Viewing the Configuration History

pfSense® software automatically keeps a backup when a change is made to the configuration. This makes it easy to revert after an undesirable settings change, but should not be relied upon as a sole means of backup. There are numerous reasons why having an off-system backup is a good practice, especially the case of storage media failure.

To switch back to a previous configuration, visit Diagnostics > Backup/Restore and then go to the Config History tab. Locate the desired configuration in the list and click to restore. A reboot is recommended after the change unless the alterations were minor. Triggering a manual filter reload from Status > Filter Reload, or an Edit/Save/Apply action may be needed to activate settings from a restored section unless a reboot is performed.

Only a certain number of older configurations are kept, so there is no need to delete the configurations by hand unless it is being removed to avoid restoring a broken configuration. By default, a full install will keep 30 backup files and a NanoBSD install will keep 5. Starting with pfSense 2.2, the number of old configurations may be manually changed to a lower or higher value at the cost of increased disk space.