2.8.3.3. Saving and Restoring IPTables Rules

Changes to iptables are transitory; if the system is rebooted or if the iptables service is restarted, the rules are automatically flushed and reset. To save the rules so that they are loaded when the iptables service is started, use the following command as the root user:

service iptables save

~]# service iptables save
iptables: Saving firewall rules to /etc/sysconfig/iptables:[  OK  ]

The rules are stored in the file /etc/sysconfig/iptables and are applied whenever the service is started or the machine is rebooted.