can configuration information of the same firmware version be exported/imported to each other?

[RMerlin]

A number of variables are probably dynamically generated at boot time. Quite possible they do it for MACs - retrieving it from the bootloader, then filling in the MAC variants for all interfaces. A quick test would be to manually change one, and then rebooting to see if it gets reverted.

 

[Tech9]

A quick test would be to manually change one, and then rebooting to see if it gets reverted.

My goal was to stay as close as possible to what an average user will do reading Asus FAQ. With so many different models what changes on boot we can investigate further, but the fact is every "upgraded" router was working with the settings from the previous one just fine. I also did GUI settings comparison side by side - all correct. The FAQ is not perfect and perhaps safe/restore is not perfect either. For example a user with VPN server will be surprised by AiProtection data transferred, but may not notice VPN certificate missing. Yes, the VPN server has Export/Import button, but this is because we know from experience. It seems logical to me, you and others around, but an average user will miss it for sure. There is no word about it in save/restore FAQ. There is definitely room for improvement, but what I see done so far is indeed impressive.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Asuswrt-Merlin needs a bit more preparation, Asuswrt is a straight shot.

What did you mean with "more preparation"?

 

[Tech9]

What did you mean with "more preparation"?

You in particular have no issues whatsoever. You just have to follow the changes between firmware versions (I believe you do) and clean your installation accordingly to whatever is present in both firmware versions before you transfer the settings between them. If you have scripts on top it gets harder, but doable. If you save a file with all your basics for your router model - you can save some time after reset on any firmware version. This file can be even created on the same base Asuswrt. There are some default settings differences between Asuswrt and Asuswrt-Merlin, but I'm pretty sure you know your GUI by heart. Just browse around, Asuswrt has relatively simple GUI.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Have you checked that every occurences of the old MAC were replaced by the new one in nvram? Not just the 1:xxx 2:xxx entries, but also all the wireless instances (wl1_, wl1.1_). I remember there was one or two others tied to either the clientlist or AIMesh config sharing, I forgot which.

I have tested changing the MAC addresses (macaddr and hwaddr), either directly or via an nvram restore over the last 10 years across multiple routers and firmware versions. In the 384.x era you could change pretty much any nvram variable, including MAC addresses and they would "stick" after a reboot. That changed slightly sometime around the 386 firmware. You could no longer permanently change the wireless addresses but it was still possible to change the WAN and LAN addresses. In recent firmware even that is no longer possible as all the MAC addresses are regenerated every time the router boots up.

But MAC addresses are only part of the issue. In many case you don't want the exact same nvram variables transferred to another router.

I would also be worried by models that use a different interface for wan0. RT-AX58U (if I recall correctly) uses eth5 instead of eth0. Also devices with an extra multigig port might use a different interface name for wan0, so going to a device with only a single WAN interface might yield unexpected results.

There's just so many different scenarios to cover that it's why I always tell people it's best not to trust cross-device migration.

Exactly this. There have been multiple reports from people that loaded a config file from one model onto another with different interfaces and wondered why their network was behaving strangely, or the GUI didn't work.

And it's not just hardware differences. I've wasted countless hours diagnosing issues where someone has loaded say, the same config file onto two routers of the same model and tried to use them together on the same network. It all works for the most part.. except when it doesn't.

Quite frankly I'm sick and tired of wasting my time on people's "problem" only for them to say, "Oh yeah, did I not mention that I loaded the config file from my old router". Enough.

 

[Tech9]

One more observation, perhaps @ColinTaylor may have some input - commonly recommended (including by me) direct transfer of settings files to JFFS/NVRAM from one router to another creates more issues than save/restore or transfer of settings in SSH. I have to stop recommending files copy/paste with SCP. Many people complain Client List is broken. I ended up with very broken Client List after doing file copy/paste. And it was on the same router with files from this very same router.

 

[ColinTaylor]

One more observation, perhaps @ColinTaylor may have some input - commonly recommended (including by me) direct transfer of settings files to JFFS/NVRAM from one router to another creates more issues than save/restore or transfer of settings in SSH. I have to stop recommending files copy/paste with SCP. Many people complain Client List is broken. I ended up with very broken Client List after doing file copy/paste. And it was on the same router with files from this very same router.

I've only experimented with this on my RT-AX86U so other models might be different. But I avoid directly overwriting files in /jffs/nvram/ because you're bypassing the nvram pre-commit cache. As such you may find that changes you thought you had made have disappeared. Or worse still some variables are corrupted (but that's speculation). So I only trust the "official" way by using the nvram set command.