Runbook: Roll Back a Bad Change
1 · Prerequisites
Confirm every item is in place before any state change.
- Backup of the previous configuration available on the firewall
- Knowledge of which change caused the regression
- Console or GUI access to the firewall
2 · Pre-checks
Read-only diagnostic commands. If any of these don't match expected output, stop and investigate further.
- · Capture the current configuration as a safety net before any rollback
- · Identify the change that caused the regression and confirm the previous state was acceptable
- · If the change is a single rule or alias, the rollback is a single edit; if it is a section import, the rollback is a section restore
- · Identify the affected systems and the expected impact of the rollback
3 · Procedure
Execute each step in order. Verify the expected output of a step before moving to the next.
- 1If the change is a single rule, edit the rule and revert it to the previous state
- 2If the change is a single alias, edit the alias and restore the previous contents
- 3If the change is a section import, open System > Configuration > Backups and restore the relevant section from the backup file
- 4If the change is a configuration restore that has already replaced the running configuration, restore the safety-net backup
- 5Apply the change and wait for the firewall to re-evaluate the rules
- 6Validate the affected flow with a test packet and confirm the firewall log shows the expected action
- 7If the appliance is in an HA pair, confirm the configuration is replicated to the peer
- 8Update the change record with the rollback steps, the operator name, and the reason for the rollforward
4 · Verification
Confirm the procedure actually fixed the problem.
- ✓The affected flow traverses the firewall and returns
- ✓The firewall log shows the expected action for the affected flow
- ✓The peer appliance in an HA pair reflects the rollback
- ✓No new alerts fire during the observation window
5 · Rollback
If verification fails, undo the procedure in reverse order.
- ↶If the rollback fails, restore the safety-net backup captured before the rollback
- ↶If the rollback is partial, repeat the rollback for the remaining sections
- ↶If the appliance is unrecoverable, restore the previous configuration from the off-appliance backup
6 · Escalation
When the runbook isn't enough, contact:
- · Engage the change owner if the rollback is being performed by a different operator
- · Engage the security team if the bad change exposed a security boundary
- · Engage the on-call engineer if the rollback causes a sustained outage
Purpose
Reverse a configuration change that has caused a regression in OPNsense, either by editing the rule or alias back to its previous state or by restoring the previous configuration from a backup.
When to use this runbook
Use this runbook when a recent change has caused a regression in connectivity, when the change is not consistent with the policy, or when the change has introduced a security risk that must be reversed immediately.
Pre-checks
Before starting the procedure, confirm the prerequisites and pre-checks are met. The structured lists are rendered from the frontmatter by the page layout.
Procedure
Follow the steps from the frontmatter procedure steps. The page layout renders the steps as a checklist with copy-to-clipboard affordances.
Verification
After the procedure, the structured verification items from the frontmatter are rendered as a checklist.
Rollback
If the procedure fails or makes things worse, follow the structured rollback steps from the frontmatter.
Escalation
The structured escalation path is rendered from the frontmatter. Use it if the operator cannot complete the procedure safely.