When you've configured automated backups in NSX-T, you might be unaware that failed backup jobs do not trigger alarms in the integrated NSX-T alarm dashboard. When a backup fails, you can only see the following error message in the Backup & Restore configuration:
At the moment, you have to manually check that the backup is running as expected. This can also be done using the API:
NSX-T is a critical infrastructure component and it is crucial to have a working backup and restore plan. With complex products, the backup and restore strategy gets more complicated. When working with Virtual Machines, the backup is usually done with VMware Snapshots, which is super convenient. Unfortunately, with the complexity of NSX-T which has many components like clustered Managers, Transport Nodes, and ESXi Kernel Modules, you can't use snapshots as a backup strategy.
This article provides an overview of how to backup NSX-T, and how the restore is done properly.
The ghettoVCB script is a well known free backup solution for standalone ESXi Hosts created by William Lam. The script works with ESXi 3.x up to ESXi 6.7. It does not support vCenter or cluster backups out of the box but with a little workaround, you can backup virtual machines in a DRS enabled cluster. I'm using this type of backup for a couple of months without issues.
While evaluating Backup solutions in my Homelab I recently came across a relatively new vendor, NAKIVO, that caught my attention. NAKIVO, founded in 2012, is currently the fastest growing VM-Backup company and its product is highly optimized for virtualized platforms. I was looking for solution that is easy to deploy and does not require much resources.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is mainly fround in the SMB market today, but they have some great enterprise grade features like multi-tenancy and a customizable user interface in the latest release.
VMware offers a free version of their vSphere Hypervisor with some limitations like the lack of vCenter support. Another limitation is that APIs are read-only, so it's not possible to use the Data Protection API aka. VADP to make Backups.
Creating backups of Virtual Machines is also important on standalone ESXi hosts. The API limitation makes it impossible to create incremental CBT aided backups, but it's not impossible to create full copies of virtual machines. The post explains the technique to create backups and takes a look at solution that use these techniques.
If you have ESXi running on a flash media (USB flash drive or SD Card) you might want to create a ready-to-run backup of your host. This posts describes how you can create a backup of your ESXi hosts and create a media with an identical configuration where vicfg-backup is not a solution.
Read More »Clone ESXi Installations on SD Cards or USB Flash Drives
In some environments you might have to reduce the permissions given to the vSphere Data Protection (VDP) Backup User to as few as possible. The documentation provided by VMware is a little bit ambiguous on that topic. The permissions given in that post are at least required for the following purposes:
After deploying the new vSphere Data Protection virtual appliance i faced an issue with the login. The root password was neither mentioned during the installation video nor in the quick start guide. I found the password in the administration guide.
For everyone facing the same problem: The standard root password for the vSphere Data Protection 5.1 Appliance is: changemeRead More »vSphere Data Protection 5.1 - Installation Issues
VMware is about to release vSphere 5.1 with great enhancements. There are many great papers about the new features and enhancements. This is a short… Read More »VMware vSphere 5.1 - What's new?
RTO & RPO During the business continuity plan creation it is necessary to define the key metrics of recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time… Read More »VDCD510 Objective 2.6 – Build Recoverability Requirements into the Logical Design