If your current NSX Intelligence configuration becomes inoperable or if you want to restore it to a previous state, you can restore your configuration from a backup. The backup and restore workflows are supported using the NSX Manager user interface.

When you take a backup, NSX Intelligence only backs up the configuration files used by all the services that comprise the NSX Intelligence appliance. There is no visualization or recommendation data included in the backup.

If data loss or corruption occurs in NSX Intelligence, all the existing data for the correlated flows and recommendations are also lost. Reinstalling NSX Intelligence restarts the collection of network traffic data and the visualization of those newly collected data is available from that point onwards.

There are two backup methods available:
  • Manual - You perform a one-time backup at any time.
  • Automated - You create backups that are run based on a schedule that you set. To ensure that you have up-to-date backups, set automated backups.
The backup is encrypted, compressed, and stored at the remote server defined during the backup configuration. When you create a backup, the date and time the backup is taken are appended to the backup filename so that each backup file is unique. For example, config-backup-2020-03-21T21_06_07UTC.tar.

You can restore an NSX Intelligence configuration back to the state when a particular backup was captured. You must restore the backup to an NSX Intelligence appliance that is running the same version as the NSX Intelligence appliance from which the backup file was created.