Backup / Restore of a Brocade SAN switch

Prior to making major changes on any production attached equipment it is always a wise to have a backup / restore option in the backhand. In this little article i’ll demostrate how you can easily archive that. Using the configupload / configdownload commands in the CLI of the Brocade.

First of all one important note. configupload is BACKUP as it is seen from the switch perspective it uploads the config to a source of your choice. scp, ftp, stfp etc.

In the example I provide in this article I assume, you have access to a working FTP server, along with a account.

1. Using your prefered SSH/SFTP client, login to the brocade. personally i use MobaTerm.
2. Once logged in to the SAN switch type:

configupload

3. Now you will be presented with a couple of options,default being FTP. Assuming that’s the protocol we want, just press ENTER.

Protocol (scp, ftp, sftp, local) [ftp]

4. Next enter IP address of the FTP server and press Enter

Server Name or IP Address [host]: 10.17.x.x

5. Provide username

User Name [user]: brocade

6. Give the backupfile a name, that tells what it is. I use hostname along with date.

Path/Filename [<home dir>/config.txt]: sansw-21082020.txt

7. Assuming we want everything backed up, press Enter when asked for section.

Section (all|chassis|switch [all]): 

8. Now it will prompt for your password, notice you can’t see when you type, press Enter when done

Password: *****

8. Finally login to your FTP server and store the backup a safe location.

Here you can see, the full example

sansw:admin> configupload
Protocol (scp, ftp, sftp, local) [ftp]:
Server Name or IP Address [host]: 10.17.x.x
User Name [user]: brocade
Path/Filename [<home dir>/config.txt]: sansw-21082020
Section (all|chassis|switch [all]):
Password: *****

To Restore
Reverse to procedure to restore. Using configdownload instead.

Additional link:

https://faststorage.eu/brocade-firmware-upgrade-via-the-cli/