Save a backup and restore from it

The appliance takes a backup only when an administrator clicks Create backup. It takes none by itself, not even before an update. Backups are under System › Backup, which only administrators see.

Take a backup

Open System › Backup. The page is called Backups.
Optionally, write a note under Create backup now in the Note (optional) field, for example what you are about to change.
Click Create backup. The page says “Backup created.”, and the backup appears at the top of the list with its version, time and size.

The appliance keeps running while the backup is taken. Take a backup:

before you update the appliance;
after Change the signing key under Agents › Connection. A backup from before a key change cannot serve agents with the current key;
after larger changes to profiles, rules and servers.

A backup holds the appliance’s entire state:

the database with certificates, rules, servers, users and the audit log;
the appliance’s vault, where the certificates’ private keys are stored encrypted;
the appliance’s own TLS key, the installation’s identity key and its access to sslbrain Cloud;
modules and agent packages.

The appliance keeps the 5 newest backups and the 3 newest it took itself before a restore. Older ones are deleted as soon as a new backup is taken. A backup can also be removed with Delete.

Backups are stored on the same disk as the appliance’s data. If the disk is lost, the backups go with it, so keep a copy elsewhere, see Get a copy off the appliance.

If there is not enough space, the backup is not taken and the page says: “The backup was not taken. It needs about … MB, … MB is free, and at least … MB must stay free so the appliance can keep renewing certificates. Free up space or extend the disk.” See When something does not work.

Get a copy off the appliance

Click Download next to the backup.
Confirm your login. The page says “You must confirm your login before you download a backup, and the download is written to the audit log.”
The browser downloads the file <id>.tar.gz. Move it to encrypted storage outside the appliance.

The file has no encryption of its own. Every download and every refused download is written to the audit log.

Who can download a backup follows the private key export setting. If it is set to Nobody or Owner only, only an Owner can download backups. See Security. Admin Local, the account behind the 12 backup words, cannot download a backup, because it cannot confirm its login.

Restore from a backup

A restore returns the appliance to the state it was in when the backup was taken. Everything changed since then is lost.

Open System › Backup and find the backup. The Version column shows which version of the appliance took it.
Click Restore and confirm. The appliance first takes a backup of the current state.
The page says “Restore queued. The appliance will restart, apply the restore, and come back. An automatic pre-restore backup of the current state was taken first.”
After a restore, sslbrain Cloud does not open the appliance’s vault by itself. Open it with the 12 backup words. If the appliance shows Installation locked, click Use backup key instead, see When something does not work. Otherwise use Lost access? Use backup words on the login page.
Check that the certificates under Certificates › Managed by sslbrain and the rules under Deployment › Rules are as they were when the backup was taken. The Backups page does not show whether the restore succeeded.

Before the restore, the appliance checks the backup’s files against their checksums. If they do not match, nothing is changed.

Service agents get no work until they have answered the appliance’s challenge. Until then the server’s page shows “The appliance was restored from a backup. The agent gets no work until it has answered the appliance challenge.”

Limits of a restore:

You can only restore from the list on the appliance. A downloaded backup cannot be uploaded on the page.
Files that were not in the backup stay where they are.
The appliance does not refuse a backup from a newer version than the one it runs. Restore only a backup taken on the version the appliance runs now, or an older one.
The restore does not start if there is no room for the backup of the current state, or while the appliance is busy with another action, such as an update.

The 12 backup words

The 12 backup words open the appliance after a restore, and anyone who has both a backup and the words can open every certificate’s private key, so keep the words somewhere other than the backup files. See Security.

Move the appliance to another machine

A backup is restored on the appliance that took it. To move the appliance to a new machine, you move the licence in sslbrain Cloud and set up the new appliance. See Move or restore the appliance.