Back up and restore configuration (SCP)

The Server Configuration Profile is Dell’s config-as-code format: every BIOS token, iDRAC attribute, RAID layout, and NIC setting in one JSON document. Treat it like infrastructure state — export before risky changes, restore surgically, clone deliberately.

Back up

“Export the full configuration of r740-lab and save it to backups/.”

idrac_scp_export blocks ~30–90 seconds while the iDRAC generates the document, then returns it. Save it dated (backups/r740-lab-scp-2026-08-10.json) and keep it out of public repos — passwords are hashed or omitted, but hostnames, MACs, and user names are still infrastructure detail.

Restore

The safety ladder, in order:

1. Export first — capture current state so the restore is reversible.
2. Preview — idrac_scp_import with preview=true validates the document against the box without applying anything.
3. Import — with shutdown_type="Graceful" (the default), the OS shuts down cleanly before host-side changes apply.

Imports run as a job and can take minutes with a reboot in the middle; the tool returns a JID_... immediately. Follow with:

“Wait for that import job and tell me how it went.”

Surgical restore

An SCP containing only some components applies only those. Trim the document to just the BIOS section (under SystemConfiguration.Components) and import it — RAID, NIC, and iDRAC settings stay untouched. This is the precision tool for “roll back that one BIOS experiment.”

Cloning to identical hardware — the guardrail

Every SCP records the service tag of the box it came from, and mcidrac refuses to import an SCP whose tag doesn’t match the target. This exists because an SCP’s RAID section applies literally — importing box A’s virtual-disk layout into box B can rebuild (that is, wipe) B’s arrays.

For a deliberate golden-config clone, pass allow_cross_import=true — and preview first, and know your RAID sections. The refusal error spells all this out when you hit it.

What SCP does not restore

User passwords (exported as hashes, not reimportable as credentials), licenses, and certificates. Plan those separately.