Upgrade from prior release to 26.7.1 resulted in empty static aliases despite configuration...

[N3rdle]

Important notices

Before you add a new report, we ask you kindly to acknowledge the following:

• [ X] I have read the contributing guidelines at https://github.com/opnsense/core/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md
• [ X] I am convinced that my issue is new after having checked both open and closed issues at https://github.com/opnsense/core/issues?q=is%3Aissue
• AI tools were used to create at least part of the text submitted herewith.

If AI was used, please disclose:

• Model used: None
• Extent of AI involvement: None

Describe the bug

Upon upgrading from a prior release to 26.7.1 today, static aliases i had previously defined in the prior release's configuration (for example, an alias named "management_subnets" with the contents 10.20.30.0/24 and 10.20.40.0/24) were devoid of entries when examining them in the diagnostics tools, despite them being very clearly statically defined aliases that should require no interpretation whatsoever. this was working as expected in the prior 26.6 release.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Revert to 26.6.x
2. create a static alias, and enable statistics (perhaps other attributes as well)
3. Upgrade to 26.7.1
4. Examine the alias, refresh it, etc. it will remain empty

** Expected Behavior **
The alias works as intended and documented.

Describe alternatives you considered

When disabling statistics and forcibly refreshing the alias, everything worked as expected as per previous release behavior.

Screenshots

Relevant log files

Additional context

Environment

OPNsense 26.7.1 (amd64).

[korgano]

I've run into this issue as well, and the current options to get around this issue is pretty terrible:

1. Export the aliases from 26.6.# to CSV, then import them into 26.7.
2. Dump a backup config XML, update to 26.7, create a dummy alias, export the 26.7 backup config, replace the dummy alias with the old aliases, and reimport the modded config into 26.7.

The 26.7 config files seem to be structured very differently from the older ones, which seems to be causing import issues.