Export and Import

The ability of exporting and importing application mappings and rulesets depends on your individual user rights. If you belong to the user group zeusafm Administrator, you can export and import both application mappings and rulesets for all applications. If you’re an application administrator, you can export and import only rulesets for your specific applications. If you belong to a custom user group, you might not be allowed to export and import anything.

Purpose

Often, vWAF is used in parallel on the final, public system as well as on a development system and test system. You can easily export rules from one system into an ZIP file and then import this ZIP file on another system.

You can also use this method for copying a ruleset from one application to another, or for backing up a ruleset.

What you can export and import

You can export and import:

application mappings (even the mappings of deleted applications)

all rulesets of an application (either the current ruleset, any other ruleset, or the complete history of rulesets); this includes the baselines of baseline protection, which are part of a ruleset

the configuration of single preconditions (selectors)

event destination groups (but currently no other settings of the alerting configuration)

What happens when importing

When importing preconditions and event destination groups, the imported settings simply replace your current settings.

When importing application mappings, the imported mappings replace your current settings visible in the user interface, but the imported mappings are not yet committed and thus not active. If you want to use them, you need to commit them manually (see Editing Application Mapping).

A ruleset is only imported if the same ruleset does not already exist. When importing, each imported ruleset is assigned the next free ruleset number and the ruleset is automatically committed. So it’s stored in the database, but it’s not used. Also it doesn’t replace the currently edited ruleset (the “loaded ruleset”). If you want to edit or use the imported ruleset, you need to make it the protection ruleset, detection ruleset, or loaded ruleset manually (see Version Control).

Exporting / Importing application mappings and rulesets

You can either export or import only the application mapping for a particular customer key and application, or both the mapping and the rulesets of the application in one go:

In the navigation area, select Application Mapping. The Application Mapping list opens with an overview of all customer keys and their assigned applications.

Go to the customer key and to the line of the application for which you want to export or import the mapping and ruleset (optional). In the Action column, click the green Export/Import icon.A popup window appears.

You can export and import either a single ruleset or the complete history of the rulesets that ever were committed for the application.To export rulesets, activate the Export tab, select the ruleset, and then click the Export button to download the ZIP file.To import application mappings and rulesets for the application, activate the Import tab, click the Browse button to select a file, and then click the Import button.

If the import was successful, a message with a link to the Application Mapping Changes page and a link to Version Control appears. Click these links if you want to use the imported mapping, or if you want to make an imported ruleset the protection ruleset, detection ruleset, or loaded ruleset.

Exporting / importing rulesets only

To export or import a ruleset of a particular application:

In the navigation area, select Application Control. The Application Control opens with an overview of all applications.

Go to the line of the application for which you want to export or import a ruleset. In the Action column, click the green Export/Import icon.A popup window appears.

Optionally you can export and import either a single ruleset or the complete history of rulesets along with the application mapping.To export the mapping and the rulesets, activate the Export tab, select the ruleset, and then click the Export button to download the ZIP file.To import the mapping and the rulesets for the customer key and application, activate the Import tab, click the Browse button to select a file, and then click the Import button.

If the import was successful, a message with a link to Version Control appears. Click this link if you want to make an imported ruleset the protection ruleset, detection ruleset, or loaded ruleset.

Exporting/ importing preconditions (selectors)

To export or import the settings of an individual precondition:

You’re now in edit mode for this path.

In the navigation area, select the application to which the path and the precondition belong whose settings you want to export or import.

Activate the Ruleset Config | Path tab. This opens the list of paths that have been defined for the application.

In the Action column, click the Edit icon of the path to which the precondition belongs. You’re now in edit mode for this path.

Activate the Preconditions tab.

Go to the line of the precondition whose settings you want to export or import. In the Action column, click the green Export/Import icon. A popup window appears.

On the Export tab you can export the selector’s settings to a JSON file. On the Import tab you can import settings from a file that you had previously exported.

Exporting/ importing event destination groups

To export or import an event destination group:

If you want to perform export or import for an event destination group for global events: Select the menu item Administration > Alerting Configuration .If you want to perform export or import for an event destination group for application-specific events: In the navigation area, select the application, and then activate the Configuration | Alerting Configuration tab.

Activate the Event Destination Groups tab.

In the Action column, click the green Export/Import icon. A popup window appears.

On the Export tab you can export the group settings to an XML file. Most browsers export and import standard XML without problems, so you can leave the default option Export file as standard XML selected. If you’re experiencing any difficulties with standard XML export and import, alternatively select Export file as BASE64 encoded XML. In particular, this may be necessary for some Chinese browsers. On the Import tab you can import group settings from a file that you had previously exported.