How to import configuration via SFTP?

Hi @Zyxel_Jason,

thank you for your fast response.

Unfortunately this does not work for me, but your logging hint shows that something is going wrong, though sadly not the reason itself:

Importing a configuration file via SFTP logs the following lines:

---
     1 Mar 21 11:35:47 DE interface: Port 1 - LAN link up
     2 Mar 21 11:35:44 ER system: Restore system configuration failed
     3 Mar 21 11:35:44 IN system: Line:1 Error:Syntax Command:vlan 10
     4 Mar 21 11:35:44 DE interface: Port 1 - LAN link down
     5 Mar 21 11:35:43 IN system: Now, start restoring system configuration
---

Whereas importing the exact same configuration file via web interface succeeds:

---
     1 Mar 21 11:38:25 NO system: Gets the time and date from a time server successfully
     2 Mar 21 11:38:20 DE interface: Port 1 - LAN link up
     3 Mar 21 11:38:18 DE interface: Port 1 - LAN link down
     4 Mar 21 11:38:17 DE interface: Port 1 - LAN link up
     5 Mar 21 11:38:15 IN system: Restore system configuration successfully
     6 Mar 21 11:38:04 IN system: Save system configuration
     7 Mar 21 11:38:00 DE interface: Port 1 - LAN link down
     8 Mar 21 11:38:00 IN system: Now, start restoring system configuration
---

As I could not find anything wrong with the configuration file, I played with unix2dos and dos2unix to convert line endings, and I scanned the file for special characters or whatsoever, but all without success.

To ensure that nothing is wrong with my configuration file, I finally reset the switch to factory defaults, downloaded the default configuration via SFTP and uploaded it again -- and even this fails:

---
$ ssh admin@192.168.1.1
admin@192.168.1.1's password:
Copyright (c) 1994 - 2017 Zyxel Communications Corp.
XGS2210# show running-config
  Building configuration...

  Current configuration:

vlan 1
  name 1
  normal ""
  fixed 1-28
  forbidden ""
  untagged 1-28
  ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
exit
interface route-domain 192.168.1.1/24
exit
XGS2210# show logging
     1 Jan 01 00:01:23 IN authentication: SSH user admin login [IP address = 192.168.1.2]
     2 Jan 01 00:01:21 NO system: System cold start
     3 Jan 01 00:01:21 IN system: Image 1 F/W version V4.50(AAZJ.0) | 09/08/2017 boot up
     4 Jan 01 00:01:21 AL system: System has reset without management command
---

Now in another tab I downloaded config:

---
$ sftp admin@192.168.1.1
admin@192.168.1.1's password:
Connected to 192.168.1.1.
sftp> get config
Fetching /config to config
/config                                         0%  341     0.3KB/s 27:19:59 ETA
sftp> bye
---

I cleared logging for easier debugging:

---
XGS2210# clear logging
---

And uploaded the config (without any change) again:

---
$ sftp admin@192.168.1.1
admin@192.168.1.1's password:
Connected to 192.168.1.1.
sftp> put config
Uploading config to /config
config                                        100%  341     0.3KB/s   00:00   
Write failed: Broken pipe
Connection closed
---

But the same problem occured again:

---
XGS2210# show logging
     1 Jan 01 00:03:03 DE interface: Port 1 link up
     2 Jan 01 00:03:01 ER system: Restore system configuration failed
     3 Jan 01 00:03:00 IN system: Line:6 Error:Syntax Command:vlan 1
     4 Jan 01 00:02:59 DE interface: Port 1 link down
     5 Jan 01 00:02:59 IN system: Now, start restoring system configuration
XGS2210#
---

This is the config downloaded from switch:

---
; Product Name = XGS2210-28
; Firmware Version = V4.50(AAZJ.0) | 09/08/2017
; SysConf Engine Version = 1.2
; Config last updated = = 00:00:00 (UTC) 2016-01-01

vlan 1
  name 1
  normal ""
  fixed 1-28
  forbidden ""
  untagged 1-28
  ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
exit
interface route-domain 192.168.1.1/24
exit
---

During firmware upgrade from 4.40 (factory image) to 4.50, the release notes PDF states that an "configuration upgrade" shall be performed by uploading a .rom file to /rom-0 on the switch via FTP, but /rom-0 does neither exist when accessing the switch using FTP nor SFTP, so I assumed this only applies to switches other (maybe bigger) than XGS2210. On my switch I only see "config", "ras-0" and "ras-1", and trying to upload the .rom file to /rom-0 returned an error message.

Might this be the root of this problem?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Best regards,
// Veit

Hi @Zyxel_Jason,

uploading the configuration file via FTP works, too (but is not applicable as we need to disable FTP):

---
    28 Jan 02 03:45:27 DE interface: Port 1 link up
    29 Jan 02 03:45:24 DE interface: Port 1 link down
    30 Jan 02 03:45:23 DE interface: Port 1 link up
    31 Jan 02 03:45:21 IN authentication: FTP user admin logout [IP address = 192.168.1.2]
    32 Jan 02 03:45:21 IN system: Restore system configuration successfully
    33 Jan 02 03:45:13 IN system: Save system configuration
    34 Jan 02 03:45:10 DE interface: Port 1 link down
    35 Jan 02 03:45:10 IN system: Now, start restoring system configuration
    36 Jan 02 03:44:55 IN authentication: FTP user admin login [IP address = 192.168.1.2]
---

I tried various versions of OpenSSH sftp tool, as yours on Cygwin seems to work correctly, but the results remain the same. I tried without success:

- version 7.4p1-13.el7_4 as shipped with CentOS 7.4 x86_64
- version 6.6.1p1-25.el7_2 as shipped with RedHat Enterprise Linux 7.2 x86_64
- version 6.1p1 built from vanilla sources

Regards,
// Veit

Hi @Zyxel_Jason,

could you be so kind to test restoring config using SFTP on an actual XGS2210-28?

As I can reproduce this problem across different SFTP clients on different computers with different OS, but it works for you, the most striking difference seems to be that I am on XGS2210-28 but you tested on a PoE+ model of this series.

This leads me to the assumption, that this might be a bug in the model-specific firmware for my model. Although I run 27 ZyXEL switches so far, unfortunately all of them are XGS2210-28.

Best regards,
// Veit

Hi @Zyxel_Jason,

thanks for your reply. I will patiently wait for the results, but I would like to add that I successfully updated the firmware of all our ZyXEL switches using SFTP from the same clients that I try to use to restore the config from, and I experienced not a single problem with firmware transfers.

Could you please provide information on whether updating the .rom file from firmware releases is required and what it does? Just because updating the firmware through the web interface does not request a .rom file at all and until yesterday I assumed that the XGS2210-28 doesn't even take it as in SFTP/FTP no /rom-0 or /rom-1 is shown. I would have to schedule a change to update and reboot the switches that are in production at the moment.

Thank and regards,
// Veit

Hi @Zyxel_Jason,

thank you very much. Thank goodness I did not "update" rom-0 on the production switches...

Thanks,
// Veit