16 comment

1. Thank you! This helped me out a lot.

   1. Does not work on Ubuntu 8.04

2. On Redhat/Fedora, you can do

   service iptables save

   And it will write a file in /etc/sysconfig that will be read on startup if the iptables service is enabled in the current runlevel.

3. Gr8 Man Thanks a lot…..

4. This solution works well assuming one of two things:
   Either:
   1) You are only using rules that are compatible with the GUI firewall editor (system-config-securitylevel)
   or
   2) You are not using system-config-securitylevel

   system-config-securitylevel rewrites iptables without any lines it does not like (in my case, for example the rule “-I ‘RH-Firewall-1-INPUT’ 1 -s x.x.x.x -j ACCEPT” where x.x.x.x is an ip address) – system-config-securitylevel does not support filtering by source or destination computer (for some reason)

   The workaround I found for this is to:
   1) create a file called /etc/sysconfig/iptables-custom
   2) add the rule to the file. If you need a template for adding rules, look at your /etc/sysconfig/iptables file to see your existing rules
   3) edit /etc/init.d/iptables
   In the start() function there should be a line that says something like this:
   “$IPTABLES-restore $OPT $IPTABLES_DATA”
   This means to restore the rules from /etc/sysconfig/iptables
   BELOW THIS RULE add a line that says
   “$IPTABLES-restore -n < /etc/sysconfig/iptables-custom"
   The -n option is important. Without it, you would overwrite all other rules and ONLY have the rules in iptables-custom (meaning system-config-securitylevel wouldn't work any more as it would edit an unused file)

   The one thing to keep in mind is that updating/reinstalling iptables will likely rewrite /etc/init.d/iptables, removing the line that adds iptables-custom

5. If you are using Debian Linux open /etc/network/interfaces…

   No! in Debian you must save your rules in

   /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/iptables

   this

   #!/bin/bash
   /sbin/iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.up.rules

   That’s, of course, if you’re using bash and have save the rules in this way

   iptables-save > /etc/iptables.up.rules

6. Debian/Ubuntu has a package named iptables-persistent that handles iptables-restore/iptables-save based on /etc/iptables/rules

   A lot more elegant compared to making post interface-up scripts or a custom init script, imho.

7. hei i want to ask, i setting my iptables on mandriva 2011, and also save it using /sbin/service iptables save. the problem is when my laptop restart the rules is gone, can anyone help me?

8. see /etc/sysconfig/iptables-config for autosave of rules after firewall or machine restart

9. I hv a CentOS system and have this same problem. I have input lot to iptables but when it restart, all my iptables INPUT are gone. I was using command “service iptables save”.

   I am confused .. so which one I should use for the next time?

   # /etc/init.d/iptables save
   or
   # /sbin/service iptables save

   Are those 2 commands same? Which one should I choose so the next time I restart my VPS, my iptables still remain. Please help.

   1. Yes,those are same commands.

10. I want to export iptables rules from machine A to machine B.

    I have dump current iptables rules from machine A with:
    $ iptables-save > iptables.rules

    But, at the bottom of the file there also attached firewall configuration from the machine A. Do I have just change the “Chain acctboth” configuration on machine B?

    Or is there any better way to export iptables rules, I just want to export the INPUT rules.

    Thanks.

    1. You could try: iptables-save | grep -e ‘^-A INPUT’ > test.txt

11. Hi there, I tried this guide but it did not keep settings after a reboot. I am using an Asus N56U. Any ideas? Thanks

    1. Asus N56U comes with either default firmware or 3rd party firmware such as DD-WRT. Due to flash module disk size limit these commands may not work on embedded tiny devices. See your firmware documentation for firewall rules.

12. Worked on CENTOS 6.6 x86_64 virtuozzo, WHM 11.46.2 (build 4) – thank you!

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