Saving and Restoring System Preferences
On a ztC Edge system with the appropriate license, a user who has full system administrator privileges can save the settings of the ztC Edge Console Preferences page by creating a restore file (sometimes referred to as a backup file). You can save this file to a destination folder on a local computer or to a folder in your Stratus Cloud account. You can then select this saved file to restore Preferences settings to the same node, a replacement node, or to one or more other nodes, if needed at a later time. This feature enables you to quickly set up one or more systems. For example, if you are already logged in to your Stratus Cloud account where your system has a restore file, you can restore the node's system preferences with one click.
- You can save a maximum of 50 files in your Stratus Cloud account, per ztC Edge system.
- To save a file in a Stratus Cloud account or to restore a file from it, the system must have Internet access, and you must log in to a Stratus Cloud account with valid credentials.
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Saving the system preferences of a single-node system is particularly important because a single-node system does not provide redundancy.
The system must have the appropriate license to save and restore Preferences settings. When a system is initially installed, this feature is disabled. The Save System Preferences and the Restore System Preferences windows of the Preferences page display a message explaining that you need to activate the license for saving and restoring Preferences settings. You must activate the license in order to use this feature.

- First Name and Last Name
- Company Email—Provide the email address of the company that owns the system receiving the license. Do not provide a personal email address.
- Company Name—Provide the name of the company that owns the system receiving the license.
- Company Phone Number—Provide the phone number of the company that owns the system receiving the license. Do not provide a personal phone number.
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Asset ID—Provide the ASSET ID from the masthead of the ztC Edge Console.
If your system has Internet access, proceed with Step 1, below. If your system does not have Internet access, you need to move the license file between a location with Internet access and the location of the ztC Edge Console (which does not have Internet access). The procedure below describes a method using a USB flash drive, though other methods are possible. If you are using a USB flash drive, obtain it before beginning this procedure and insert it into a USB port in the remote management PC that is running the ztC Edge Console.
- In the left-hand navigation panel, click Preferences to open the Preferences page.
- Under Administrative Tools, click Save System Preferences or Restore System Preferences.
- The window displays a message, explaining that you need to activate a separate license for saving and restoring Preferences.
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Read the message. If your system has Internet access, click the link to open the licensing web page.
Note: If you also need to register the system and acquire a permanent license for the system, see Registering the System and Acquiring a Permanent License.If your system does not have Internet access, perform the procedure below to open the licensing web page.
On a system without Internet access
- Click the link to open the licensing web page, and copy the URL for the licensing web page using whatever method the browser allows.
- Paste the URL in a text file and save the text tile to the USB flash drive.
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Remove the USB flash drive and go to a computer with Internet access.
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Insert the USB flash drive into a USB port of the computer.
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Navigate to the text file, open it, and copy the URL for the licensing web page.
- Open a browser, paste the URL in the browser address bar, and go to the web page.
- Enter the information on the web page and click Submit.
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Click the Download License button when it appears. If the system has Internet access, proceed with the next step.
If the system does not have Internet access, save the downloaded license file to the USB flash drive and remove the flash drive. Return to the remote management computer running the console and insert the USB flash drive.
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Upload the license to the system by first clicking Product License on the Preferences page. Then, perform one of the following procedures, as appropriate for your system:
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To upload the license automatically on a system with Internet access, first click Product License on the Preferences page, and then click Check License Now for Online License Check. The newly downloaded license will be automatically applied to the system.
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To upload the license manually on a system with or without Internet access:
- Click Product License on the Preferences page.
- Click the Offline License Check and Manual License Installation bar to display its options, if they are not already displayed.
- For Install an Activated License Key to the System, click Choose File and navigate to the location where you saved the license file.
- Select the file, click Open, and then click Upload to upload the file to the system.
The system now has the appropriate license to save and restore Preferences settings.
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The following preferences settings are included, by default, in the saved file:
Owner Information Software Updates IP Configuration Quorum Servers (dual-node systems, only) Date & Time Mail Server Users & Groups Secure Connection |
VM Device Configuration IPtables Security Login Banner Notice ztC Advisor e-Alerts SNMP Configuration OPC Configuration Support Configuration Proxy Configuration |

- In the left-hand navigation panel, click Preferences to open the Preferences page.
- Under Administrative Tools, click Save System Preferences.
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Under Save System Preferences, select one of the following:
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Save system preferences to a file on this computer
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Save system preferences to a file in the cloud—With this selection, the following message appears when the remote management computer (which is running the ztC Edge Console) is connected to the Internet:
Log on to the Stratus Customer Service Portal to authenticate your account.Enter the username and password of your Stratus Customer Service account. If the remote management computer is not connected to the Internet, the login fields do not appear; instead, a message indicates that Internet connectivity is unavailable and you cannot save the file.
After you log in to a Stratus Cloud account, the account displays the name of the user logged in and the number of files currently stored in the account. You can save a maximum of 50 files, per each system. If 50 files are saved, you cannot save another file. You cannot delete files, so you must contact your Stratus service representative about deleting files.
The account login session is open as long as your console session is active; you are automatically logged out when you close the console session or the session times out due to inactivity.
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Enter information, as necessary, in the following fields:
- File Name—This field displays a default file name in the format ztC_Asset_ID_preferences_yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm.zip. You can modify the default name, if necessary, after you save the file. Characters allowed in the file name are letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscore (_).
- Description—Enter a description (optional).
- Keywords—The keyword system_ID appears, by default. You can change the default keyword and add additional keywords, for a total of three keywords.
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Click one of the following buttons:
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Save—The file is saved with the default file name, or you can modify the file name, if necessary.
If you are saving the file to a local computer, use the default location or navigate to a different location. (The default location is set in the browser.)
If you are saving the file in a Stratus Cloud account, and the username and password are validated successfully, the file is created and saved in the user's account, in a folder with the name Asset_ID.
- Clear—Clears the Description and Tags fields. Additionally, if you are saving the file in a Stratus Cloud account, the file name is reset to the default name, and the username and password are cleared.
The message System preferences saved. appears when the save succeeds.
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After you saved the settings of system preferences and you want to restore the settings to the same system or another system, you should first prepare by becoming familiar with Cautions, Prerequisites, and Notes regarding the restore operation.

Before you restore a saved system preferences file, you should be aware of the Caution, Prerequisites, and Notes below.
- IP Configuration
- Secure Connections (if you are logged in with HTTP enabled, and the restore file disables HTTP)
- Date & Time
When the connection is lost, the restore operation continues to run in the background, though you are not able to see its progress or status. If you lose the connection, log in again. (For information about setting the IP configuration, see Configuring IP Settings. For information about setting secure connections, see Configuring Secure Connections. For information about setting the date and time, see Configuring Date and Time.)
- Active Directory (AD) settings: If restored preferences enable AD, you must provide AD credentials when logging in. For information about enabling AD, see Configuring Active Directory.
- The Quorum Servers setting:
- The Enabled status is restored.
- No VMs should be using the existing quorum server; all VMs in use should be powered off, before restoring preferences. If any VMs are using the quorum server during the restore operation, the restore of Quorum Servers will fail.
- This setting is not restored to a single-node system.
For information about enabling quorum servers, see Configuring Quorum Servers.
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The system that you restore preferences to and the system whose saved preferences file you are using must be the same in the following ways:
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The same hardware model—The system that you restore preferences to must be the same hardware model as the system whose saved preferences file is being restored.
- The same dual-node or single-node configuration—You can restore to a dual-node system only preferences that were saved on a dual-node system. You can restore to a single-node system only preferences that were saved on a single-node system.
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If you restore system preferences on a system running an earlier or later release than the original backup, you can restore only the preferences that are supported in the earlier release.
- IPtables Security—To restore IPtables settings, you must select either Append (to append the restore-file settings to the existing rule set) or Overwrite (to overwrite the existing rule set with the restore-file settings). (For information about IPtables, see Managing IPtables.)
- IP Configuration—When selected, all network configuration data is restored. (For information, see Configuring IP Settings.)
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Date & Time—Only the setting Automatically is restored immediately. When restoring the setting Manually as well as settings with a different time zone and multiple NTP servers, the physical machines are powered off, and the restored date and time settings take effect after the system is rebooted. (For information, see Configuring Date and Time.)
- For Users & Groups, consider the following:
- You must provide AD credentials to restore the Users & Groups setting.
- If a user account exists on the current system and in the restore file, the current system considers the user account to be edited.
- If a user account exists in the restore file but not on the current system, the current system considers the user account to be added.
- The current system skips an AD entry in the restore file in the following circumstances:
- If an AD entry in the restore file is missing in AD configured for the current system at the time of the restore.
- If the AD entry in the restore file has a mismatch in user type with the AD entry configured for the current system at the time of the restore.
(For information about Users & Groups, see Configuring Users and Groups.)
After you are familiar with Cautions, Prerequisites, and Notes regarding the restore operation, you can restore system preferences.

- In the left-hand navigation panel, click Preferences to open the Preferences page.
- Under Administrative Tools, click Restore System Preferences.
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Under Restore System Preferences, select one of the following:
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Restore system preferences from a file saved on this computer:
- Click Choose file to display a list of files in the default save directory, including saved zip files. If necessary, navigate to a different directory.
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Scroll to select the file with the Preferences settings that you want to restore, and click the file name. The following table appears:
Restoring system preferences from:
File Name ztC_Asset_ID_preferences_yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm-ss.zip Software Version version_number Description
description Keywords
keywords
If the restored Preferences include Users & Groups, the following information also appears:
Active Directory Credentials You need Active Directory credentials to restore Users & Groups settings. To restore settings in the selected file, click Next.
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Restore system preferences from a file saved in the cloud—With this selection, Log on to the Stratus Customer Portal to authenticate your account appears with Username and Password boxes (if you are not already logged in to your account) when the remote management computer is connected to the Internet. If the remote management computer is not connected to the Internet, a message appears indicating that Internet connectivity is unavailable. (After you log in to your Stratus Cloud account, the session is open as long as your console session is active; you are automatically logged out when you close the console session or the session times out due to inactivity.)
Enter the username and password for your Stratus Customer Service account, and click LOGIN.
When the connection succeeds, the following table appears, listing one or more files, up to the total number of files saved:
Select an Asset ID Search IDs Select a file from which to restore system preferences Asset ID
File Name Created asset_ID
filename
time The Asset ID column displays a list of the asset_ID folders. The File Name column lists the files within the asset_ID folder with the time when the file was saved, as displayed in the Time column. In addition, the table Restoring system preferences from: appears.
Under Asset ID, the ID of the current system is listed first and its restore file (if it exists) is listed first under File Name. In this case, click the top filename to restore Preferences settings to the current system.
To search for a file, enter its filename in the Search IDs box.
To select a file, click the desired asset_ID, and then click the desired filename. Click Next to restore Preferences settings from the selected file.
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The Select the system preferences to restore window appears with a list of preferences.
The following preferences settings are restored, by default:
Owner Information
Software Updates
Quorum Servers (dual-node systems, only)
Mail Server
VM Device Configuration
Login Banner Notice
ztC Advisor
e-Alerts
SNMP Configuration
OPC Configuration
Support Configuration
Proxy Configuration
Note:The following preferences are not selected by default because the preference causes either a pop-up message to appear or the system to restart:
- Date & Time—If the settings change, the system reboots.
- Users & Groups—If Active Directory (AD) is enabled, a window appears for AD credentials.
- Secure Connection—If you are logged in with HTTP and the restore file disables HTTP, the connection to the system is lost and you must log in again.
- IPtables Security—A window appears asking if you want to either overwrite the current set of rules or append the restored rules to the current set of rules.
- IP Configuration—If the IP configuration changes, the connection to the system is lost and you must log in again.
Deselect the checkbox of any preference that you do not want to restore. Select any additional preferences, if not already selected.
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Click Restore for the system to restore the selected preferences, or click Back to return to the previous window. Once you click Restore, you cannot cancel the procedure. The restore operation takes about a minute to complete. During the restore operation, you cannot navigate to other screens in the ztC Edge Console window. You must wait for the restore operation to complete before you display another console window.
The Restore Status column lists the restore status as In Progress, Completed, Partially completed, or Failed. When the restore operation is complete, the following message appears:
Complete! The Preferences shown above have been successfully restored. - Click Done. The initial Restore System Preferences screen reappears.