Import & export a scenario

Export

When a scenario is recorded, you can export the scenario to share it with other REVEN users or archive it to make space on your disk.

Note that the scenario is not automatically deleted after the export task succeeds (this allows you to export your scenario for others without deleting it). If you want to make space, you need to delete it manually.

Exported scenarios are stored in an archive folder which is user-definable in the project manager settings file via the variable QUASAR_ARCHIVES_PATH (refer to the settings file for the details of available compression types).

A scenario can only be exported once in your archive folder. If you try to export an already exported scenario, it will replace the older archive.

You cannot export a scenario while recording, replaying, importing or exporting it.

The button to export a scenario can be found in the REVEN project manager web interface, in the Scenario details page.

Exporting my scenario

You will need to choose what you want to export before launching the export task:

• the record: it is mandatory, you cannot export a scenario without a record included in the archive. Without a record, we cannot replay resources necessary for the analysis.
• the replay: resources generated by a replay are optional. They can be regenerated after the import. We do not recommend keeping them since they add significant overhead to the archive size, which also increases the time necessary to export it.
• the ossi: It is highly recommended to include the OS-specific information. If you don't include them, you won't be able to retrieve OSSI (like symbols) when you will import the archive.
• the light PDBs: Light PDBs contain only PDBs needed for the scenario then they are pretty light. However, even if you do not include them in the archive, you should be able to download them from the location you got them originally.
• the user data: The user data folder is a user folder that contains files useful for the scenario (scripts, readme, ...) you would like to share or retrieve with your imported scenario.

The archive will also always include scenario information (name, type, os, archi, ...) and version information to be sure we can import it.

Importing a scenario

When you have a scenario archive, you can import it in your REVEN project manager. It will automatically extract the archive, create the scenario and add it to your scenario list.

An imported scenario cannot be record again. A scenario correspond to a specific record you can edit the description of, replay, analyse and delete.

The scenario will be labelled as Snapshot-less scenario. Since the scenario is imported and an imported scenario already has a record, there is no need for a VM. Therefore the scenario is not and cannot be bound to a VM and a snapshot.

You cannot import a scenario already imported in your REVEN project manager.

Some resources are immutable in a Snapshot-less scenario, this means they cannot be regenerated or deleted (if you want to delete them, delete the entire scenario).
Indeed, resources which depend on snapshot information (e.g filesystem) cannot be retrieved since there is not snapshot bound to an imported scenario.

NOTE: OSSI's light filesystem is an immutable resource since the resource depends on the snapshot. This is why you will not have any OS-specific information like symbols or binaries if you do not export them beforehand.

To import a scenario, a button on top of the scenario list in the REVEN project manager is available. You will be able to choose an archive from your archive folder.

As soon as you start importing a scenario, you will see it in the scenario list. However, as long as the scenario is in the process of being imported, all actions on the scenario will be disabled.