Only if you can get the source and destination to have the exact same JHF level installed, otherwise you cannot use a system backup for this.
This limitation is documented here: https://supportcenter.checkpoint.com/supportcenter/portal?eventSubmit_doGoviewsolutiondetails=&solut...
You can do one of two things for upgrading your management:
- Upgrade the existing management to R80.40 in-place, take a Gaia backup, restore onto the same version/JHF level on the new hardware, then upgrade to R81.10 in-place.
- Install a fresh VM with R80.40, use the legacy migration tools to migrate the existing Smart-1 configuration to this VM, use the newer migration tools to export this configuration to the new Smart-1 on R81.10.
I like the second approach because the existing management will remain unaffected by the upgrade except for when the migrate export is run (i.e. because it requires a cpstop).
On the gateway side, provided you've made all your configuration changes to the gateway only via clish/WebUI or SmartConsole a "show configuration" from the gateways should suffice as a starting point.
If you have modified any other files (these were documented somewhere, right?), then they will have to be backed up separately.
Given the large number of changes between R80.10 and R81.10, all of those changes will need to be reviewed to see if they are applicable or even necessary.
Which means, even if we backed up/restored those files, you might end up breaking things.