Having bought several of these I'm struggling to backup the configuration and restore to a new unit. On ROS6 I would always use the backup and restore options in Files but according to support this doesn't currently work in ROS7 and you need to Export the config and then use that backup to restore. However I can't get it to work. After exporting the config file as a .rsc file I transfer this to the flash folder of the new router and then Rest the configuration with no default selected and the backed up rsc file as the startup. Most of the config appears to take except there's no DHCP server set and the network settings appear to be missing - I can only connect to the Chateau using it's MAC address as the IP address is also missing.

Anyone have a simple way to backup the config and restore to a new unit?

Backup & Restore always sucked for me. Always use export & restore.

Most of the config appears to take except there's no DHCP server set and the network settings appear to be missing

I would say remove such lines from the exported config try again? Then connect using MAC address.
Anyway, it's a shame that Chateau does not have ROS6 available. On the other hand - it's one aggressive way to push ROS7 for real life testing, which would benefit it greatly in the long term.

Thanks for the reply.

Couldn't find any of those lines in my config. I've attached the config file in case anyone spots anything.

Remember to add a
delay 20s
as first line of every .rsc who will be used into system reset-configuration run-after-reset=

export & import works for me, what is not right ?

I had a delay set of 15s. I’ll try it with 20s.
When I restored from the rsc file I had the following:

No IP address on the Chateau
No DHCP server

It must have had a corruption of some sort. I’ll try it again with the suggested delay.

Ok tried again but same result. The Chateau loses IP address and it seems only some of the config has been restored - see below. So what am I doing wrong?

This (transferring a config to another similar device) has traditionally been a problem on MikroTik routers.
They really should do something about that!
Anyway, when you export config to import it on another router, make sure you remove all MAC addresses from the export (e.g. admin-mac=48:8F:5A:B4:43:CA) and after the import go along those places to set them again, this time to different values.

Yes the transfer seems very flaky, especially in ROS7.

I take the point about the MAC address as I had read that somewhere else. However what seems to be happening here is that I’m only getting a partial config transfer/import. I get the wifi settings but most of the other config is missing including firewall rules, IP config, DHCP etc.

I’ve tried it multiple times and everytime it fails to import the complete config. This happens even when trying on a brand new unit with default config.

My next option is to try on a Windows machine rather than a MacBook. Perhaps the uploaded config is becoming corrupted but I can’t see any corruption when viewing it.

set in few places of config line with: and if he stops at some place and scirpt.. even when you cannot connect via IP then Discover in WinBox show you a progress of work into name of RB, this is my way.
.
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Other way is just use the clean RouterOS by
/system reset-configuration no-defaults=yes
and connect via MacAddress and type
/import generic-chateau-v003.rsc
show you error at specific line.

But this should be no problem until prev. export is from the same device.

BTW. When you use Bridge then always use a admin-mac-address, I like generate mac from new EoIP tunnel and use his Mac as a template :) of course temporary eoip is removed.

Thanks for the reply.

Tried your suggestion but it failed. When importing I receive the following:

You do a clean config?

Other way is just use the clean RouterOS by
/system reset-configuration no-defaults=yes

if you use VFR then remove it, recreate etc. dependense of what you try do.

You migrate between two other platforms ? You do export & import at the same unit ?? Why not binary backup ?

Yes I did from a clean config.

I'm trying to export a config from one unit and import to another - surely that's the point of restore, especially for installers who need to replicate configs across multiple units. I've never had this problem with all other LTE products which are running ROS6. I can simply backup the config and restore to multiple units with any problem. Why is this so difficult under ROS7???

I also don't understand when you say "you use VFR". What is VFR??? (edit: Looking at the wiki it suggests VFR is Virtual Forwarding & Routing so no I'm not using that - it was a totally clean config!). All I have done is export a configuration I want to replicate from one unit and load this onto a new unit. That SHOULD be straight forward and easy. As already mentioned, it was under ROS6 and now it's a nightmare!

With regards "binary backup" I'm not sure what you mean. Looking at the wiki here it suggests that what I'm doing is a binary backup:
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:C ... Management

This link https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:System/Backup is how I have used backup and restore previously on ROS6 but this simply doesn't work on ROS7.

export and import of configuration can't be done in a "blind" way like on a Cisco. The export/import function except a "empty" router.

For templating new devices, i usually put in some "remove all"'s before adding new entries. For example

Apologies still not understanding.

Why does the export/import work on ROS6 but not in ROS7. I appreciate the suggestions but why is this necessary when it wasn’t before.

For example I had a hardware failure on the modem of an LHG LTE6 running ROS6. I exported the config as I was still able to access the interface. I then opened a brand new unit, powered it up and imported that config to the new unit. Took all of 30seconds and I was able to install the new unit. I can’t do that on the Chateau and I’m asking why? What’s different? Why the complication?

One reason is that v7 is beta software and has bugs. The export function does not work well. Sure it is frustrating that you can only run beta software on a Chateau but that is the fact of life right now.
Importing exports made on another device has always been a pain on RouterOS. The fact that you were lucky does not mean it works well.

Well-known issues:
- when using the "reset to defaults and load this config after boot" you run into the problem that the import is started before the system is ready. You need to insert a delay on the first line. Of course that delay should be in RouterOS itself (or preferably: a wait until everything is ready for import), but after many requests MikroTik still have not bothered to fix that
- even after a full reset without default config, the system inserts config items that conflict with later import of new config (either by making it fail, or by making the result malfunction because these items are not removed)
- when you import a config, it just stops dead on the first error it encounters, giving only an error message without context, not even a line number. There is a verbose=yes parameter to work around that but you have to think about that every time, it would be better when the failing command was always printed on error (and its line number).
- the behavior of stopping dead on every minor error makes it difficult to import some large config. it should just continue on minor problems like "item already exists".
- the import of foreign config causes problems especially when both the donor and recipient device remain online, because items like MAC address are copied as well. there should be an import mode that skips setting such unique values without having to manually edit them out of the file.

It is a general problem with RouterOS. Lots of people a "fighting" with "how do I transfer my old config to my new device" and "how do I setup a largish number of devices with the same standard config".
MikroTik really should do something about it!