If an NSX Manager or a Global Manager appliance becomes inoperable, or if you want to restore your environment to a previous state, you can restore from a backup. NSX Managers are called Local Managers if they are federated with a Global Manager.

You can restore an NSX-T Data Center configuration back to the state that is captured in any of the backups. While the appliance is inoperable, the data plane is not affected, but you cannot make configuration changes.

Note the following:
  • You must restore the same version you have backed up from your NSX-T Data Center appliance, to the new NSX-T Data Center appliances.
  • Use the same key size for backup and restore. If the key size is different at time of backup and restore, the backup does not appear in the list of available backups. Starting in NSX-T Data Center 3.2.1, support includes key size 256, 384, and 521. In 3.2.0, support includes only 256 key size.
  • Storing libraries during backup is not supported in NSX-T Data Center backup. During restore NSX-T Data Center will always have default version libraries. If you are using NSX Application Platform, you must upload Kubernetes tools if requested.
  • NSX Managers or Global Manager restore can use the same IP or a different IP address.
    • If you are using an NSX Manager or Global Manager IP address to restore, you must use the same IP address as in the backup.
    • For Managers with different IP addresses, FQDN must be configured. If you are using an NSX Manager or Global Manager FQDN to restore, you must use the same FQDN as in the backup. Note that only lowercase FQDN is supported for backup and restore.
  • If both the active and standby or just the active Global Manager go down, you need to:
Issue Solution Result
Both the active and standby go down.
  1. Delete both active and standby Global Managers. Ensure there are no Global Manager appliances up in any other clusters.
  2. Deploy a new Global Manager with the same IP address/FQDN as old active Global Manager.
  3. Restore the active Global Manager from backup. If any Local Managers are present, they sync to the new active Global Manager.
  4. Deploy an additional new Global Manager on another site and onboard it to the restore Global Manager.
  • The active Global Manager syncs with any Global Manager on the network.
  • The standby Global Manager syncs with the active Global Manager.
The active Global Manager goes down and the standby Global Manager is up. If standby Global Manager is in a good state, it should automatically become the active Global Manager. Standby Global Manager becomes active Global Manager. A new standby Global Manager must be manually added for backup. After the new active Global Manager is online, the Local Manager syncs up and ensures configuration replication.