Automated backup for your network switches with WinSCP and PowerShell

Although it may not be the most glamorous side of IT every sysadmin will appreciate the value of a rock solid backup system. All too often though these systems do not extend down to the ’embedded’ systems like network switches and firewalls.

However with a little WinSCP (and its fantastic .NET assembly automation package) and PowerShell combined its pretty easy to cook up something that is 100% less of the cost of any management solution.

This guide shows how to setup the backup of a HP ProCurve switch (I’ve tested it with the ProCurve 8200 series, 5400 series the 2920s, a 2626 and a 2530 all of which were running the most recent firmware) although it should be a simple matter of changing the relevant paths to make it work with other manufacturers kit (e.g. Cisco).

Download Source Files

First up grab the source files from the link below and extract the contents to C:\Network Switch Backup (you can use any other path but will just need to update the paths inside the PowerShell) you should then have a folder which contains a .cmd file, a .ps1, a sample .csv and a sub folder called Backups.

  Network Switch Backup (1.7 KiB, 5,130 hits)

Getting your Switch ready and filling out the CSV

Each switch will now need ip ssh and ip ssh filetransfer running on it through the CLI (if its not already setup); be sure to set a manager password (if you haven’t done so already!) as well. In addition you will need to find the Server host key fingerprint for each switch; the screen shots below show one way of doing this.

Getting WinSCP ready

As normal follow through the screen shots below; you will need this link to get a hold of the installation components – http://winscp.net/eng/download.php.

Pushing go!

Final step! (I know this was almost too easy….) Run the .cmd file and assuming everything is listed right you will soon have a complete listing of all of your network switch configurations (more in the screen shots).

There’s a little more…

To take things one step further and make this process truly automated you can set a scheduled task on your computer to run the ‘Backup Network Switches.cmd’ file at a set time each day 🙂

You might also want to consider expanding your setup using the information in my Automated Change Detection and Reporting – Network Switches post which sets things up so that you receive email notification each day listing out any changes in your configs.