How do I back up or restore multiple Forcepoint Web Security appliances?

Backup and Restore | Forcepoint Web Security | 29-Apr-2022

As a best practice, synchronize the backup process to back up all components (on and off-appliance) at approximately the same time (within a 30-minute window).

During the restore process, use backup files from the same time period to revert all components on all machines (on and off-appliance) to an earlier configuration.

Performing backup and restore procedures when the policy source is a Forcepoint appliance

If the deployment includes an appliance configured as a Full policy source, complete the following steps to do a full system backup:

Before you begin, make sure that all components on and off the policy source appliance are working as expected. Restart services, if needed.

Back up each Forcepoint appliance in the following order:

Full policy source

User directory and filtering

Filtering only

Use the appliance CLI to run an immediate backup or schedule backups at regular intervals. See Running the appliance backup utility.

Use the Backup Utility to back up all off-appliance (software only) components. You can either run an immediate backup, or schedule backups to coincide with appliance scheduled backups. See Running the Backup Utility on Windows or Linux.

After completing this process, you have a time-compatible set of backups on all machines hosting Forcepoint Web, Data, and Email protection components in the network.

To restore a previous configuration:

Stop all off-appliance (software only) components.

Restore the appliances the following order:

Full policy source

User directory and filtering

Filtering only

See Restoring your appliance configuration.


	Important Make sure you select time-compatible backup files for the restore process.

Use the Backup Utility to restore your web protection configuration on each non-appliance machine. See Restoring your web protection configuration.

The off-box web protection services or daemons may need to be restarted manually.

Log on to the CLI for each appliance to verify that all services are running correctly.

Log on to the Web Security module of the Forcepoint Security Manager and confirm that there are no alert messages indicating stopped services.

Performing backup and restore procedures when the policy source is not a Forcepoint appliance

If the deployment uses a non-appliance policy source (a software installation of Policy Broker and Policy Server), complete the following steps to do a full system backup:

Before you begin, make sure that all appliance and off-box components are running normally. Restart services, if needed.

Use the Backup Utility to back up the policy source (Policy Broker) machine. See Running the Backup Utility on Windows or Linux.

The utility can be used to schedule regular backups to coincide with appliance backups, or to initiate the backup process manually.

Back up each Forcepoint appliance in the following order:

Full policy source

User directory and filtering

Filtering only

Use the appliance CLI to initiate the backup process. See Running the appliance backup utility.

Use the Backup Utility to back up any other off-appliance components (not running on the policy source machine).

After completing this process, you have a time-compatible set of backups on all machines hosting Forcepoint Web, Data, and Email protection components in the network.

To restore a previous configuration:

Stop all off-appliance (software-only) components, including those on the policy source (Policy Broker) machine.

Use the Backup Utility to restore the configuration on the policy source (Policy Broker) machine. See Restoring your web protection configuration.

If necessary, restart the Forcepoint services or daemons on the machine.

Restore the appliances the following order:

Full policy source

User directory and filtering

Filtering only

See Restoring your appliance configuration.


	Important Make sure you select time-compatible backup files for the restore process.

Use the Backup Utility to restore the configuration of all other off-appliance components. If necessary, restart the web protection services or daemons manually.

Log on to the CLI for each appliance to verify that all services are running correctly.

Log on to the Web Security module of Forcepoint Security Manager and confirm that there are no alert messages indicating stopped services.

Published 2022

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