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  • 08 Building Webster’s Lab V2 – Backup the vCenter Server Appliance using NFS

    June 2, 2021

    VMware

    [Updated 28-Aug-2021]

    It is essential to have a backup of all critical data, servers, and Virtual Machines, whether in a lab or production environment. Before making significant changes to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA), it is vital to make a backup first. This article covers backing up the VCSA using NFS.

    I use my Synology 1817+ Storage Unit for vCenter backups.

    First, log in to the NAS by opening an internet browser, browsing to the Synology device’s IP address, entering the username and password for the device, and then clicking Sign In. For me, that is https://192.168.1.253:5001, as shown in Figure 1.

    Figure 1
    Figure 1

    Next, on the main page, click the Control Panel, as shown in Figure 2.

    Figure 2
    Figure 2

    Click Shared Folder, as shown in Figure 3.

    Figure 3
    Figure 3

    Click Create, as shown in Figure 4.

    Figure 4
    Figure 4

    Do the following steps, as shown in Figure 5:

    • Enter a Name and Description.
    • If you have more than one Volume configured, select the appropriate Volume for the Location.
    • Select Hide this shared folder in “My Network Places” and Hide sub-folders and files from users without permissions.
    • Deselect Enable Recycle Bin
    • Click Next
    Figure 5
    Figure 5

    Verify that nothing is selected and click Next, as shown in Figure 6.

    Figure 6
    Figure 6

    Verify that nothing is selected and click Next, as shown in Figure 7.

    Figure 7
    Figure 7

    Verify that all the information is correct, as seen in Figure 8. If it is, click Apply. If the information is not correct, click Back, correct the information, and then continue.

    Figure 8
    Figure 8

    On the Permissions tab, select Read/Write for the admin accounts and No Access for the guest account, as shown in Figure 9. Do not click OK yet.

    Figure 9
    Figure 9

    Click the NFS Permissions tab and then click Create, as shown in Figure 10.

    Figure 10
    Figure 10

    Enter the Hostname or IP address of the ESXi host and click OK, as shown in Figure 11. Because I have six  ESXi hosts in VMware vCenter, I entered an * for the IP address to allow all IP addresses in Webster’s Lab access.

    Note: Synology Diskstation Manager grants NFS permissions on a per-host basis instead of a per-user basis because virtualization hosts access the NFS shares, not users.

    Figure 11
    Figure 11

    Note: Save the Mount path information shown in Figure 12. It would help if you had the mount path when setting up the VCSA backup. If you need the Mount path information later, click the Edit tab displayed in Figure 13 and go to the NFS Permissions tab as shown previously in Figure 10.

    Figure 12
    Figure 12
    Figure 13
    Figure 13

    Now, to configure the VCSA backup.

    In your web browser, go to the VCSA management interface, https://VCSA-ip-address-or-fqdn:5480, as shown in Figure 14.

    Figure 14
    Figure 14

    Log in to the VMware vCenter Server Management console as root using the password created during the install of the VCSA, as shown in Figures 15 and 16.

    Figure 15
    Figure 15 (From the install of VCSA)
    Figure 16
    Figure 16

    Click Backup, as shown in Figure 17.

    Figure 17
    Figure 17

    Click BACKUP NOW, as shown in Figure 18.

    Figure 18
    Figure 18

    Enter the following information:

    1. The Backup location (From the NFS share created earlier in Figures 5 through 12)
    2. The credentials to access the Backup location
    3. Optional credentials to encrypt the backup
    4. Optional, enter a description
    5. Click Start to start the backup process, as shown in Figure 19
    Figure 19
    Figure 19

    Figure 20 shows the completed backup.

    Figure 20
    Figure 20

    If you would like, you can also set up a backup Schedule.

    Click Configure, as shown in Figure 21.

    Figure 21
    Figure 21

    Enter the following information:

    1. The Backup location (From the NFS share created earlier)
    2. The credentials to access the Backup location
    3. The backup Schedule
    4. Optional credentials to encrypt the backup
    5. The Number of backups to retain
    6. Click Create to create the backup schedule, as shown in Figure 22
    Figure 22
    Figure 22

    Figure 23 shows the created scheduled backup job.

    Figure 23
    Figure 23

    Figure 24 shows the backup activity after the scheduled backups run for six days.

    Figure 24
    Figure 24

    On the NAS, the NFS storage shows there are four scheduled backup files. One for today and three retained backups. This means that with a Number of backups to retain value of 3, the actual number of backup files stored is the retention value plus one. In my case, four. Figure 25 shows the four retained backups on the NAS VCSABackup share created earlier in this article.

    The Backup Schedule removed the scheduled backups created on 2021-04-28 and 2021-04-30.

    Figure 24 shows a total of seven backups. The seventh backup is the original manual backup created earlier, as shown in Figures 19 and 20. That backup was removed by the Backup Schedule retention cleanup process as the file from 2021-04-28 no longer exists. Is that a bug? I would have thought a manual backup would have a special flag, and the retention policy cleanup process would leave manual backups alone.

    Figure 25
    Figure 25

    Up next: Updating the vCenter Server Appliance

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    About Carl Webster

    Carl Webster is an independent consultant specializing in Citrix, Active Directory, and technical documentation. Carl (aka “Webster”) serves the broader Citrix community by writing articles (see CarlWebster.com) and by being the most active person in the Citrix Zone on Experts Exchange. Webster has a long history in the IT industry beginning with mainframes in 1977, PCs and application development in 1986, and network engineering in 2001. He has worked with Citrix products since 1990 with the premiere of their first product – the MULTIUSER OS/2.

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