rfaulconer
Contributor
Contributor
‎01-21-2012 02:22 AM

vCenter Database Backup Purpose

We are new to VMware.  Small environment with 2 ESXi 4.1 U2 hosts and 15 windows VMs.  vCenter runs on a VM and uses SQL eXpress.  Trying to cover all the bases on backups, we are building a job on the vCenter server to back up ESXi host configs and the vCenter and ADAM database using scripts found in this forum.

The question(s):  What value is there in backing up the vCenter and ADAM databases?  In a disaster scenario (i.e. both hosts burn to the ground), what value is there in having copies of the databases?  If we lose the vCenter VM and have to rebuild, what will we gain by having the databases?  If the database becomes corrupt, will restoring the last backup work?

We do take VDR snapshots nightly, so I am thinking backing up the databases may be redundant.

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NickMarshall9
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
‎01-21-2012 07:16 AM

Hi,

If you backup the database you essentially have a point in time copy all of your vCenter config.

In a scenario where you needed to restore vCenter you can re-install the application (binaries) and then restore the DB over the top of the old one without too much hassle. This is all provided you use exactly the same hostnames / db names etc.

Cheers,

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