Operations#

The work that is not configuration: getting a copy of the router off the box, putting it back, moving to a new release, getting in again when you cannot, and the small settings that make a router easier to live with.

Two of these are worth doing before anything else on a new router.

Take a backup that is actually complete. The configuration file on its own is not a backup — a restore from it produces a router nobody can log in to.
Turn SSH on, and restrict it, or decide deliberately to leave it off. Several procedures here need a shell, and a freshly installed router has no SSH at all.

Keeping a copy#

Guide	The job
Take a backup that is actually complete	What a backup has to contain, and the one command that gets all of it
Restore a configuration	Putting a `config.boot` back on a running router
Rebuild a dead router onto a new box	New hardware, old identity, in roughly twenty minutes
Undo the last commit	Revisions, diffs and rollback

Moving to a new release#

Guide	The job
Upgrade the whole system	A second image installed alongside the running one
Upgrade the agent only	A new control plane without a reboot
Learn that a release exists	Nothing on the router checks; here is what does

Getting in, and staying in#

Guide	The job
Locked out of the UI	Every way back in, in the order to try them
Turn SSH on, and restrict it	It is off by default; here is how to turn it on without regretting it
Working from the console	The banner, the accounts, and what the console can do that the UI cannot

Housekeeping#

Guide	The job
Run something on a schedule	`system task-scheduler`, and where to keep the script
Kernel tunables	`system sysctl parameter`, and the two or three worth touching
Time synchronisation	Servers, allowed clients, and checking the router agrees with the world

Checked against docs/backup-restore.md · docs/upgrade.md · docs/security.md · ui/src/pages/SystemSettings.tsx