Tag Archives: rules

How to save iptables

In this article you will find out how to save iptables firewall rules in Linux CentOS, Redhat, Debian and Ubuntu.

Iptables  is a Linux application built for the purpose of allowing a system administrator to configure and maintain specific firewall tables/rules provided by the Linux kernel firewall module.
There are currently 3 different kernel modules build for the IPv4, IPv6 and ARP stack protocols (iptables is used for IPv4, ip6tables refferes to IPv6, arptables to Addres Resolution Protocol).

The most used and the one used in this tutorial is iptables. In order to execute iptables related commands you need root privileges or to be in the sudoers file in Debian/Ubuntu OSes.

So here’s how to save iptables and how to list existing ones:

The syntax used to check the iptables service status is:

service iptables status  ##CentOS, Redhat
sudo iptables -L -n -v   ##Debian, Ubuntu

 

To start iptables:

service iptables start ##CentOS, Redhat
sudo ufw enable ##Ubuntu

 

To list iptables rules:

iptables -L

 

Save iptables rules:

iptables-save  #Debian
sudo iptables-save  #Ubuntu
service iptables save #CentOS

On CentOS, for example, you would see an output like this:

iptables save

 

 

 

 

To restore iptables rules:

~ # iptables-restore < /etc/sysconfig/iptables
root@nyxware
~ #
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