All - our company uses the RB750-GL routers for live customer deployments. Typically a dozen or more per property (current property has 85 of these routers). My tech team needs a reliable method of cloning the configurations into many units. I've done a number of searches and found a couple of threads, followed those procedures and finally am close to getting it working reliably, but I have a few questions to pose to the group here:
- As per others indicated, must not use the Backup Configuration method as that will port MAC addresses and other info not compatible with the new RB750GL. All clone-candidate routers are upgraded to same firmware first (v6.13)
- I open a New Terminal window on the master router and do a "/export compact file=name" and then save this file to disk
- I upload this master.rsc (name) file into the clone router Files library and then open a New Terminal window on the clone router and issue "import name"
- First problem - I get an error message saying 'Syntax error line 69 column 7' . To check this master.rsc file, I open MilliScript1.47, goto line 69 (I assume line one is the first line which is the name of the .rsc file??) and it is just one of the standard Firewall settings and it is correctly spelled. I don't see any syntax error there??
- So, I tried in MilliScript by accident just adding a space character in the first comment line and saved it. Uploaded this master2.rsc file, and now it goes a little longer but gives me the 'failure - encountered same pool name' error message??
- I then performed the command '/system reset-configuration no-defaults=yes' on the new clone router. This requires you to access the router now using the winbox utility/MAC access.
- Now I open New Terminal and try the /import master2.rsc file and it looks like it worked (though I didn't get the Success message I was expecting but maybe I didn't see because one of the changes was a change to the DHCP pool subnet) after I reboot as I get a new DHCP address and my other settings (like a static IP address) are all there.

Given the error messages and the need to edit the compact file, etc, this doesn't seem like a clean process. What am I missing - or what have others done to create a clean clone config file??

Thanks,
daggerCVN

I dont believe you missed anything. I can not say I have had reliable import/export in any instance without having to go through and scrub out errors.

I normally save the template that works and just create from it, rather than exporting then changing. If you have made changes to the running config, just export that section rather than the entire file and add where you need to in your template.

Thanks Scott for the feedback - maybe it's not just me. However, when I have to do something completely not expected and I can't come up with a logical explanation as to why it would work, then that just bugs me till I find an answer I can live with (ie., why do I have to open the compact file with MilliScript, change it by adding a space in a comment line and save it, and then it works?????). Hopefully one of the Mikrotik admins might have some insight or inputs, or somebody else here found a better way of doing this.

Cheers,
David

You should contact support, and provide both the non working original RSC, and the one which works (which you corrected)

What happens when you import the original file after reset of the device?
You said you tried with the changed version only.

What happens when you import the original file after reset of the device?
You said you tried with the changed version only.

When I try to import the original compact file to the new RB750GL, I get the failure - IP pool already exists (I can't recall the exact wording) message.

One thing to try is to do a full system reset-configuration without defaults, then try that. It may be that its seeing the default pool and throwing the error.

Yes, that's it. I spent many nights to find a proper way to clone configuration from one MT to another. If U have the same FW on both of them, it will works. If not then U should manually review Your rsc.
It is a little annoying, but works too.

One thing to try is to do a full system reset-configuration without defaults, then try that. It may be that its seeing the default pool and throwing the error.

Seems like this is key to performing a clone procedure. However, for some reason I still needed to edit the master.rsc file and add a space character and then save it. My latest property has gone very smooth using these steps:

• update first RB750 to v6.13 and configure all settings
  save a compact version of the config via the command /export compact file=NAME
  edit this master.rsc file with MilliScript and add a blank to a comment line and save the file
  select candidate clone RB750 and update to v6.13 and add the modified master.rsc to FILES
  execute the following command on the clone RB750 router: /system reset-configuration no-defaults=yes run-after-reset=master.rsc
  Once it reboots, do any final edits on the cloned RB750 configuration to customize as required
  repeat for other clone candidates

Not sure why I had to edit the compact master.rsc file, but this worked very smoothly for me.

Thanks for everyone's inputs.
David