In the management interface of the appliance, create backup schedule for generating new backup archives of VMware Cloud Director Availability. Connect and authenticate to an external server using Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) for scheduled uploads of the backup archives as files for future restore to that moment in time.

This procedure is applicable to any the following VMware Cloud Director Availability appliance roles:

  • Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance
  • Cloud Director Combined Appliance
  • On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance
  • vCenter Replication Management Appliance
  • On-Premises to Cloud vCenter Replication Appliance

You schedule the backup generation of VMware Cloud Director Availability only by using the management interface of the appliance. The scheduled backup archives contain the following information from each appliance in the site:

  • Configuration files
  • Public certificate
  • Keystore
  • Database dump
In the backup archive, this information is stored as multiple .enc appliance backup files. When generating the backup, you provide a password that encrypts the .enc appliance backup files to preserve any sensitive information.

A backup file does not contain:

  • The appliance root user password.
  • Any previous backup archives.
  • Any support bundles.
  • The NTP time server configuration.
  • Enable SSH state.
  • The network configuration provided in the OVF wizard during appliance deployment.
  • Static routes configured on appliances with multiple network interface cards (NICs).
Note: After evacuating a datastore, all backups taken priorly cannot restore the replications. For information about datastore evacuation, see Evacuate the Replication Data from a Datastore.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 or later is installed for scheduling backup archives to an SFTP server.

    Alternatively, for information about backing up the appliances to their local internal storage, see Back Up All Appliances in the Cloud and for all the remaining appliance roles, see Back Up the Appliance.

  • Verify that the SFTP server is available and is reachable from VMware Cloud Director Availability.
  • Verify that before taking a backup, all VMware Cloud Director Availability services are operational. As exception, unreachable Replicator Service instances without incoming replications do not prevent generating a backup. The scheduled backup generation fails when any other of the services cannot be reached or is not operational.
  • Verify that the free disk space value in the bottom of the System health page shows at least 40 % amount of free space for each of the VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances in the site. The scheduled backup generation fails when there is insufficient storage.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the management interface of the VMware Cloud Director Availability appliance.
    1. In a Web browser, go to https://Appliance-IP-Address/ui/admin.
    2. Select Appliance login or SSO login and enter the root or the single sign-on user credentials.
    3. Click Login.
  2. In the left pane, click Backup Archives.
  3. On the Scheduled backup archives page, click Configure schedule.
  4. Complete the Create Backup Schedule wizard.
    1. On the Server location page, enter the SFTP protocol prefix, the SFTP server address, the SFTP network port, and the destination folder of the SFTP server for uploading the backup archives to then click Next.
      For example, in the Server location text box enter sftp://FQDN-or-IP-address:port/destination_folder/subfolder, where the /destination_folder/subfolder path is relative to the root / directory on the SFTP server.
    2. On the Server authentication page, select the authentication method for the SFTP connection, enter the following details then click Next.
      • Authenticate using server credentials: enter Backup server user name and Backup server password, then to establish a connection click Test connection. Verify and accept the SSH server public key.
      • Authenticate using public key: enter Backup server user name, click Click to copy public key paste appending it to the authorized_keys file in the SSH server, then to establish a connection click Test connection. Verify and accept the SSH server public key.
    3. On the Backup schedule page, specify the time between two scheduled backups in Backup interval, ranging from minimum of 30 minutes to a maximum of 1 week then click Next.
    4. On the Encrypt backup page, enter a password to protect the contents of the backup archive then click Finish.
      The password that you must enter must contain a minimum of eight characters and must consist of:
      • At least one lowercase letter.
      • At least one uppercase letter.
      • At least one number.
      • At least one special character, such as & # % .
    The Schedule configuration pane shows:
    • SFTP server location
    • Backup server user name
    • Backup interval
    In the table you see a Generate scheduled backup archive task progressing.
  5. (Optional) To modify the backup schedule, click Edit schedule then complete the Edit Backup Schedule wizard.
    On the Server location page, selecting the Untrust the old SFTP server check box removes the established trust with the previously configured SFTP server. If using key-based authentication, copy the new public key and paste appending it to the authorized_keys file in the SFTP server.

    This trust is listed on the Settings page, under Security settings by expanding the Trusted SSH hosts section where you can also optionally click Copy or Regenerate for the SSH public key, or optionally click Add and in the Add SSH host window enter Host and Port then verify and accept the SSH server public key.

Results

At the scheduled time, VMware Cloud Director Availability starts backing up then uploads the backup files directly to the SFTP server.

What to do next

You can later download one of the scheduled backup files directly from the SFTP server for restoring VMware Cloud Director Availability to that moment in time. For information about restoring from a backup archive, see Restore Appliances in the Cloud.

To delete backup files, delete them directly from the SFTP server. This action has no effect on the backup task in the user interface.