Administration > Import/Export

The Administration > Import/Export page enables you to export search appliance configuration information to a file or import a configuration file into a search appliance. Export the search appliance configuration information to a file before updating a search appliance or before you make changes to the existing configuration. Import the configuration information if you need to restore the configuration information or replicate the information to another search appliance.

User account information and the crawl access list are encrypted before the configuration file is exported.

The exported file can be used in many ways:

• To back up a search appliance
• To ensure preservation of a search appliance's configuration during an update
• To restore an older configuration
• To preserve the history of changes to the configuration
• To replicate the same system configuration to multiple search appliances

The configuration file contains the following information:

• Front end configuration values, such as keymatches and related queries
• Any forms-based authentication rules configured on the search appliance
• Collection values
  • Entries in the Include Content Matching the Following Patterns field
  • Entries in the Do Not Include Content Matching the Following Patterns field
  • URL patterns entered in the Pattern Tester Utility
• General parameter values
  • Start URLs
  • Follow and crawl URLs from the Content Sources > Web Crawl > Start and Block URLs page
  • Do not crawl URLs from the Content Sources > Web Crawl > Start and Block URLs page
  • Encrypted user account passwords
  • Encrypted crawler access user names and passwords
  • Duplicate hosts
  • Host loads
  • Proxy configuration
  • Federation configuration parameters
  • Multibox configuration parameters

Each exported configuration file contains a checksum to determine its validity.  If a configuration file is altered without generating a new checksum, it will not be importable.  It might be possible to generate a new checksum for altered configuration files using tools in the GSA Admin Toolkit.

Warning: Importing a search appliance configuration overwrites existing federation and multibox values with the values in the search appliance configuration. If the configuration file was exported before you created federation or multibox configurations, the null values in the configuration file overwrite the subsequently-configured values for federation or multibox. If you have a federation or multibox configuration, go to the Admin Console pages for those features and create federation- or multibox-specific configuration files before you import a search appliance configuration file.

Before Starting these Tasks

Before you import a configuration file, export the current configuration, using the instructions in Exporting a Configuration File. If the import operation fails, use the exported configuration file to restore the system to its previous state.

Importing a Configuration File

Use these instructions to import a saved configuration file into a search appliance.

Warning: Importing a search appliance configuration file overwrites existing federation and multibox values with the values in the search appliance configuration file. If the configuration file was exported before you created federation or multibox configurations, the null values in the configuration file overwrite the subsequently-configured values for federation or multibox. If you have a federation or multibox configuration, go to the Admin Console pages for those features and create federation- and multibox-specific configuration files before you import a search appliance configuration file. The two features export their values to the same file.

To import a configuration file:

1. Log in to the Admin Console.
2. Click Administration > Import/Export.
3. In the Import Configuration section of the page, click Browse and navigate to the correct configuration file.
4. Enter the Import/Export passphrase. The passphrase was created the first time a configuration file was exported.
5. Click the Import Configuration button.

Depending on the file size and complexity, the import process might be slow. A large configuration file that contains information about hundreds of front ends or creates hundreds of collections can require more than an hour to import.

Exporting a Configuration File

Use these instructions to export a search appliance's configuration information to a saved file.

To export a configuration file:

1. Log in to the Admin Console.
2. Click Administration > Import/Export.
3. In the Export Configuration section of the page, enter a passphrase to use for import and export operations. The passphrase must be at least eight characters long.
4. Retype the passphrase.
5. Click the Export Configuration button.
6. Browse to a location on the local computer for the file and click Save.

Subsequent Task

If you use the query expansion feature and you uploaded synonym files, blacklist files, or stopwords files, you must recompile those files after you import a new configuration file.

To recompile syonym or blacklist files:

1. Click Search > Search Features > Query Settings.
2. Click the Apply Settings button.