17.12. Saving and Restoring the Network Configuration

The command line version of Network Administration Tool can be used to save the system's network configuration to a file. This file can then be used to restore the network settings to a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system.

This feature can be used as part of an automated backup script, to save the configuration before upgrading or reinstalling, or to copy the configuration to a different Red Hat Enterprise Linux system.

To save, or export, the network configuration of a system to the file /tmp/network-config, execute the following command as root:

system-config-network-cmd -e > /tmp/network-config

To restore, or import, the network configuration from the file created from the previous command, execute the following command as root:

system-config-network-cmd -i -c -f /tmp/network-config

The -i option means to import the data, the -c option means to clear the existing configuration prior to importing, and the -f option specifies that the file to import is as follows.