NVRAM [Release] NVRAM Save/Restore Utility

[Dr.Mxyztplk]

You could install nsru - it will backup your VPN info - and a lot of other settings in a very intellignet way. It will not know about any new features/settings after 384 (like VPN Director, etc).

Thank you. that was helpful & informative. Much appreciated

 

[Dr.Mxyztplk]

Try not projecting your own shortcomings, or voicing your superiority

I have no superiority here. I came here looking for help. I'm literally a nobody. Contrast to you who EVERYTHING you have posted has provided nothing helpful to anyone in this thread since I got here. You have 1.) Said people are stupid or "silly" for having the audacity to need or want something more than a basic setup. In a thread about backing up your settings... You said it's stupid to backup... your settings... with no context as to why... A basic setup sure, serves a purpose but for MOST people it's JUST for a place to start from & for troubleshooting, not an endgame. 2.) do nothing but insist that anyone who doesn't understand why all you need is the barebones minimum is "Missing the point" but never explaining what point it is that is being missed. 3.) Posturing. Posturing, posturing, posturing. (aka Acting superior, which you surely are in this forum, but flaunting it & shoving it in the face of others)

You keep incessantly saying I'm missing the point. But this is a support forum. Either explain what point is being missed or don't post about it.

I did actually look up your M&M guide, which essentially is a decent outline of the normal beginning steps one takes.
I appreciate the order of it because without a guide like that I do essentially all those things, but definitely in a different, assumedly less ideal, order. But man, do you make it hard to follow. It'd be nice if you noted the things that are default already, but I'm still glad they are listed because I'll still check them, but some things I don't use, like NSFD, which isn't labeled that in the UI except right by the switch. Remember the people using the guide are mostly going to be people who know less about it than you, so say "Goto USB Applications" then disable the things there, then say "Now goto Advanced Setting - Wireless" then do the things there.
I appreciate the guide, but as someone used to tinkering & going over all settings I found it a bit hard to follow, I'm sure others did as well. Sorry, tangent, but I read the guide you posted & I still don't understand the point you keep saying I'm missing. Which I guess means I'm missing it. But unless you unbury it nobody will be able to find it.

 

[L&LD]

1) I've never said any such thing.

2) You are missing the point. When I have time, I may explain fully.

In a nutshell, though, it is so much faster and easier to set up a new network (testing, as you go) than to try to fix why yesterday's settings don't work today. One of the many reasons is that standards, methods, and best practices change from one firmware version to another. Even when you have a complicated network. The guides you're referring to address the aspects when things (variables, settings, old scripts, etc.), don't work anymore and no quick search solves those issues (and just leads to wild goose chases, wrongful blaming (people, companies, etc.), and in some cases, simply giving up on still good/great equipment.

3) Really? I literally took everything I've read and condensed it into the few guides I've shared. No superiority here at all my friend.

Thank you for your other comments. I am the first to agree the posts are somewhat hard to follow. When I tried to make things easier for myself, I was told not to (years ago now). Today, I don't have the time to streamline/update my many past posts. Which, again, are based on me reading the entire forum and posting the 'best practices' as best I can.

 

[Dr.Mxyztplk]

1.) Said people are stupid or "silly" for having the audacity to need or want something more than a basic setup.

1) I've never said any such thing.

...

It may be possible in some alternative timeline, but I believe it is silly in this one. Particularly when a full reset and a minimal/manual configuration is so fast, easy, and gives such a solid network afterward.

It's literally what you said, just not verbatim

2) You are missing the point.

You can't miss a point that hasn't been made. An ethereal ambiguous "Point" is meaningless, something actually has to be said for it to be missed.

it is so much faster and easier to set up a new network (testing, as you go) than to try to fix why yesterday's settings don't work today.

See, for me that's not my problem. I'm not dealing with a problem I'm trying to get to work, rather I was recommended trying ZeroTier VPN instead of what I've been using. When I followed the guide & set it up it ended up causing problems. Removing it fixed a few things, but left many more problems. I have the holes patched as best I can until I can do the reset, but I still have a lot of problems.
My solution? To Rollback my setup to before I had the problem. But it's been a bit since I did a full factory reset, so I was looking for a way to be able to do as close to that as I can, especially since I'd like to get the NVRAM usage down a bit if possible & I know this utility is recommended on forum posts about doing just that. So "Yesterday's Settings" aren't the problem. In reality if I could just go back to how it was before Zero, though not the best case, I would. But looking that up made it pretty clear that just restoring from a backup has problems, & I just did the regular backup before, thinking I probably wouldn't even need it.
So I get how it could be useful, as I've said, to do an M&M, but it's irrelevant for me because that's not what I personally need. But your posts didn't seem to even allow the possibility that there would be other situations.

When I tried to make things easier for myself, I was told not to (years ago now). Today, I don't have the time to streamline/update my many past posts.

Gotcha. Understandable. We learn as we grow, & though our current eyes see things one way in the past we just didn't know the things we know now.

 

[L&LD]

If you're equating what I actually said, to what you stated I said, we can't have a rational discussion. They are not even remotely related. The past is a different timeline than today. Not insulting anyone by pointing that out, but it is a very pertinent point to make. Things change, move on. We should too.

It's not up to me or anyone else to get anyone to learn what a guide is for (even if I state it right in there too). It is up to the reader to ask questions. Not up to me to anticipate every permutation of understanding possible.

But here's a freebie. You're right.

 

[JemTheWire]

Excuse me but don’t you think that this ‘discussion’ has all gone too far?

 

[elorimer]

I believe @ColinTaylor is warning (correctly) that this utility only is aware of the nvram variables going back to release 384.

Isn't the core of the script just using nvram show piped to a file? If you wanted to backup the nvram variables in the exact firmware you are using, wouldn't you get a text file of all those settings? Not quite sure how the restore works, but the backup would have all the variables.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Isn't the core of the script just using nvram show piped to a file? If you wanted to backup the nvram variables in the exact firmware you are using, wouldn't you get a text file of all those settings?

It's true that the utility does dump all the nvram variables into an nvram-all-*.txt file. I have my own backup script that does this. The problem is that the restore function/script doesn't use this file because its contents are too broad, it's for reference only.

Not quite sure how the restore works, but the backup would have all the variables.

The generated restore script only restores variables defined in the nvram-merlin.ini file or a custom ini file.

Combine this with the fact that the ini file is years out of date and a lot of the nvram variables have been moved to jffs. Which variables are now stored in jffs varies depending on the model of router.

So yes, all the information is there in one form or another. But for a complete restore you would need to manually pick the bits out of nvram-all-*.txt and the jffs backup.

This utility was intended to be a user friendly, multi-function one-stop-shop for backup and restores that required no technical knowledge. IMHO it is no longer fit for that purpose. I have no issue with people using it if they understand its technical problems but it would be a mistake if non-technical users were to use it thinking it was a complete backup/restore solution. For such users it would be far better for them to use the backup and restore options provided by the firmware.

 

[elorimer]

Thanks, that's a clear summary.

Way early in the boot of my 88U on 386.8, there is this line in the log:

Successfully retrieved NVRAM data from dtb

Do you know what the dtb reference is?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Way early in the boot of my 88U on 386.8, there is this line in the log:

Successfully retrieved NVRAM data from dtb

Do you know what the dtb reference is?

It appears to be the bootloader loading some hardware-specific information that it needs to boot. In other words it's not the same "NVRAM" data that we're talking about in this thread.

 

[Dr.Mxyztplk]

Do you know what the dtb reference is

It sounds like it's a database somewhere that saves boot information, probably just a minimum, kinda like a BIOS on a computer, It just has the stuff the computer needs to be able to function. The router can't load the OS if it doesn't know where the OS is & doesn't have the ability to access where it is. Some of that can be Hard-encoded on a chip, but things like the OS (Firmware) have to be able to change so it need to have some sort of BIOS-like entity to handle that stuff

 

[Yiannis]

A pretty much silly question: Is it safe to use this NVRAM utility? Is the utility still actively maintained? In case I use it to save the settings of my router in a file, then would it be possible to factory default, do some other tests and then restore all settings from file? Would the restore be successful ? I am asking this because in AMTM it shows as deprecated.

 

[L&LD]

Believe amtm.

 

[Yiannis]

Hi L&LD, how do we save settings ? I remember the advice was to avoid firmware's native save capability. Has that changed?

 

[L&LD]

Depends on why you're saving settings.

 

[Yiannis]

Sometimes, it is advisable to factory default. In that case I would like to be able to restore the router's configuration (i.e. WAN conf, DHCP leases, VPN client/server, WiFi settings) to previous state effortlessly.

Nothing special, in terms of custom scripts, just the configuration we do on the router's UI.

 

[L&LD]

If restoring to factory defaults is required, then restoring a saved backup config file would negate any benefits the reset would accomplish.

 

[Yiannis]

I get your point, but let me please clarify my case. I freshly install a new Asus Merlin to my router. I do all the configuration as posted above (Wan , Wifi, DHCP, etc) and then take a snapshot of the settings. This is just a freshly installed AsusMerlin with my primary config in it, no problems at that point.
After some time, a lot of beta testing maybe, I might be required to restore. Question is , which method is advisable to be used for saving/restoring configuration in these two different points of time?

 

[JGrana]

The main problem is that the NVRAM Save/Restore utility is quite a bit behind in whats actually stored (and how it's stored) with respect to more recent firmware updates. The last time NSRU was updated is close to 3 years ago - around firmware 384 - we are now at 386 and growing...

Lots have changed with new features etc. with the latest firmware.
Some of the things that WONT be backed up are:
- AiMesh
-VPN Director
- Wireguard VPN
- Instant Guard

In addition to any new variables Asus has introduced over the past few years. Asus has also been moving things out of nvram and into jffs. Again, NSRU would not have any knowledge about this.
As a result, it really doesn't "Save" all thats needed for todays firmware images. It likely wont break anything and many things would be backed up (in your case WAN conf, WiFi settings, possibly VPN settings assuming you use OpenVPN.).

You could, as an experiment, take some screen shots of settings. Run NSRU. Factory reset. Run NSRU to restore what IT knows - then check and adjust anything new/different.
It might save you some time.

BTW, I would install YazDHCP and after it migrates your statics, do an export.
After a factory reset, re-install YazDHCP and do an import. Done. Simple. Efficient ;-)

PS: I am sad as well that NSRU doesn't live on. It was a great piece of work by @John9547, @Martineau and @Xentrk. But, I must admit, the amount of time to keep up the nvram changes is very difficult. Good news/Bad news.
Good news - we get new featues over time!!! For free!!!
Bad news - NSRU almost requires a dedicated developer.

I prefer all the new featues that Asus and @RMerlin add to the convenience of NSRU.

 

[DarkAngel88]

Great info, thanks!

In that case, what would be the best course of action to migrate from one router to another? (Moving from an RT-AC68U fw 386.9 to RT-AX86S fw 388.1)