PowerCLI - restoring backup has an error

[stanj]

I am trying out PowerCLI for the first time. 

I did a backup and  trying to restore it, but I get the error which looks to be something with the Source? 

Any ideas if i missed something?

thanks

PowerCLI C:\> Set-VMHostFirmware -VMHost 192.168.70.10 -Restore -SourcePath c:\ESXi-Backup\configBundle.tgz –HostUser root  -HostPassword ********* -Force

Set-VMHostFirmware : 6/4/2019 9:25:32 AM        Set-VMHostFirmware              A general system error occurred: Internal error

At line:1 char:1

+ Set-VMHostFirmware -VMHost 192.168.70.10-Restore -SourcePath c:\ES ...

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

    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-VMHostFirmware], SystemError

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Client20_SystemManagementServiceImpl_RestoreVmHostFirmware_ViError,VMware.VimAutomation

.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.Host.SetVMHostFirmware

VMHost               UploadUrl

------               ---------

1. 192.168.70.10  http://192.168.70.10/tmp/configBundle.tgz

[LucD]

You could check if all the files on the ESXi node correspond with the files in the backup archive.
Or perhaps easier, make a 2nd backup of the ESXi node and compare the 2 archives.

[stanj]

how do i open the archive?  It looks like a TGZ file and i am on Windows 2016..

[LucD]

You don't have any archiving tool like WinRar, PeaZip, WinZip...?

[stanj]

I installed WinZip and extracted files from both backups

the original

   ESXi Server (physical) backup

     and

    ESXi server VM backup that was restored from the (physical) backup

There are some differences.

on the original  ESXi (physical) backup

  etc / vmware  / hostd, there is no hostsvc file

on the restored ESXi server VM

     etc / vmware / hostd, there is a hostsvc file

There are differences in the  -/ etc / vmware / esx  file between the two backup files

  In the backup of the restored version,

    the esx file in etc / vmware is larger and the file contains some of the same content but also additional lines

• locker file shows different information for vmfs volume
• lunTimestamps file has different entries
• vmware lic files are the same
• vmsyslog files are different

so, i am not sure if the error that is shown when the restore is initiated is the issue causing the differences or

I may try an save and restore of ESXi VM, but not sure if this will prove anything

[LucD]

I suspect that most, if not all, of the files you mention there, will be different by definition.
The timestamp on the files should show you when they were last changed, during the restore or afterwards due to a running ESXi.

So the error message still stays somewhat of a mystery.
I can't reproduce that error, and it is not even sure if the restore was done correctly or not.

At this point I would suggest to open a SR, provided you recreate the error on a physical ESXi node.
I don' think GSS will take SRs for nested ESXi nodes, but you can always try :smileygrin:

[stanj]

Ok,

Support would probably not answer, but i may contact our local VMware Engineers who are assigned to our organization.

When you say you can't reproduce the error, did you make a backup of a physical ESXi Server and then try a restore to a VM (on another ESXi host, same host backup was taken, VMware Workstation, )?

[LucD]

I did a physical to physical (supported) and a virtual to virtual (unsupported), and neither of these got the error you are seeing.
Unfortunately I don't have capacity at the moment to try a physical to virtual.

[stanj]

Thanks,,

It may be some underlying issue with hardware or something when making a backup of ESXi that is on the physical server and then trying a restore it to a VM.

For the most part, it looks like the restore of the backup works , but i am not sure due to the error.

[LucD]

That might indeed be the reason of the error message.

Perhaps you should verify this with VMware Support through a SR.

You could check if the command that is behind this PowerCLI cmdlet, shows the same behaviour.
See KB2042141 for further details.
At least you'll be sure that it is not a PowerCLI "feature".