IOS - Configuration Archive and Rollback
Cisco IOS routers and switches are able to create ‘snapshots’ of their configuration using the archive feature. Cisco calls these snapshots ‘configuration archives’ and they are very useful as it allows you to store multiple versions of your configuration.
When you have multiple snapshots you can use a show command to see the difference between the configurations and easily restore (rollback) to a previous version.
This feature can be configured using the archive command to enter archive configuration mode like so:
Router(config)#archive Router(config-archive)#
Once in archive configuration mode, you can configure various parameters including:
- path - the path to where you want to store your configuration archives
- time-period - how often a backup of the configuration file will be made
- maximum - the maximum number of versions of the running configuration are kept in the archive; after the maximum number of files has been saved, the oldest file is automatically deleted when the next, most recent file is saved