Backup

You can back up and restore Sophos Firewall configurations from Sophos Central.

We recommend that you set up scheduled backups and also do a backup before and after significant changes or before a firmware upgrade.

Schedule firewall backups

Schedule backups as follows. Make sure you set up a schedule that won’t overload your system.

  1. Go to Firewall Management > Backup.
  2. In Schedule Backup, select the Backup Frequency. The default is weekly.
  3. Set the day of the week (or the date if you selected monthly backups) when the backup will happen.
    Note Backups happen at 0800 local time (the time zone of the region the account is in). You can’t change this.
  4. In the Devices list, click Add New Item and add the firewall you want to back up.
  5. Click Save.

Sophos Central keeps your five most recent backups but discards any earlier backups.

If you want to keep a backup permanently (or until you delete it), see Store a backup permanently.

Back up a firewall now

To back up a firewall now:

  1. Go to Firewall Management > Backup.
  2. In Manage Backup, select the device you want to back up.

    If you don’t have any firewalls shown here, go to Schedule Backup and click Add New Item.

  3. Click Generate Backup.

Store a backup permanently

To store a backup permanently:

  1. Go to Firewall Management > Backup.
  2. In Manage Backup, select the device for which you want to store a backup.

    You can see a list of previous backups.

  3. In the list, select a backup. Click the pin icon to make the backup the “stored backup”.

    You can only have one stored backup. If there is already a stored backup, it will be replaced.

The backup will be kept until you replace it or delete it.

Restore from a backup

You can download a backup and use it to restore an earlier configuration.

  1. Go to Firewall Management > Backup.
  2. In Manage Backup, select the device where you want to restore the firewall configuration.

    You can see a list of previous backups.

  3. In the list, select a backup. Click the download icon.
  4. You’re prompted to set a password that will be used to re-encrypt the backup. Click Download.
  5. Go to the firewall and use the download to restore the configuration. For details, see Sophos Firewall help (search for "Backup restore").