How to Take Cisco Router and Switch IOS and configuration files backup using TFTP server
How to Take Cisco Router and Switch IOS and configuration files backup using TFTP server
In this tutorial you will learn How to Take Cisco Router and Switch IOS and configuration files backup using TFTP server.
TFTP stands for Trivial File Transfer Protocol. It is the simplest form of a File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Trivial File Transfer Protocol is more useful to write (Upload) or copy (Download) files from a remote server or a computer to the client. It is mostly used in Local Area Network as it does not provide security. Trivial File Transfer Protocol is does not provide any authentication.
Hence Trivial File Transfer protocol is less secure to use it over internet. Trivial File Transfer Protocol uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to perform all its communications. User Datagram Protocol is not reliable when compared to that of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).
All the Cisco devices run with the help of Operating system called Internetwork Operating Systems (IOS). Internetwork Operating Systems can perform multiple tasks like IP routing, switching, providing security through Access Control Lists (ACL).
IOS enables communication between networks devices (routers and switches). Apart from the above functions Cisco Internetwork Operating System does various tasks like encryption, decryption and filtering of packets etc. Internetwork of Operating System is stored in Flash Memory of router.
Cisco Internetwork Operating System plays an important role in transfer of data. The IOS is stored in Non volatile memory (does not loose data even after power loss). But in order to avoid unwanted situations like corruption of IOS (Internetwork Operating System), missing of IOS etc, and one must definitely take backup of IOS.
There are many ways to backup IOS, but the easiest way could be taking the backup of IOS using Trivial File Transfer Protocol. There are many products that support TFTP protocol but SolarWinds is one of the best products that are available in the market. We can download SolarWinds software and can install it on our systems for free of cost.
SolarWinds TFTP server provides authentication using a single IP address or group of IP Addresses. The installation of SolarWinds is very easy.
Once you install and SolarWinds we can copy download or back up IOS and configuration files in to TFTP server using the following command
CISCO_ROUTER# copy flash tftp:
Before taking the backup make sure that TFTP is on the same network. Check the connectivity with TFTP Server using ping command. The above command must be used in Privileged EXEC mode. The above command asks for IP address of TFTP server, name of the file at source, name of the file at destination.
Similarly, we can also backup configuration files using TFTP to back up running configuration file, the command is as follows
CISCO_ROUTER# copy running-config tftp:
Start up configuration file can also be backed up using the command
CISCO_ROUTER# startup-config tftp:
Read more
- TCP/IP Layer Model
- Cisco IOS images naming convention
- How to Install or Upgrade Cisco IOS on Switch or Router using TFTP Server
- Cisco IOS Modes, user Exec, Privileged, Global Configuration, Setup and ROM Monitor Mode