Creating snapshot on VCenter VM during the VCenter 5.1 upgrade process ?

[AlbertWT]

People,

My VCenter server is a VM running on ESXi host number 01 (I pinned down specifically using DRS rule), so is it advisable to take snapshot for VCenter Server VM during the upgrade process ?

What happened when the upgrade process failed ? can I safely rolled back the snapshot ?

[prasannag6]

Most important question here is - where is the database located? If it is external, the upgrade process modifies the external database and snapshot commit is not useful. So it is more appropriate to backup the important vCenter folders/files (vpxd.cfg, SSL etc) and Database separately in case roll back is required.

If internal, then snapshot should work.

[AlbertWT]

It's in the same VCenter VM, because it is still running the Express Edition.

So my understanding is that the Vcenter SQL DB must also be fully backed up when the snapshot is taken.

[MauroBonder · Accepted solution]

When the snapshot is created before the upgrade, it means that the snapshot will be the safe state of the VM, vCenter and SQL in your case. But if you can perform a backup of database to a external place.