The guard names are arranged alphabetically in the guards catalog and in a backup file generated by GUARDS-SAVE.
The order in which the guards are copied into the backup file is irrelevant for a backup run since they all remain fully in the real system and can carry out their protection function according to expectations.
However, in contrast to this, the chronological order in which the guards are restored is of some significance. If, for example, active rule containers are restored before the guards referenced by them, access controls and default settings could lead to undesired results until the required reference guards are restored.
GUARDS-SAVE restores guards in alphabetical order. If the set of guards to be restored also includes active rule containers (recognizable by specified names such as SYS.UCF), it is possible that due to the alphabetical order they are restored before the guards they reference have been restored. If there is a danger that co-owner accesses or default settings are made during a restore run, a procedure-controlled restoration should be made and the generated order of the commands adjusted accordingly with a text editor (see section “Procedure-controlled restoration”).