Profiles Backup
- Last Updated: April 5, 2026
- 3 minute read
- Flowmon Products
- Flowmon
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Profiles in the Flowmon Monitoring Center can be backed up to external storage (configured in the Configuration center, see the External Data Storage chapter). The backup is performed every day, a few minutes after midnight when all data from the previous day is copied to external storage. Multiple Flowmon devices can back up data to the same external storage. Backed-up data is marked with the HW ID of the source Flowmon device. If the backup fails, data remains in the queue and Flowmon tries to copy them again the next day together with the next-day data. The maximum length of the queue in days might be configured.
The profile backup feature is specifically designed for use cases such as compliance or data archiving. Backup storage is not limited by size or capped by license and can store the data for a potentially undefined period. Backup storage is considered as cold storage thus access to this data has performance limitations. The assumption is that a restore of the data will be required only in specific cases such as legal investigation and not for daily operations. When restoring the data, limit the time interval required to the minimum that will satisfy the purpose of the restore. The time to restore the data will depend on data size (potentially terabytes) in addition to the performance of the external store in use for the backup feature.
Backed-up data may be restored for the selected profile, source Flowmon device, and time interval.
Data is restored in the form of a history profile with a user-defined name and group.
To enable this functionality, the External storage must be configured in the Configuration center. Then, it can be enabled in the dialog box Profile backup settings which can be shown by clicking the button with the same name. Here, you can configure the Remote directory fir external storage. This directory will be used for storing backups. The Max days in queue option defines how long the system keeps unsuccessfully copied data in the queue. If the data is older, it is removed and the system will not try to back it up again.
Each profile can be enabled or disabled for backup using the Enable backup and Disable backup buttons. These buttons are available for groups too. They just enable or disable backups for all profiles in this group. When a backup for the profile is enabled, the current backup status is shown including the last backup time.
Profiles can be restored in the dialog box opened by the Restore from backup button. In the Available backup profiles section, profiles available for restoration are shown. When first opened, it might take a few minutes to load the list of profiles for restoration. The next time, it should be much faster because it is already cached. In the HWID drop-down menu, the particular backed-up Flowmon device can be selected. Then, only profiles backed up from this device are shown. At the bottom, the Restore queue is displayed including the current restore status. You can restore a profile by clicking Restore. A Restore settings dialog box displays.
Here, the new name of the profile can be defined including its group (that is, the restored profile will be named by a new name and will be located in the provided group). Next, you must specify the time interval for restored data.
