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ManMonkey
Contributor
Contributor

Backing Up and Restoring vCenter Server in a LAB?

Hello,

I need to take a copy of our production vCenter and run it in a lab for testing purposes.

How do I go about this and is there any official documentation pertaining to backing up and restoring vCenter 5.5?

I also plan on using this process as my disaster recovery process if anything bad were to happen.

From my limited experience, do all I need to do is backup the SQL database and SSL certificates? How do I restore this in the Lab.

My vCenter 5.5 is on Server 2008R2 with a separate SQL 2008R2 server.

Regards

Jason

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NealeC
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi Jason,

Are your vCenter and SQL server both Virtual Machines or Physicals?

Knowing that will give you options.

If they are VMs then you can take a snapshot of both VMs and back up the vmdk and vmx files (either manually copying them from their datastore across the network or using 3rd party software)

Having your vCenter and db as VMs gives you the flexibility to enable HA and DRS (if you're licensed for it) and even store their disk files on a SAN or NAS.

If your VC and SQL are physicals then you have to back them up the old fashioned way.  OS and data backups, say using netbackup etc.  You could also use vmconvertor to take a backup of them, but that isn't a very efficient way to backup and DR.

Hope that helps.

-------------- If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or Correct buttons to award points. Chris Neale VCIX6-NV;vExpert2014-17;VCP6-NV;VCP5-DCV;VCP4;VCA-NV;VCA-DCV;VTSP2015;VTSP5;VTSP4 http://www.chrisneale.org http://www.twitter.com/mrcneale
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