Maintaining the system

The Maintenance menu contains features for use during scheduled maintenance: updates, backups, restoration, and centralized administration.

Also use it to configure FortiGuard Antispam query connectivity.

• Backup and restore
• Configuring centralized administration
• Configuring FortiGuard updates and antispam queries

Backup and restore

Before installing FortiMail firmware or making significant configuration changes, back up your FortiMail configuration. Backups let you revert to your previous configuration if the new configuration does not function correctly. Backups let you compare changes in configuration.

A complete configuration backup consists of several parts:

• core configuration file (fml.cfg), including the local certificates
• Bayesian databases
• mail queues
• system, per-domain, and per-user black/white list databases
• email users’ address books
• images and language files for customized appearance of the web UI and webmail To access those parts of the web UI, your administrator account’s:
• Domain must be System
• access profile must have Read-Write permission to all categories

For details, see “About administrator account permissions and domains” on page 290.

Page 218

In addition, although they are not part of the configuration, you may want to back up the following data:

• email archives
• log files
• generated report files
• mailboxes

Alternatively, if you only want to back up your core configuration file, you can back up the FortiMail unit’s configuration to a FortiManager unit. For details, see “Backing up your configuration using a FortiManager unit” on page 221.

To back up the configuration file

Although mailboxes and quarantines cannot be downloaded to your management computer, you can configure the FortiMail unit to back up mail data by storing it externally, on a NAS server. For details, see “Selecting the mail data storage location” on page 376.

1. Go to Maintenance > System > Configuration.
2. In the Backup Configuration area:
   • Select Local PC
   • Enable System configuration.
   • Click Backup.

Your management computer downloads the configuration file. Time required varies by the size of the file and the speed of your network connection. You can restore the backup configuration later when required. For details, see “Restoring the configuration” on page 692.

FortiMail v4.0 configuration backing up to a FortiManager unit is supported in FortiManager v4.2 and newer releases. See “Backing up your configuration using a FortiManager unit” on page 221. Also see “Configuring centralized administration” on page 232.

To back up the Bayesian databases

1. Go to Maintenance > AntiSpam > Database Maintenance.
2. Click Backup Bayesian database.

Your management computer downloads the database file. Time required varies by the size of the file and the speed of your network connection.

To back up the mail queues

1. Go to Maintenance > System > Mail Queue.
2. Click Backup Queue.

Your management computer downloads the database file. Time required varies by the size of the file and the speed of your network connection.

To back up the black/white list database

1. Go to Maintenance > AntiSpam > Black/White List Maintenance.
2. Click Export Black/White List.

Your management computer downloads the database file. The time required varies by the size of the file and the speed of your network connection.

To back up email users’ accounts (server mode only)

1. Go to User > User > User.
2. Click Export .CSV.

Your management computer downloads the user account spreadsheet file. Time required varies by the size of the file and the speed of your network connection.

To back up the global address book (server mode only)

1. Go to Mail Settings > Address Book > Contacts.
2. Click
3. On the pop-up menu, select CSV.

You are prompted for a location to save the file. Follow the prompts and click Save.

Your management computer downloads the address book spreadsheet file. Time required varies by the size of the file and the speed of your network connection.

To back up customized appearances of the web UI and webmail UI

1. Go to System > Configuration > Appearance.
2. In Administration interface, for each image file, save the image to your management computer.

Methods vary by web browser. For example, you might need to click and drag the images into a folder on your management computer in order to save them to that folder. For instructions, see your browser’s documentation.

3. Click the arrow to expand Webmail interface.
4. For each webmail language, click the name of the language to select it, then click Download.

Your management computer downloads the language file. Time required varies by the size of the file and the speed of your network connection.

5. To back up email archivesGo to Maintenance > System > Mail Data.

In addition to downloading email archives to your management computer, you can configure the FortiMail unit to store email archives on an SFTP or FTP server. For details, see “Managing archived email” on page 203 and “Configuring email archiving accounts” on page 656.

6. Continue using the instructions in “Configuring mailbox backups” on page 227.