How to migrate data from one Firewalla Box to another?

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    Tony Le

    This isn't great. I just upgraded my Firewalla to Gold (from Blue, prior to that from Red when there was no migration feature) and it was helpful but Red -> Blue I had maybe 12 devices. Now I have over 40+ devices and when I did the migration from my Blue to Gold (first of all there were two options, one was my old box name and another my old box name datestamped 20days ago ... of which I did the non-date stamped and it was my settings on the day I installed Firewalla Blue 2 years ago, so I did it again with the date stamp) ... 

    The migration brought over maybe a dozen of my device names? It seemed to only recognize devices that at that very second were connected to the network and tried to apply names to it. Anything that is idle/offline that joins later to the network is completely unrecognized (as in the migration doesn't store old device name data, just applies it then and there and disappears?)

    And so if the device name didn't come over, the rules didn't apply (like porn and family filtering for my kids devices. They're all offline so they didn't get applied to the rules). 

    So if you want to migrate your old box to a new one -- you have to go run around and turn on every device you have I think is the answer. Still a huge improvement to nothing when I did this 2 years ago but my only hesitation of upgrading (other than having 1GB internet and using a Blue) is the amount of manual resetting I have to do... Still appreciate this and by far one of the best low-hassle security and high-quality devices I've ever received. 

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    Rolando Nispiros

    I currently have the Blue active and running.  I just got the Gold today.  In order to migrate from Blue to Gold, in addition to the steps above, after installation should I then unpair the Blue from the network so I will just have the Gold running?  Before this, should I have the Blue still connected while I setup the Gold on my network?

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    Jason Beckett

    Well that went horrible. Probably these instructions work if you are in simple mode but as I was in dhcp mode I was down for nearly an hour. Adding insult to injury the data copy process did not copy the overlay network range so my dhcp reservations all did not work until updating the overlay network value.

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    Jefe Blaize

    Update from below: I stand corrected on a couple items. There must've been a caching issue where pieces of the migration weren't showing up yet, even after reboot. Looks like the devices were transferred over, along with Rules and Smart Queue Queue Rules, and features I had turned on. However, the interface (there's only one LAN on the Purple) didn't copy over, meaning the 3 networks on that interface and the VLAN information weren't copied. That by itself wouldn't be a huge issue, but that means all of the DHCP reservations in those networks were never transferred either. And that's a PITA.

    I'm not sure what to make of this. I migrated my Purple configuration into my new Gold. I can't tell what happened with this migration. It didn't copy over my interfaces, nor my assigned networks nor the DHCP ranges, let alone the reservations. It didn't copy over my VLANs. It sure took a long time to copy over pretty much nothing I needed. I don't get it. Is there a log somewhere about what occurred in this migration?? From the looks of things, I'm going to have to manually add almost everything I needed, which is going to suck.

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    Support Team

    @Jefe,

    Thanks for the feedback! Agree with you that the DHCP reservation issue is a pain.

    Gold and Purple are different products with different ports, so the network can't be directly migrated over (yet). Migrating DHCP reservations issue may be a bug.

    I'll have the team take a deep look at your issue, and get back to you.

    Are you using iOS or Android?

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    Konstantinos Zachariou

    My one wish for Firewalla is for them to create a backup of the configurations. So when you change things and see things are not working or there was a setup you did and it is not undoing it for whatever reason and you want to revert back to what you had previously you will be able to do so.

    The other is for Firewalla to set up a web interface so you are not forced to use your phone with blue tooth to setup your Firewalla.

    Honestly I like Firewalla, but I dont think I would of purchased it if I knew these two features were not available before I purchased it. These two features are like a no Brainer features that should of been included from the beginning.... A little disappointed with this from Firewalla. Please Firewalla try to add these features.

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    AG

    Do the networks and VLAN segments get migrated also? I'm migrating from Gold to Gold+

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    Support Team

    @AG, Yes. Use app 1.52 (now in beta), select "Replace Old Box" during setup.

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    AG

    @Support Team, I used app 1.52 (and put the box into beta too) - the Replace Old Box function worked flawlessly. And, it took less than 10 whole minutes. Well done!

    Do I need to reset the old device to remove it from my app?

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    Support Team

    If just to remove it from app, you can just "unpair". Long hold the old box icon in first screen and select unpair. All data on old box will still be there.

    If you want to use the old one elsewhere, then better reset it. The old box has to be online to get reset.

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    Ron Rath

    When "replacing an old box" to move everything from my FWG to my new FWG+ will the docker containers migrate?

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    Glitch

    So DHCP reservations are now part of that "Migrate from other box" feature? What about from a Purple to a Gold Plus? Or is there a problem with interfaces not matching up (saw something about this in a previous comment but they used VLAN's and multiple subnets, I don't.)

    Also, what about the 3rd octet. My Firewalla purple has my home network as 192.168.76.1/24 which is what I set it to; but after I did that migration on the Gold Plus, I noticed it set the subnet for the LAN interface to 192.168.16.1/24, so the subnet is different... I can manually change it to 192.168.74.1/24 but I'm worried it'll interfere with the DHCP reservations that (hopefully) got migrated over?

    Should I set the LAN interface on the Gold Plus to 192.168.74.1/24 first and then do the migration again? 
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    Firewalla

    @glitch, do you have all of your LAN bridged together? is it on port 1 or port 2/or 3?

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    Support Team

    @Glitch

    As long as the subnet is the same, you should be able to migrate DHCP reservation from one to another. It can be any model to any model.

    Short answer for "Should I set the LAN interface on the Gold Plus to 192.168.74.1/24 first and then do the migration again? " is YES.

    Because the app doesn't support quick setup for migration from Purple to Gold Plus, that's why the subnet on Gold Plus is created with a random one. You can manually change it back to 76.1/24 after initial setup and then migrate using Settings -> Advanced -> Migrate from Old box.

    In the future, we'll support migrating from Purple to Gold/Gold Plus with network quick setup, so that all the network and DHCP reservation will be carrier over automatically.

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    MetrologyGeek

    So according to the above, under replace old box, "This feature requires app version 1.52 and box version 1.9742 or above." 

    But, in the latest release notes, (Box 1.975/App 1.52), section 6 says

    "Before box version 1.975, if you want to migrate your data and configurations from one box to another, Firewalla requires you to manually migrate data after the initial setup. With this new release, a complete version of box restoration and migration is supported, more data can be migrated during the initial setup, including the network configurations, routes, data usage, etc."

    Do I need to join the beta to do the migration?  Or will it work with version 1.9742?

    Looking to migrate Rules, Devices, Groups, LACG and Reservations.

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    sk0rp10

    Could we get an option to manage Firewalla backups from the app, allowing us to save more than a different backup with different settings, restore from selected backup, delete and rename backup ?

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