What is backup and snapshot and difference between them?

[Mohit_Yadav]

hi,

What is a backup and snapshot? How to use them and difference between them?

When should we use backup and snapshot?

[Gomboragchaa]

Snapshot Management

The snapshot creates a binary image of the entire root (lv_current) disk partition. This includes Check Point products, configuration, and operating system.

The log partition is not included in the snapshot. Therefore, any locally stored FireWall logs will not be saved.

System Backup (and System Restore)

System Backup can be used to backup current system configuration. A backup creates a compressed file that contains the Check Point configuration including the networking and operating system parameters, such as routing and interface configuration etc., but unlike a snapshot, it does not include the operating system, product binaries, and hotfixes.

Save Configuration (and Load Configuration)

Allows saving Gaia OS configuration settings as a ready-to-run CLI script. This allows you review your current setup and quickly restore the Gaia OS configuration.

Recommended backup plan

For complete backup of the system and maximum confidence, Check Points recommends combining all three methods as part of the backup plan (Snapshot Management, System Backup/Restore, Save/Load Configuration). This will allow multiple restore points, redundancy and reliability of overall restore procedure.

Collect:

• Snapshot - after a fresh installation, before an upgrade, and before a hotfix installation.
• Scheduled Backup - monthly or weekly, depending how frequently you perform changes in your configuration and policy

You can find find more information from Best Practices - Backup on Gaia OS

[Mohit_Yadav]

Hey, thanks for the explanation. So, after going through the article is it Okay to say that Backup is a subset/part of a Snapshot. Means Snapshot is much wider than backup? Please correct me if i am wrong.

[Gomboragchaa]

Yes.

Backup is only configurations. Snapshot is much wider backup.

Also You can schedule System Backup. But cannot schedule Snapshot