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4.2.2 Copying Configuration Files to a Network Server
You can copy configuration files from the router to a file server using TFTP. You might wish to back up a
current configuration file to a server before changing its contents, thereby allowing you to later restore the
original configuration file from the server.
Important! TFTP is not a secure protocol. Your server IP address and configuration file name will not be
protected over the public Internet. Use TFTP only on a trusted LAN connection.
To specify that the running or startup configuration file be stored on a TFTP network server, use the
following commands in the EXEC mode (Note: Copying the startup configuration file to the current running
configuration merges the two files. It is recommended that you keep a copy of the start-up configuration file
before merging the two in case you want to revert back to the original startup configuration):
Router# copy startup-config ?
running-config Update (merge with) current system configuration
tftp:[//A.B.C.D/filename] Copy to tftp: file system
OR
Router# copy running-config ?
startup-config Copy to startup configuration
tftp:[//A.B.C.D/filename] Copy to tftp: file system
Router# copy running-config tftp
Enter TFTP Server IP Address [A.B.C.D]?
Enter file name 'my-config' to copy?
Reply to any prompts for additional information or confirmation. The prompts will depend on how much
information has been provided in the copy command and the current setting of the file prompt command.
The command can also look like this example:
Router# copy running-config tftp://192.168.0.1/my-config
Upload file ‘my-config’ to 192.168.0.1 from running-config? [y/n] y
Accessing tftp://192.168.0.1/my-config...
[OK] 487 bytes copied in time <1 sec
4.2.3 Copying Configuration Files from a Network Server to the IC35516
You can copy configuration files from a TFTP server to the running configuration or startup configuration of
the router. You may want to do this for one of the following reasons:
1. To restore a previously backed up configuration file.
2. To use the same configuration file for another router. For example, you may add another router to
your network and want it to have a similar configuration to the original router. By copying the file to
the new router, you can change the relevant parts rather than re-creating the whole file.
3. To load the same configuration commands onto all the routers in your network so that they all have
the same configurations.
The copy tftp running-config command loads the configuration files into the router as if you were typing
the commands in at the command line. The router does not erase the existing running configuration before
adding the commands unless a command in the copied configuration file replaces a command in the existing
configuration file. For example, if the copied configuration file contains a different IP address in a particular
command than the existing configuration, the IP address in the copied configuration will be used. However,
some commands in the existing configuration may not be replaced or negated. In this case, the resulting
configuration file will be a mixture of the existing configuration file and the copied configuration file, with the
copied configuration file having precedence.