the backup and restore functionality at the upper NDFC level is no longer provided through the NDFC GUI, and is no longer documented in this document; you will backup and restore at the NDFC level using the unified backup and restore functionality through the ND GUI instead. See the Unified Backup and Restore for Nexus Dashboard and Services article for more information.

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