The Terraform script that deploys NSX Cloud components in your Microsoft Azure subscription, creates a Backup Policy using the Microsoft Azure Recovery Vault Services to back up all three NSX Manager nodes on a recurring basis.

If you want a backup of the only one node, you can edit the policy as necessary. The following instructions assume that all three NSX Manager nodes are backed up.

You have the following options for restoring the NSX Manager appliance deployed in a management VNet of your Microsoft Azure subscription:
  • Restore OS Disk for NSX Manager
  • Restore one NSX Manager node by creating a new NSX Manager VM
  • Restore all three NSX Manager nodes by creating three new NSX Manager VMs

Restore OS Disk for NSX Manager

  1. In your Microsoft Azure subscription, navigate to the backup screen listing all available backups of the NSX Manager VM, for example, <deployment_prefix>-nsx-mgmt-rg > <deployment_prefix>-nsx-mgr0 > From Operations in the left panel > Backup.
  2. Click Restore VM and select a Restore Point.
  3. From Restore Virtual Machine select Create new under Restore Configuration and select Restore disks for Restore type.

    The NSX Cloud management VNet information is auto-populated.

  4. Click Restore.
  5. The restored OS disk is saved in the same resource group as the NSX Manager VM. It is named as: <deployment_prefix>-nsx-mgr0-<original OS disk name>-<backup timestamp>, for example: mynsxmgr-osdisk-20201022-191737.
  6. Swap the old NSX Manager disk with the newly restored disk by navigating to <deployment_prefix>-nsx-mgr > Disks > Swap OS disk.

Restore one NSX Manager node by creating a new NSX Manager VM

You can restore this NSX Manager node to a new VM while retaining its private IP address. Restore the OS disk first so that you can create a template using the disk and then deploy a new VM that retains the NSX Manager's private IP address.

  1. In your Microsoft Azure subscription, navigate to the backup screen listing all available backups of the NSX Manager VM, for example, if nsx-mgr0 node is corrupted and you want to restore it from a back up, go to <deployment_prefix>-nsx-mgmt-rg > <deployment_prefix>-nsx-mgr0 > From Operations in the left panel > Backup.
  2. Click Restore VM and select a Restore Point.
  3. From Restore Virtual Machine select Create new under Restore Configuration and select Restore disks for Restore type.

    The NSX Cloud management VNet information is auto-populated.

  4. Click Restore.
  5. The restored OS disk is saved in the same resource group as the NSX Manager VM. It is named as: <deployment_prefix>-nsx-mgr>[0,1,2]-<original OS disk name>-<backup timestamp>, for example: mynsxmgr-osdisk-20201022-191737.
  6. Delete the existing NSX Manager entities from the resource group:
    • NSX Manager VM
    • NSX Manager NIC and public IP
      Note: If you want to retain NSX Manager's public IP address, you can do that by reassigning the existing NSX Manager NIC to the new NSX Manager VM. Do not delete the NSX Manager NIC in that case. If NSX Manager NIC is not usable and you must delete it, then your new NSX Manager VM is assigned a new NIC and a new public IP address.
    • NSX Manager OS disk
    • NSX Manager data disk
  7. Go to the OS disk restore created from the vault.

    <deployment_prefix>-nsx-vault > Backup Items (under Protected Items in the left panel menu) > Azure Virtual Machine > <deployment_prefix>-nsx-mgr<[0,1,2]> > View all Jobs.

  8. Click the CSM VM with the Restore operation. This is the OS disk recently restored. Click Deploy Template.
  9. Update details as necessary for the new NSX Manager VM.
  10. Click Edit Template, change the private IP allocation method to static and provide the existing private IP address for the NSX Manager appliance. For example,
       "resources": [
        <...>,
        {
          <...>,
                "ipConfigurations": [
                    {
                        "properties": {
                            "privateIPAllocationMethod": "Static",
                            "privateIPAddress": "192.168.43.11"
                            <...>},
         <...>
  11. Save the template, accept the terms and conditions, and click Purchase.

    The new NSX Manager VM is deployed, retaining the same IP address as the old NSX Manager VM.

  12. Verify that the NSX Manager cluster is back to a healthy state. You can check cluster status using NSX CLI command get cluster status by logging in to any of the NSX Manager nodes using SSH. You can also check cluster status from the NSX Manager UI by going to System > Appliances in the NSX Manager UI.

Restore all three NSX Manager nodes

If all three of the NSX Manager nodes in the cluster must be restored, follow the same steps as described in Restore one NSX Manager node by creating a new NSX Manager VM to restore each node and then check cluster status.