IP settings for the core box are stored in NVRAM/BIOS, not the database, except DNS and hostname, that is why a reboot is required if you change them, the OS reads those settings from the the hardware... although some services and other things could obviously break. In a production system, setting the IP address correctly before restoration is a good idea, but for testing I don't think it is mandatory but I can't recall if I have done it or not now that I think about it.