Although we’ve taken a reasonable look at configuring router settings and interfaces, we’ve only spent a little bit of time on what is perhaps the most important topic of all – knowing how to backup and restore router elements such as configuration files and IOS images.
Backing up and restoring configuration files and IOS images requires you to remember the simple command learned earlier – copy from to. In all of the examples that we’re going to look at here, you will need to remember how the copy command is structured. In fact, you should make a point of reading the command in that way as well. For example, the command copy running-config startup-config should actually be read as “copy settings from the running configuration to the startup configuration”. In other words, save the configuration currently stored in RAM to NVRAM, where it will be found the next time the router boots. It may sound simple, but it’s also important.
