topic Re: different content of backup files. in General Topics

different content of backup files.

MPI-AE — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:04:19 GMT

Hey!

I'm using curl and the xml api to automtically backup the config of my PA-3020:

https://live.paloaltonetworks.com/t5/Management-Articles/How-To-Backup-of-Config-Files-Periodically-without-Panorama/ta-p/77312

However, the content of that file looks completely different compared to a manual backup. device -> setup -> operations -> save and export named configuration snapshot.

automatic backup: 1.000 lines

manual backup: 27.000 lines

automatic backup: file type: xml file

manual backup: file type: file

automatic backup: very cryptic

manual backup: compete config in cleartext

What's the deal?

Re: different content of backup files.

reaper — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 13:37:06 GMT

Are you running the command through curl or wget?

Have you tried simply performing the fetch in a browser to see what the 'normal' output looks luke:

https://<IP>/api/?type=export&category=configuration&key=<KEY>

Re: different content of backup files.

MPI-AE — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 09:37:02 GMT

I'm running the command through curl -kG

The fetch in the browser is normal.

Re: different content of backup files.

reaper — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 10:04:51 GMT

Have you tried running the command from a different machine? Since the command works fine from a browser, the issue is likely how curl writes to the file. Maybe there's a local buffering issue or file access issue,...

Re: different content of backup files.

MPI-AE — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 10:24:21 GMT

I'm running the curl command from an Ubuntu system.

I'm doing the https access from firefox of my windows 10 machine.

But https acccess isn't the same a curl, is it?

You also spoke about wget.

What am I supposed to do now?

I just followed the manual.

Re: different content of backup files.

reaper — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 10:47:57 GMT

curl simply launches an address the same way a browser does. we established the command you put in curl does work properly when put into a browser, next up is trying to determine why curl appears to write only part of the config received from API

do you get a longer config file if you try without the trailing "> running-config.xml"

as I just ran through the basic troubleshooting steps myself: did you count lines or characters?

the API export in a browser (and the one fetched from a config export) nicely respects XML 'markup' while the curl 'write' will simply drop everything in a flat file so where the XML nicely lists a single attribute per 'line' the curl output will have everything on the same line inless the config contains a break

Re: different content of backup files.

MPI-AE — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 12:40:25 GMT

@reaper wrote:

do you get a longer config file if you try without the trailing "> running-config.xml"

No, that doesn't make a difference.

@reaper wrote:
as I just ran through the basic troubleshooting steps myself: did you count lines or characters?
the API export in a browser (and the one fetched from a config export) nicely respects XML 'markup' while the curl 'write' will simply drop everything in a flat file so where the XML nicely lists a single attribute per 'line' the curl output will have everything on the same line inless the config contains a break

I think you are right. It's the markup. I imported such a config into the firewall and I was able to load and commit the configuration. So everything is fine. Thank you!