Manually Roll Back the Configuration if the Management Center Loses Connectivity

If you use a data interface on the threat defense for manager access, and you deploy a configuration change from the management center that affects the network connectivity, you can roll back the configuration on the threat defense to the last-deployed configuration so you can restore management connectivity. You can then adjust the configuration settings in management center so that the network connectivity is maintained, and re-deploy. You can use the rollback feature even if you do not lose connectivity; it is not limited to this troubleshooting situation.

Alternatively, you can enable auto rollback of the configuration if you lose connectivity after a deployment; see Edit Deployment Settings.

See the following guidelines:

  • Only the previous deployment is available locally on the threat defense; you cannot roll back to any earlier deployments.

  • Rollback is supported for high availability but not supported for clustering deployments.

  • Rollback is not supported immediately after high availability creation.

  • The rollback only affects configurations that you can set in the management center. For example, the rollback does not affect any local configuration related to the dedicated Management interface, which you can only configure at the threat defense CLI. Note that if you changed data interface settings after the last management center deployment using the configure network management-data-interface command, and then you use the rollback command, those settings will not be preserved; they will roll back to the last-deployed management center settings.

  • UCAPL/CC mode cannot be rolled back.

  • Out-of-band SCEP certificate data that was updated during the previous deployment cannot be rolled back.

  • During the rollback, connections will drop because the current configuration will be cleared.

Procedure

Step 1

At the threat defense CLI, roll back to the previous configuration.

configure policy rollback

Note

For a high availability pair, this command is allowed only on the active unit.

After the rollback, the threat defense notifies the management center that the rollback was completed successfully. In the management center, the deployment screen will show a banner stating that the configuration was rolled back.

Note

If the rollback failed and the management center management is restored, refer to https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/security/firepower-ngfw-virtual/215258-troubleshooting-firepower-threat-defense.html for common deployment problems. In some cases, the rollback can fail after the management center management access is restored; in this case, you can resolve the management center configuration issues, and redeploy from the management center.

Example:

For the threat defense that uses a data interface for manager access:

> configure policy rollback

The last deployment to this FTD was on June 1, 2020 and its status was Successful.
Do you want to continue [Y/N]?

Y

Rolling back complete configuration on the FTD. This will take time.
.....................
Policy rollback was successful on the FTD.
Configuration has been reverted back to transaction id: 
Following is the rollback summary:
...................
....................
>

Example:

For threat defenses in a high availability pair that use a data interface for management center access:

> configure policy rollback

Checking Eligibility ....
============= DEVICE DETAILS =============
Device Version: 7.2.0
Device Type: FTD
Device Mode: Offbox
Device in HA: true
Is HA disabled: false
HA state: active - standby ready
==========================================
Device is eligible for policy rollback
Do you want to continue [YES/NO]?

YES

Starting rollback...
    Preparing policy configuration on the device.           Status: success
    Applying updated policy configuration on the device.    Status: success
    Applying Lina File Configuration on the device.         Status: success
    Applying Lina Configuration on the device.              Status: success
    Commit Lina Configuration.                              Status: success
    Commit Lina File Configuration.                         Status: success
    Commit Lina File Configuration.                         Status: success
=================================================================
POLICY ROLLBACK STATUS: SUCCESS
=================================================================
>

Step 2

Check that the management connection was reestablished.

In management center, check the management connection status on the Devices > Device Management > Device > Management > Manager Access - Configuration Details > Connection Status page.

At the threat defense CLI, enter the sftunnel-status-brief command to view the management connection status.

If it takes more than 10 minutes to reestablish the connection, you should troubleshoot the connection. See Troubleshoot Management Connectivity on a Data Interface.