Export config in a readable format

jensveha · March 9, 2026, 12:51pm

Hey,

I was wondering if there is a way to export config in a human readable format. I have a couple of switches still running SWOS and I want to convert them to RouterOS but don’t want to convert the config manually.

Any advice on this topic?

rextended · March 9, 2026, 12:58pm

Have you tried opening the backup file with "notepad"?

jensveha · March 9, 2026, 2:04pm

I did, I get a lot of hex values which say nothing to me. I’ve searched online, but haven’t found any converters which can can put it in a human readable format.

rextended · March 9, 2026, 2:05pm

Wha device is?

jensveha · March 9, 2026, 3:30pm

It’s a CRS328-24P-4S+

rextended · March 9, 2026, 4:52pm

I don't think there's a tool to convert from one configuration to another, but I seem to remember (to be verified) that from RooterOS it's possible to see how SwOS is configured???... I don't remember exactly...

jaclaz · March 9, 2026, 5:06pm

There is this one, but cannot say (since it is 4 years old) if it is any good (anymore):

and there is no reference in the Python script for hex values...

There is also this thingy here that is updated, it is not a backup converter, but it should be able to export the config to Ansible YAML:

jensveha · March 10, 2026, 8:11am

Thanks for the links. The first solution doesn’t work out of the box. The second one does work nicely and fits my needs.

jaclaz · March 10, 2026, 9:55am

Good. , happy it works for you.

From the example here:

github.com/lanrat/python-mikrotik-swos

switch_config.example.yml

main

---
# MikroTik SwOS Lite Switch Configuration Example
# Copy this file to switch_config.yml and customize for your switch

# System settings (read-only, for documentation purposes)
system:
  device_name: "Switch-01"
  address_acquisition: "DHCP with fallback"
  static_ip: "192.168.88.1"
  allow_from: ""  # Empty string = no restriction, or use IP/CIDR like "192.168.1.0/24"
  allow_from_ports: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]  # All ports
  allow_from_vlan: 1

# SNMP Configuration
snmp:
  enabled: true
  community: "public"
  contact: ""
  location: ""

This file has been truncated. show original

the output format is quite human readable, but from that to converting it to RouterOS seems still a long way (to me).

If you play/use this thingy please - time permitting of course - do post what you did so that it may help someone else on the forum.

jensveha · March 11, 2026, 10:50am

Oh, I don’t have any concrete plans, but now I have a humanreadable textfile I can easily edit with my text editor of choice to generate a config to import in RouterOS.

4lphanumeric · March 19, 2026, 6:49am

If it's possible, and if the config is 1:1 from SwOS to ROS it would be nice if you can attach both here. It'll help in updating the converter.

Buckeye · March 19, 2026, 6:25pm

I don't think it is possible to do a 1:1 between SwOS and ROS. ROS has many more features than SwOS, but SwOS features are not a subset of ROS. Some examples: lock on first mac address seen. No need to specify a default gateway on SwOS, since it just replies to the mac/ipaddr/port that the connection came from.

But there are many things that "could" be translated. I know of nothing that is available to do this, and for the "Couple of switches" to be converted to ROS, it will probably be easier to take the YAML extract and use for reference when configuring ROS, than to try to write something to automate the conversion.

jaclaz · March 19, 2026, 10:28pm

Maybe there Is not a 1:1 conversion/translation, but surely there are (possibly complex) sets of commands on RoS that can replicate the effects of a SWos setting.

In other words, not easy but possible.