vSphere 5.0 Backup and Restore

List of what should be backed up

There is some overlap between components listed below – some are within the vCenter database, but should still be exported separately (such as vDS’s). Other components can be disregarded if you have VM-level backups that can perform file-level restores. This is not a complete list, but it might be helpful for some items that are commonly overlooked (like the Inventory Service database).

1. vCenter (KB 1023985 – Backing Up & Restoring vCenter):
   1. vCenter Database
   2. vCenter SSL certificates
      • Windows 2003: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter
      • Windows Vista and 2008 Server: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter
   3. vpxd.cfg
      • vpxd.cfg stores things like:
        • If you increased the default timeout value for tasks that get sent through vCenter (KB 1017253)
        • Created Custom Attributes (migrate these to vCenter Tags if possible)
      • File paths for vpxd.cfg:
        • Windows 2003: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\vpxd.cfg
        • Windows 2008: C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\vpxd.cfg
   4. Permissions structure
      • You can export and import the vCenter permissions hierarchy using Powershell functions. See the reference material below:
        • VMware vSphere PowerCLI Reference: Automating vSphere Administration (Kindle Location 832).
2. vCenter Inventory Service Database
   1. Inventory Service performs searches/index functions within the VI/Web Client. In 5.0, this service/database is packaged with the vCenter base installation. In 5.1+, this can be broken out into its own VM (not recommended based on the current best practices for version 5.5)
   2. The Inventory Service is a service, but also uses a database. This flat-file database contains:
      • vCenter tags (version 5.1+ only)
      • Storage Profiles
      • Storage Capabilities
      • Index of which VMs have which Storage Profile assigned
   3. Location of Inventory Service database: <install volume>\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Inventory Service\
3. ESXi hosts & VMs
4. DRS configuration
5. Web Client
6. VMware Update Manager
7. Syslog collector
8. Misc add-ons/plugins
9. Configure Syslog to capture at least 24 hours worth of logs
10. Documentation
    1. Location of backed up data and retention info
    2. Non-standard installation paths
    3. Service account usernames and passwords:
       • 64 bit ODBC for vCenter
       • 32 bit ODBC for VUM
       • Account for registering/running VUM
       • Account for running vCenter services
       • Account for running SQL services
       • Account for connecting Web Client to vCenter
       • Root password(s) for ESXi hosts
       • Password for “vi-admin” on vMA appliance
       • Other misc usernames/passwords (Prosphere, Veeam/TSM/Commvault/BE, VSI Plugin, etc)

BACKUP – Inventory Service Database

• You can take a file-level backup of the entire Inventory Service folder (path below), but it’s unclear what affect this will have on vCenter if a restore is performed using this method. The recommended way to get a backup of this is to use the built-in scripts designed to take a backup of the inventory service database. This can be done with Windows Task Scheduler
• Task scheduler configuration settings:
  • Action: Start a program
  • Program/script: backup.bat
  • Add arguments: -file <install volume>\<custom subfolder>\inventorydb-backup
  • Start in: <install volume>\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Inventory Service\scripts\
• Once you verify that the script runs, right click on the task and select Export. This will create an XML file
• After the scheduled task runs, you can have the backup team come by and pick up the “inventorydb-backup” and the exported Task Scheduler XML files

RESTORE – Inventory Service Database

• If you need to roll back to a previous backup of the inventory database, you will lose any changes/additions/deletions to the following:
  • vCenter tags (version 5.1+ only)
  • Storage Profiles
  • Storage Capabilities
  • Index of which VMs have which Storage Profile assigned
• The following steps are taken from KB 2017370:
  • Stop the vCenter Inventory Service (which also stops the VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage service)
  • Open a command prompt and CD to <install volume>\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Inventory Service\scripts
  • Type restore -backup <path to backup file>\<backup filename>
  • Start the vCenter Inventory Service & VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage service

BACKUP – ESXi Host

• Source link
• A partial list of what gets backed up:
  • Virtual Standard Switches
  • DNS & Routing
  • Services & Firewall
  • NTP
  • iSCSI Software Adapter
  • Advanced Settings
• A partial list of what does NOT get backed up:
  • Datastore names
  • Virtual machine names within the inventory list
• Open PowerCLI and connect to the vCenter server managing the host(s)
• Single Host Backup: Get-VMhostFirmware -VMHost  esxi1.qa.local -BackupConfiguration -DestinationPath D:\VMware_DR
• All Hosts Backup: Get-VMHost | Get-VMhostFirmware -BackupConfiguration -DestinationPath D:\VMware_DR
• Once complete, it will create the file “configBundle-esxi1.qa.local.tgz” in the case of a single host backup operation

RESTORE – ESXi Host

• Place the host in maintenance mode
• Open PowerCLI and connect to the vCenter server managing the host
• Set-VMHostFirmware -VMHost esxi1.qa.local -Restore -SourcePath <source path of where you backed up the ESXi host configuration>
• Enter root credentials for the ESXi host
• After a period of delay, the ESXi host will become disconnected and then reconnect automatically. Ideally you would rebuild the host, but if you need to get a host back up and running quickly this is a good option

BACKUP – vCenter Database

• There are multiple ways to backup the vCenter database, depending on what type of database you use. Refer to the specific software vendors documentation for more information

RESTORE – vCenter Database

• Stop services:
  • vCenter Inventory Service
  • VMware vCenter Orchestrator Configuration
  • VMware VirtualCenter Management Webservices
  • VMware VirtualCenter Server
  • VMware vSphere-Profile-Driven Storage Service
  • VMwareVCMSDS
• Restore a known-good copy of the vCenter database
• Start services listed above
• Note: virtual machine inventory names & vSS port group settings (among others) are not stored within the vCenter database – they are local to the ESXi host, so they will be unaffected by the restore

BACKUP – Web Client

• Take a file-level backup of <install volume>\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere Web Client

RESTORE – Web Client

• Stop the vSphere Web Client service if the application is still installed
• Restore a known-good copy of the “vSphere Web Client” folder
• Restart the server / start the vSphere Web Client service. You may not need to restart

BACKUP – vCenter Update Manager (VUM)

• There are multiple ways to backup the VUM database, depending on what type of database you use. Refer to the specific software vendors documentation for more information
• Take note of any non-standard settings, in addition to:
  • Baselines / Baseline Groups
  • All settings within the Configuration section (Download settings/schedule, etc)

RESTORE – vCenter Update Manager (VUM)

• Stop the VMware vSphere Update Manager service
• Restore a known-good copy of the VUM database
• Start the VMware vSphere Update Manager service
• Reconfigure VUM using the documented configuration settings

BACKUP – VMware Syslog Collector

• Backup everything within C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Syslog Collector on the server that has Syslog Collector installed. The syslog data path does not change regardless whether it is a standalone or vCenter integrated installation

RESTORE – VMware Syslog Collector

• There is no database, so you can restore the missing syslog data from a file-level backup
• The reinstallation is straightforward, so just dump the syslog data back into C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Syslog Collector. There may be additional steps if a custom certificate is used

BACKUP/RESTORE – vCenter DRS Rules

• Run the two scripts located here

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.