NetApp Save Config Command
I think it’s very important to save a config of a good setup. Firstly it’s a great reference if you ever need to go back and refer to things, secondly it’s a great way to show what you did was actually correct and that you did configure things correctly from the start!
There is a handy tool provided within ONTAP to do entire config dumps, compares and restores. This is limited to the filers base configuration and doesn’t necessarily include areas like volume setup.
filer01> config
Usage:
config clone <filer> <remote_user>
config diff [-o <output_file>] <config_file1> [ <config_file2> ]
config dump [-f] [-v] <config_file>
config restore [-v] <config_file>
The command is very simple and straight forward. You start by dumping out the configuration from the filer. This automatically goes into /etc/configs. From here you can then clone the config if needed, or compare (diff) the config. Running diff is a very good way of comparing a config between 2 points in time, if you aren’t sure what has changed, or even if you are comparing a filer upgrade and you copy the config files between the 2 systems (checkout NetApp File Copy). And finally you can also use the restore feature, although this would probably require a reboot, and may have a knockon affect to what may or may not be required in various other config files within /etc.
Overall a very useful command. I use this most for taking backups of filer configs and comparing them between similar systems (for instance primary and DR), or even comparing configs over time.
