vCenter startup without network connection to verify restored vCenter is working

[jravnsbaek]

I was recover vCenter from backup without shutting down the production vCenter (with the same name), to test backup in a DR scenario.

It was restored with a suffix -testbackup and with network disconnected.

This was working in 7.0.2 but in version 7.0.3G it is unable to start all services.

Especially the lookupsvc in not starting and very long time in start pending.

Isn't is possible to startup a restored vCenter without network ?

If started up in a fenced network it wouldn't have access to NTP,DNS,AD etc.

[jravnsbaek]

We were unable to to get vCenter up without network connected, so we created fenced network with vcenter and an very limitied DNS server with only the record for vCenter.

Then we were able to startup vCenter with all services.

In version 7.0.2 we were able to startup vCenter without network connected and all services started and this has changed in 7.0.3.

Problem fixed by a workaround 🙂

[navina]

It is because of the dependency of vmafd service for the DNS records.