Saving a backup of the candidate configuration
to persistent storage on Panorama enables you to later restore that
backup (see
Revert Panorama Configuration Changes).
Additionally, Panorama allows you to save and export the device
group, template, and template stack configurations that you specify.
This is useful for preserving changes that would otherwise be lost
if a system event or administrator action causes Panorama to reboot.
After rebooting, Panorama automatically reverts to the current version
of the running configuration, which Panorama stores in a file named
running-config.xml.
Saving backups is also useful if you want to revert to a Panorama configuration
that is earlier than the current running configuration. Panorama
does not automatically save the candidate configuration to persistent
storage. You must manually save the candidate configuration as a
default snapshot file (
.snapshot.xml) or as
a custom-named snapshot file. Panorama stores the snapshot file
locally but you can export it to an external host.
Palo
Alto Networks recommends that you back up any important configurations
to an external host.