VCSA 6.5 backup

[sushilkm]

We have a VCSA 6.5 which i am trying to backup. Unfortunately, the Update manager service is not running since DB for same is corrupt and we intend to rebuild it. As part of rebuild, need to backup the Whole VC via VAMI interfact but it won;t due to non availability of Update manager service.

I was wondering if there is any alternate. I tried to backup via power cli as well but got below error which clearly indicate missing Update manager .

Backup-VCSAToFile : A server error occurred: 'com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.error': Invalid vCenter Server Status: All required services are not up! Stopped services:

'updatemgr'. (Server error id: 'com.vmware.applmgmt.err_invalid_vc_status'). Check $Error[0].Exception.ServerError for more details.

At C:\Users\skumar15\Desktop\Vbackup.ps1:114 char:2

+     Backup-VCSAToFile -BackupPassword $BackupPassword -LocationType $ ...

+     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Write-Error], WriteErrorException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.WriteErrorException,Backup-VCSAToFile

A server error occurred: 'com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.error': Status for '' does not exist. (Server error id: 'com.vmware.applmgmt.err_status_does_not_exist'). Check

$Error[0].Exception.ServerError for more details.

At C:\Users\skumar15\Desktop\Vbackup.ps1:89 char:35

+                 $BackupAPI.get("$($BackupJob.ID)") | select id, progr ...

+                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (:) [], CisServerException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core.Types.V1.CisServerException

A server error occurred: 'com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.error': Status for '' does not exist. (Server error id: 'com.vmware.applmgmt.err_status_does_not_exist'). Check

$Error[0].Exception.ServerError for more details.

At C:\Users\xxxxx\Desktop\Vbackup.ps1:90 char:48

+                 $progress = ($BackupAPI.get("$($BackupJob.ID)").progr ...

+                                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (:) [], CisServerException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core.Types.V1.CisServerException

A server error occurred: 'com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.error': Status for '' does not exist. (Server error id: 'com.vmware.applmgmt.err_status_does_not_exist'). Check

$Error[0].Exception.ServerError for more details.

At C:\Users\xxxxxxxxx\Desktop\Vbackup.ps1:91 char:87

+ ... ty "Backing up VCSA"  -Status $BackupAPI.get("$($BackupJob.ID)").stat ...

+                                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (:) [], CisServerException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core.Types.V1.CisServerException

A server error occurred: 'com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.error': Status for '' does not exist. (Server error id: 'com.vmware.applmgmt.err_status_does_not_exist'). Check

$Error[0].Exception.ServerError for more details.

At C:\Users\skumar15\Desktop\Vbackup.ps1:93 char:40

+             } until ($BackupAPI.get("$($BackupJob.ID)").progress -eq  ...

+                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (:) [], CisServerException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core.Types.V1.CisServerException

A server error occurred: 'com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.error': Status for '' does not exist. (Server error id: 'com.vmware.applmgmt.err_status_does_not_exist'). Check

$Error[0].Exception.ServerError for more details.

At C:\Users\xxxxxxxx\Desktop\Vbackup.ps1:95 char:31

+             $BackupAPI.get("$($BackupJob.ID)") | select id, progress, ...

+                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (:) [], CisServerException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : VMware.VimAutomation.Cis.Core.Types.V1.CisServerException

[msripada · Accepted solution]

You can take snapshot and backup of the vcenter server and try to reset the update manager database. Once reset, check if the service is starting

VMware Knowledge Base

Thanks,

MS

[daphnissov]

If you know you have a borked VUM, then you probably can't use the built-in file-based backup. Instead, you may have to take a full backup using a VADP-based application like Veeam or something similar. This would be a more reliable method in addition since you have a partially broken vCenter to start.

[sushilkm]

Well, the update manager cannot be fixed as per VMware TAC and Only way out is to reinstall the VC. The case is escalated to Engg team & going via history , i cannot wait till eternity for them to respond. Not trying to be critical of Technical support guys but when it comes to Supporting VCSA 6.5, i not only found them lacking but seems like they are over whelmed with the issues in hand.

For each & everything they have  standard  set of recommendations

A ) Upgrade it if there is a newer version available

B) restore from backup

C) rebuild.

Rant over.

Coming to topic in hand, are we saying that if update mgr is not running, we cannot backup VCSA . In Earlier versions, we could backup VC even if the Update manager is not running which is very odd thing to do. Backuping up the applaince  via regular backups is a option that i had like to avoid at the moment.

[daphnissov]

Well, as I said, if you're wishing to use an in-application backup utility and that application is partially non-functional, don't expect to be able to successfully complete that process. That says nothing for restores which could be equally problematic. The long and short is if that's not working, you may have no other option but to use an image-based process to backup your vCenter.

[msripada]

VCSA 6.5 has inbuit update manager unlike previous manager and update manager database is part of vcenter database.

So if you try to backup, it backs up entire database including vum which will fail.

Even if you take image backup and restore, the update manager is still the same so i dont think that option is good. If you want to only have vcenter backup then  image backup is good else i would suggest to rebuild a new vcenter with fresh db depending on things in your environment like dvswitch, resource pools, permissions etc

Thanks,

MS

[sushilkm]

I must add that VMware have turned itself into another Microsoft now.

It is very odd that the same steps mentioned in KB were not successful earlier with VMware TAC suggesting us to rebuild the VC . I Ran the same commands to reset the VUM DB and it worled like charm this time. as a bonus, my VUM is fixed  for which even vmware support have their hands up in air. 

More power to VMware communities.

[msripada]

Glad to hear that it worked for you. Sometimes redoing the samething might work as support might have corrected few things and reset vum db resolved the issue now.

Thanks,

MS

[sushilkm]

continuing on this one, i think that;s  like putting all your eggs in same basket. I would still prefer to have a separate DB for VUM and VC to avoid the situations like having to rebuild VC b,cause of VUM DB corruption.

[msripada]

You can ask for a feature request as additional option for customer who do not wish to have inbuilt one.. Feature request Contact VMware

Thanks,

MS