We currently have a B20 in use, installed about 4 years ago. I’m looking into possibly getting another one to swap if ever the older one has a hardware failure.
Will a configuration backup from my older model be compatible to restore with the possibly newer hardware version of the B20?
Is there a better way to approach this?
Which hardware generation is your current Balance 20? There have been many.
Hardware Revision 6 is what my status page shows
That may be the latest … anyone know for sure?
To protect the router, you can connect it to a surge protector if money is tight or a line interactive UPS, if you can afford to do so. A low end line interactive UPS is about $150 to $200 US dollars.
It is currently on a UPS. Recently though if one of the WAN connection happens to go down and come back up, there’s a good chance the system will lock up where I won’t be able to log in to the administration page and then each client loses internet connection one at a time as they lose their existing session connection info.
This seems to happen more if the uptime of the device is past 30 days, not exactly sure what day count it is when the management page starts to get sluggish.
Firmware version 7.something. I am hesitant to upgrade to 8.something version as I don’t have a backup if it fails.
One good thing is that its easy to test the router, just pull out a cable.
Perhaps when you test, watch cpu usage, that might explain why you can’t get into the admin interface.
Certainly look at the Event Log too.
It the problem does happen while you are testing, then download a diagnostic report and send it to Peplink.
Better still, use the support.cgi page to start a Network Capture just before pulling the plug.
As for firmware 8, you can always fall back to firmware 7 if it makes things worse. Along those lines see this
Firmware support page shows all HW revisions 1-7 can run 8.1.0 firmware.
Buying a new B20 would put you at latest HW rev 7 I would presume.
Back up confit on current B20 and upload on new (offline, not connected to your LAN) and verify your config.
A true test would be to simply unplug the old B20 and pop in the new. If the config updated properly then it should be fairly seamless.
Then keep the new B20 tucked away taking it out once in awhile to sync the config and firmware.
I wonder if InControl could help you here. It would require the new B20 to be online however but you could manage it from InControl free for a year
Thanks guys for your input. I think I will go ahead and get another and try @stego’s suggestion of upload the existing config to the new B20 and do a switcheroo when there’s SaaS software maintenance going on so users won’t notice me messing with the internet connection.
Having one handy ready to go would be a huge help with peace of mind.
I did not know about that firmware feature. It’s probably there during the times I upgraded firmware but never really paid attention to it.
Network capture is the ultimate in debugging. Logs all the bits. What more could anyone want 
Hopefully, you never need it.
Hi Michael, thanks for your previous replies. I’m curious if settings from a B20 can be transferred over to a Balance One Core? Our settings on the B20 is not overly complex but just thinking if I could save a step in transferring stuff over.
Another dump related question. Do you guys keep the backup router powered on while in standby?
Just wanted to update this that the Balance One is working great and was a good move to prevent the lock ups after 30+ days. Maybe we just outgrew the old B20. I hope I don’t jinx it but my dashboard says it’s been up 94 days now, woo!
Is there a report or something that keeps track of device stats, like average cpu load vs time of day etc.
