Export

What Is Export?

Export is the button at the bottom right of the Bot/DDoS Protection Mode strip and downloads the whole Bot/DDoS configuration of the vService as a single JSON file. The scope is not only the strip: the three protection columns (L7 DDoS Protection, IP Reputation Protection, Bot Protection), all the limit blocks, the country and network type rules, the exemption lists, the four cards on the strip (Captcha, Quarantine, Waiting Room, Notifications) and the Learning settings enter the same file.

There are two things that stay outside the file: the identity of the record (the own identity of the vService) and the three protection priority fields that have no equivalent in the interface. The priority fields are old values that were used to determine the column order and are not shown on any screen; they are present only in old records. Both of them are also ignored in the import. The file is used for backing up the configuration and for carrying it to another vService or to another TR7 device; the restoring is done with Import.

The Export Steps

1. The Export button at the bottom right of the strip is clicked. The button is displayed only on the users that have edit permission; on a user without permission, Export and Import are not located on the strip at all.

2. The confirmation window that opens is confirmed with the Yes button; if No is selected, the operation is cancelled. The window states, together with its name, that what will be downloaded is the whole Bot/DDoS configuration of the vService:

   The entire Bot/DDoS protection configuration of vService "<vService name>" — protections, whitelists, notification and learning settings — will be downloaded as a single file. Continue?

   If it is not confirmed, no request is sent to the server and no file is produced.

3. After the confirmation, the configuration is taken from the server and the file is downloaded directly by the browser. While the operation is going on, both buttons become passive; the icon of the working button turns into a spinning symbol.

The Export Button

The name of the downloaded file consists of the name of the protected vService together with the _threat suffix and the date-time stamp (the space sequences in the name are replaced with a single _): for example Web_Service_threat_20260828_1745.json. The date-time stamp is taken from the local time of the browser that produces the file. The content of the file is a JSON object formatted with a three-space indent that can also be read manually. The file is saved by the response coming from the server being embedded in a link within the browser; a second download request does not go out to the network. A timeout of 60 seconds is applied for the request that takes the configuration from the server.

Exporting is a read-only operation; the Bot/DDoS configuration does not change and the mode of the protections and the settings of the cards are not affected. The operation is nevertheless written to the user log: the record is in the form Threat protection configuration of "<vService name>" is exported. The record carries not only the who and when information but also the whole of the configuration exported; it is listed in the log with the Load Balancer labels. If the vService does not have a Bot/DDoS record yet, no file is produced and the operation returns with an error.

It must not be confused with Import

The operation on this page only takes the configuration to a file. The restoring of the file is done with Import and the import is a full replacement: the whole Bot/DDoS configuration of the target vService is replaced with the one in the file, no merging is done. For this reason the file taken with Export is not only a copy but at the same time a point of return.

If there is no record, no file is produced

The Bot/DDoS configuration record is created with the default values right after the protection is enabled, while the configuration is being applied; when the protection is switched off, the record is not deleted. On a vService whose protection has never been enabled, or before the configuration application is completed following the enabling, Export does not produce a file and the operation returns with an error.

Exporting also requires write permission

The Export button is displayed only on the users that have edit permission in the Load Balancer area. The export request is also evaluated as a write call on the server side and the same write permission in the Load Balancer area is looked for; the interface condition and the server condition overlap. With read-only permission, on the other hand, although the whole of the strip can be seen, the buttons are not located there at all.

Operational Best Practices

• A backup should be taken before big changes. The file taken with Export before the protection modes are changed, the limits are tidied up or before Import is the most direct way of restoring the configuration without setting it up again from separate screens.
• The file should be kept in a secure environment. The exported file contains the whole protection configuration of the vService: the thresholds, the country and network type rules, the exemption lists and the notification targets. Among the notification targets there are also e-mail addresses and SMS numbers. Since this content both carries personal data and shows how the protection can be bypassed, access to the file should be kept in a restricted environment.
• The result should be verified while carrying it to a device of a different version. In the import, of the keys in the file only the ones that the target device recognizes are taken; the unrecognized keys are dropped silently and which ones have dropped is not reported. After the transfer, the mode and the thresholds of the protections should be compared from the screen.