# Introduction and changes

## Introduction

Backup and restore functionality can help to safeguard against catastrophes, like unforeseen disk issues or power outages. To this end, Vectra Brain appliances provide the ability to back up data to an encrypted, compressed file. Data can be restored from this file at a later time. The CLI of the Brain is used to configure all backup and restore related settings.

Backups can be run manually or on a schedule. Any amount of external targets can be configure to upload backups to, e.g. SCP / SFTP servers, S3 buckets, or another brain via the Brain-to-Brain protocol. If external targets are enabled, any backup taken will be uploaded automatically to those targets after a backup run. Additionally, most targets can also be used as a source to retrieve backups from for restoration.

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**Please Note:**

In deployments using the Respond UX where the UI is delivered from Vectra's cloud, when using network data sources (network Sensors), the Brain still must be backed up by the customer. Some parts of your deployment (metadata, detections, triage rules, etc) are backed up in Vectra’s cloud but the Brain appliance must still be backed up locally in your environment. If you are unsure of your deployment type, please see [Vectra Analyst User Experiences (Respond vs Quadrant)](https://docs.vectra.ai/deployment/getting-started/analyst-ux-options-rux-vs-qux)
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## What's New in Version 8.5+

In version 8.5 and higher of Vectra Brain software, backup and restore functionality has been updated to be more consistent in how the commands work for the various different options available in backup/restore. As a result, the majority of commands are different in some way. Please keep in mind the following:

* Any existing backup targets will be retained.
* Any existing schedule will be retained.
* If you are set to backup to an external target, the setting will be retained.
* Any allow list (white list) configured for Brain to Brain backup will be retained.
* Any new configuration of backup/restore will need to use the new syntax as described in this KB article (the one you are reading).

## Vectra Brain Appliance Disaster Recovery (DR) / Migration Recommendations

Please see [Vectra Brain Appliance Disaster Recovery (DR) / Migration Recommendations (v8.5+)](https://docs.vectra.ai/operations/backup-restore-dr/disaster-recovery-and-migration-v85) for a detailed guidance to use in conjunction with the information here in DR and migration scenarios.