Manual:System/Backup

Applies to RouterOS: v6.14 +

Summary

RouterOS backup feature allows you to save your current device's configuration, which then can be re-applied on the same or a different device (with the same model name/number). This is very useful since it allows you to effortlessly restore device's configurations or to re-apply the same configuration on a backup device. System's backup file also contain the device's MAC addresses, which are also restored when the backup file is loaded.

Warning: If The Dude and user-manager is installed on the router, then the system backup will not contain configuration from these services, therefore additional care should be taken to save configuration from these services. Use provided tool mechanisms to save/export configuration if you want to save it.

Note: System's backups contain sensitive information about your device and its configuration, always consider encrypting the backup file and keeping the backup file in a safe place.

Saving a backup

Sub-menu: /system backup save

Property	Description
dont-encrypt (yes | no; Default: no)	Disable backup file encryption. Note that since RouterOS v6.43 without a provided password the backup file is unencrypted.
encryption (aes-sha256 | rc4; Default: aes-sha256)	Encryption algorithm to use for encrypting the backup file. Note that RC4 is not considered as secure encryption method and is only available for compatibility reasons with older RouterOS versions.
name (string; Default: [identity]-[date]-[time].backup)	File name for the backup file.
password (string; Default: )	Password for the encrypted backup file. Note that since RouterOS v6.43 without a provided password the backup file is unencrypted.

Warning: If password is not provided in RouterOS versions older than v6.43, then the backup file will be encrypted with the current user's password, except if the dont-encrypted property is used or the current user's password is empty.

The backup file will be available under /file menu, which can be downloaded using FTP or using Winbox.

Loading a backup

Sub-menu: /system backup load

Property	Description
name (string; Default: )	File name for the backup file.
password (string; Default: )	Password for the encrypted backup file.

Example

• To save the router's configuration to file test and a password:

[admin@MikroTik] > /system backup save name=test password=<YOUR_PASSWORD>
Configuration backup saved
[admin@MikroTik] > /system backup

• To see the files stored on the router:

[admin@MikroTik] > /file print
 # NAME                           TYPE         SIZE       CREATION-TIME
 0 test.backup                    backup       12567      sep/08/2018 21:07:50
[admin@MikroTik] >

To load the saved backup file test:

[admin@MikroTik] > /system backup load name=test 
password: <YOUR_PASSWORD>
Restore and reboot? [y/N]: 
y
Restoring system configuration
System configuration restored, rebooting now

Cloud backup

Since RouterOS v6.44 it is possible to securely store your device's backup file on MikroTik's Cloud servers, read more about this feature in the IP/Cloud page.