{ "meta": { "title": "Interfaces Backup & Restart | ProxMenux Documentation", "description": "Manual snapshot, browse and restore /etc/network/interfaces backups stored under /var/backups/proxmenux/. Includes a network service restart with confirmation and a quick view of the live configuration.", "ogTitle": "Interfaces Backup & Restart | ProxMenux Documentation", "ogDescription": "Snapshot and restore Proxmox network configuration; restart the networking service with confirmation." }, "header": { "title": "Interfaces backup & restart", "description": "Four utilities that revolve around /etc/network/interfaces: take a manual snapshot, view the live config, restore a previous backup with optional preview, and restart the networking service with explicit consent. Same backup directory used by the guided repair flows.", "section": "Network" }, "intro": { "title": "What this does", "body": "Manages the same backup directory used by the guided repair flows (/var/backups/proxmenux/). Lets you take an extra snapshot before any manual change, browse all existing backups, and roll back to any of them — always with a fresh pre-restore backup taken automatically as a second safety net." }, "shared": { "heading": "The shared backup directory", "intro": "Every backup taken anywhere in the Network menu lands in the same place:", "outro": "Filenames are timestamped, sorted by date, and never overwritten. The directory is created on first use." }, "show": { "heading": "Show Network Config File", "body": "Prints /etc/network/interfaces verbatim to the terminal. Read-only. Useful as a sanity check before taking a backup or after a restore — there is no separate \"diff with previous backup\" tool, so eyeballing the live file is the easiest way to confirm what you have." }, "create": { "heading": "Create Network Backup", "body": "Copies the current /etc/network/interfaces into the backup directory with a fresh timestamp. That's it — no analysis, no prompts, just a snapshot.", "whenTitle": "When to take a manual backup", "whenBody": "Before editing /etc/network/interfaces by hand, before installing a package that may touch the network stack (e.g. NetworkManager, Open vSwitch), or before any hardware change. The guided repairs already snapshot automatically — this option is for the manual moments." }, "restore": { "heading": "Restore Network Backup", "intro": "Lists every backup in /var/backups/proxmenux/ sorted from newest to oldest, and walks through a guarded restore:", "steps": [ { "title": "1. Pick a backup", "body": "A menu lists each backup by its timestamp. If no backups exist, the flow exits with a clear message.", "tone": "blue" }, { "title": "2. Optional preview", "body": "Offers to open the selected backup in a scrollable view before committing. Yes by default — do not skip it on a remote host.", "tone": "blue" }, { "title": "3. Pre-restore backup", "body": "Before overwriting /etc/network/interfaces, takes another backup of the current state. Restoring a backup is itself a destructive action, so the new pre-restore snapshot lets you go back if the chosen backup turns out to be the wrong one.", "tone": "amber" }, { "title": "4. Apply the restore", "body": "Copies the chosen backup over /etc/network/interfaces. The file change is on disk; the live kernel state still reflects the previous config.", "tone": "amber" }, { "title": "5. Optional restart", "body": "Asks whether to run systemctl restart networking now. Decline to defer the change to the next reboot.", "tone": "emerald" } ], "autoBackupTitle": "A restore takes its own backup automatically", "autoBackupBody": "Selecting Restore Network Backup always creates a fresh snapshot of the current config before overwriting it. If you restore to the wrong backup, the most recent file in /var/backups/proxmenux/ is the state you came from." }, "restart": { "heading": "Restart Network Service", "body": "Runs systemctl restart networking after a yes/no confirmation. Reports the result with msg_ok / msg_error. Most flows in this menu offer their own restart prompt at the end; this option is for restarting after a manual edit or after declining the in-flow restart earlier.", "warnTitle": "Brief disconnection guaranteed; permanent disconnection possible", "warnBody": "Restarting networking tears down and re-applies every interface declared in /etc/network/interfaces. SSH sessions hosted on those interfaces drop. If the new config is invalid, the network never comes back. Run this only when:", "warnItems": [ "You have console / IPMI / iKVM access ready, or", "You are physically next to the machine, or", "You have just successfully rolled back to a known-good config and want to apply it." ] }, "manualRollback": { "heading": "Manual rollback from a console", "intro": "If you cannot reach the menu (no SSH, dialog crashing, …) but can reach a console, rollback is two commands:", "outro": "This is the same operation the menu performs, just typed by hand. If networking still fails to start, check journalctl -u networking -b for the underlying syntax / driver error." }, "troubleshoot": { "heading": "Troubleshooting", "noneTitle": "\"No backups found\" in Restore", "noneBody": "The directory /var/backups/proxmenux/ does not exist or contains no interfaces_backup_* files. Run Create Network Backup at least once, or run any guided repair (which auto-creates one). Confirm with ls /var/backups/proxmenux/.", "unreachTitle": "Restart networking succeeds but the host is still unreachable", "unreachBody": "Either the new config is wrong, or you restarted into a configuration that does not bind your management IP. Roll back from the console (see above). After rollback, use bridge analysis and config analysis to understand what was wrong before re-applying.", "emptyTitle": "Restore preview shows an empty file", "emptyBody": "The backup file is empty (0 bytes). This happens if a copy failed silently during a previous run. Pick an older backup, or re-run Create Network Backup right now if the live config is healthy." }, "related": { "heading": "Related", "items": [ { "label": "Bridge analysis & guided repair", "href": "/docs/network/bridge-analysis", "tail": " — the most common reason a backup ends up here." }, { "label": "Config analysis & guided cleanup", "href": "/docs/network/config-analysis", "tailRich": " — also writes to /var/backups/proxmenux/ automatically." }, { "label": "Diagnostics", "href": "/docs/network/diagnostics", "tail": " — verify the live state after a restore." } ] } }