Back up the cloud site and download the backup archive that contains appliance backup files for each appliance in the site. Restore the entire cloud site or only some of the appliances by restoring each appliance in a particular restore order by using its appliance backup file.

Backing Up the Cloud Site backed by VMware Cloud Director

Back up all the cloud appliances in the site by using the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance management interface. Generating the backup allows downloading a backup archive cloud-backup-product.version.build-site_name-date-timestampUTC.tar.bz2 file.

This backup archive contains the following information from each appliance in the cloud site:
  • Configuration files
  • Public certificate
  • Keystore
  • Database dump
In the backup archive cloud-backup-product.version.build-site_name-date-timestampUTC.tar.bz2 file, this information is stored as the multiple .enc appliance backup files:
  • One cloud-backup_id.tar.bz2.enc appliance backup file for restoring the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance.
  • One or more replicator-backup_id-IP_Address.tar.bz2.enc appliance backup files for restoring each Replicator Appliance instance in the site.
  • One tunnel-backup_id.tar.bz2.enc appliance backup file for restoring the Tunnel Appliance.

During the backup generation, the provided password encrypts all the .enc appliance backup files for preserving any sensitive information.

The backup 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).

Restoring the Cloud Site

To restore a VMware Cloud Director Availability cloud site from a backup, use cloud appliances with matching:

  • Version
  • Appliance roles
  • Network settings
  • Number of appliances*

The cloud-backup-product.version.build-site_name-date-timestampUTC.tar.bz2 backup archive contains all the .enc appliance backup files that contain the backup information for each appliance in the site.

Follow the order and restore all of the appliances in the cloud site to the date-timestamp when the backup was generated, by browsing for the extracted .enc appliance backup files.
  1. First, for restoring the Tunnel Appliance select the locally extracted tunnel-backup_id.tar.bz2.enc appliance backup file and provide the backup password.
  2. Then, for restoring the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance select the locally extracted cloud-backup_id.tar.bz2.enc appliance backup file and provide the backup password.
  3. Last, for restoring each Replicator Appliance instance select each of the locally extracted replicator-backup_id-IP_Address.tar.bz2.enc appliance backup files and provide the backup password.
* VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.3 introduces in-place restore and restore of a single appliance in the cloud site.
In-place restore
In VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.3 or later, each appliance supports in-place restore and deploying a new appliance for restoring the backup is no longer necessary. Restoring in-place also does not require powering off of the appliance before the in-place restore.
Restore of a single cloud appliance
In VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.3 or later, if only a single cloud appliance in the site becomes irrecoverable by other means, you can restore only that appliance instead of restoring all the cloud appliances in the site. Restoring always requires an appliance with exactly the same version as the remaining cloud appliances in the site and with exactly the same version as the downloaded backup archive.
  • Restoring a single cloud appliance, without restoring any of the remaining appliances in the site does not require following any restore order.
  • Restoring several appliances from the site but not all cloud appliances, requires following the same restore order for restore as restoring the cloud site.
    1. If restoring the Tunnel Appliance, restore it first.
    2. If restoring the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance, ensure that you follow the restore order.
      1. If restoring Tunnel Appliance as well, then restore the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance after restoring the Tunnel Appliance.
      2. If restoring a Replicator Appliance instance as well, restore the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance before that.
    3. If restoring a Replicator Appliance instance, restore it as last. If needed, repeat with restoring other Replicator Appliance instances.