Restore vCSA 6.7 with File-Based Backup!

As an extension of the last post, where we discussed how to take File-based backup and to schedule it.
In this post, we will do exactly what the title say “Restore vCSA 6.7 VM, from File based backup” from NFS.

It’s a simple 2 stage process:

Appliance Deployment
Configuration restore.

Note: You need to use same version of vCSA ISO.
Let’s go for it: Stage 1

Start the installer and choose the option for “RESTORE”.
Accept the End user license agreement.
Enter the location of the backup folder that contains the backup-metadata.json file.(Screenshot 1)

Screenshot 2: this allows you to browse to the location

Note: It will be helpful if you copy and paste the url in your secret notes for future use.

Review the backup information

Select the deployment target for the VM.
Select Folder in the inventory for the VM.
Select which cluster or hostname to be used
Select the Deployment Size : (Based on the design you use)

Select the Target Datastore for the VM.
As we have pointed to restore the appliance, the Network setting should be already populated using the backup *.json file.
Review the information and click FINISH

deployme-nt will be started & wait for stage 2

Stage 2

Click Restore

Re-Enter the location of the backup folder that contains the backup-metadata.json file.( As Screenshot 1)
(Here i found the navigation to the backup folder was difficult, hence use the url saved in your secret notes)
Let the Restore complete and post that your healthy vCenter will be up and running with the same IP.
As per the instruction, Shutdown the Old vCSA VM to avoid the IP conflict.

Conclusion:
Using this procedure, you can easily restore the vCSA from File-based backup of the VM.
If you want to schedule the backup of vCSA, please check my last post.

Cheers,
Samesh Dhankhar
Source: VMware Docs

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Samesh Dhankhar

Samesh Dhankhar is Virtualization Solution Architect with one of the biggest Cloud Service Provider in UAE region and has more than 10 years of experience specially with VMware Products.

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