File-Based Backup and Restore

With Cloud Foundation 3.7.2 and later, you can use APIs for a file-based backup and restore solution for SDDC Manager. The APIs are building blocks and do not implement a complete solution.

Before getting into the SDDC Manager details, it is useful to review the basic principles in a file-based solution. In such a solution, the state of a product is periodically exported to a file that is stored in a fault domain different than the one where the product is running. If the product needs to be restored, the OVA is redeployed and a selected backup file is used to restore the state. Finally, the post-restore steps are done.

In case you have to restore the SDDC Manager VM, you select the backup file to restore and download the appropriate OVA file. You can deploy this OVA either through vCenter Server or the OVF tool. You then load the state on the newly deployed SDDC Manager VM.

Note the following limitations for a file-based backup of the SDDC Manager VM:

• This solution requires that you register an external SFTP server. See . If you do not use an external SFTP server, the NSX Managers continue to write the backups to the built-in SFTP server, and so NSX managers are not protected. They are not protected because the SDDC Manager file-based backup mechanism does not back up the NSX Manager backup files.
• This solution cannot be used for composable servers.
• This solution cannot be used when you have stretched clusters in your environment.