Backing Up and Restoring Using Text Files

Backup Configurations with Text Capture (Tera Term)

Configuration files can be saved/archived to a text file using Tera Term.

As shown in the figure, the steps are:

Step 1. On the File menu, click Log.

Step 2. Choose the location to save the file. Tera Term will begin capturing text.

Step 3. After capture has been started, execute the show running-config or show startup-config command at the privileged EXEC prompt. Text displayed in the terminal window will be directed to the chosen file.

Step 4. When the capture is complete, select Close in the Tera Term: Log window.

Step 5. View the file to verify that it was not corrupted.

Restoring Text Configurations

A configuration can be copied from a file to a device. When copied from a text file and pasted into a terminal window, the IOS executes each line of the configuration text as a command. This means that the file will require editing to ensure that encrypted passwords are in plain text and that non-command text such as "--More--" and IOS messages are removed. This process is discussed in the lab.

Further, at the CLI, the device must be set at the global configuration mode to receive the commands from the text file being pasted into the terminal window.

When using Tera Term, the steps are:

Step 1. On the File menu, click Send file.

Step 2. Locate the file to be copied into the device and click Open.

Step 3. Tera Term will paste the file into the device.

The text in the file will be applied as commands in the CLI and become the running configuration on the device. This is a convenient method for manually configuring a router.