External PSC Backup Options - Besides VDP

[BWinchell]

Hello,

I am looking for a way to backup my external PSC besides having to deploy a VDP appliance.  According to the Vmware docs, they only mention you can use VDP to perform the backup.  I do not use VDP in my Production environment and do not want to (used in multiple labs and has been very flaky and failed a few times....no confidence).

Current VCSA backup:

• We use Veeam as our backup platform
  • Veeam uses snapshots to backup VMs
    • We don't want to snapshot our VCSA as that momentary stun (while background processes are running can be very disruptive)
• Backup process
  • We dump the VCSA Postgres database via script every night to local system and a copy to secondary Linux system.
    • We use Veeam to backup the secondary Linux server
• Restore process
  • Deploy new VCSA
  • Perform basic setup
  • Restore Postgres

Current PSC Environment:

• Multiple external PSC systems
  • Configured in a hub-spoke setup in one SSO-domain
    • PSC1 is the main system with production VCSA registered
    • PSC2 is the DR system with dr VCSA registered
    • PSC3-4 are partners to 1-2 in different locations just for backup purposes
      • Similar idea to what you would do for Windows AD.  You have a copy of AD on multiple servers in case one DC was to fail.  You would prefer to rebuild than restore AD.

What I would like:

• I would like to be able to perform a similar backup process we currently have in place for our VCSA.
  • Backup the import files/database off the main PSC.  Save a secondary copy that will be backed up via backup software
  • If we did have to restore our entire PSC environment (due to corruption/deletion), then redeploy PSC appliance and restore backup

Any suggestions or anyone know if this can even be done?  Of course I need something that is supported by VMware (in case I would need to get support involved). I am hoping their only solution is not VDP.

Thanks

B

[BWinchell]

So am I assuming by the lack of any responses the only way to backup a PSC is to use the VDP appliance?  Is that what everyone currently doing?  Is no one using anything besides the VDP?

Thanks

B

[AlexGvmware]

I have same question, please share if you found any other option than VDP

Regards

[BWinchell]

So I actually even opened a ticket with VM support to pose this exact question.

The answer I got back:

Backing up for vCenter with external PSC the only available method is using a backup solution either VDP or a third party product.

Unfortunately, we do not have any alternatives to do a database consistent backup of Platform Service Controller nodes.

So I guess there is no way to backup independently.

Thanks

B

[AlexGvmware]

Thank you, at least that is an answer to stop looking for something that doesn't exists

Thanks

Regards

Alex

[sushilkm]

Is there any changes on above statement from vmware.

While i have managed to setup automated backups to FTP using Bash script and is doing fine, i was wondering if there is anyway to automate for external PSC. I have a ticket going on with VMware tech support for this but not much response so far...although they say same script will work for both PSC and VC, which i found odd.

[valot]

Hi all,

I am also looking for a solution to this question.

First of all before testing VPD I tested a backup / restore with NetBackup, it seemed to work but in fact the synchronization of the licenses was lost so I consider this a failure.
A PowerCLI script to save the PSC configuration would have been enough but it seems that the function does not exist (same as VCSA-BackupToFile).
I have 2 remote sites with each a VCSA and a PSCA, ELM enable and even domain SSO
How to restore a PSC if I have a PSC failed and a network break between sites?
Or how to make an automatic backup of PSCs?

Thanks for the ideas.