Backing Up and Restoring VMware NSX Manager

This topic describes how to back up and restore NSX Data Center for VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition (TKGI).

NSX Data Center Back Up and Recover

NSX Data Center provides in-product back up and recovery that supports back up and restore of the NSX Manager Nodes. For more information, see Backing Up and Restoring NSX Manager in the NSX documentation.

Deployment Assumptions

To back up and restore NSX Data Center, it is assumed that 3 NSX Manager Nodes are deployed, and there is an HA VIP configured for access to the NSX Management Plane. In addition, there are at least 2 Edge Nodes deployed with an HA VIP for the Edge Nodes.

For more information, refer the to the NSX-T for TKGI installation instructions.

Back Up Procedure

Create a backup of the NSX Manager Nodes as follows:

1. Log in to the NSX Manager web console.

2. Navigate to System > Backup & Restore.

3. Select Edit and configure the backup location for the NSX Configuration. For more information, refer to Configure Backups in the NSX Data Center documentation.
   

4. Click Start Backup to begin the backing up the NSX Manager database.

Restore Procedure

To restore NSX Data Center, you restore the configuration using the backup and start sending traffic. See Restore a Backup in the NSX Data Center documentation.

Note: Configuration changes made between back up and restore will not be saved.

Testing Procedure

The following test scenario assumes TKGI is installed on vSphere with NSX-T 3.0, and that a full backup of NSX Manager has been performed. This scenario tests the restoration of NSX.

1. Verify NSX connectivity by testing access to a deployed Kubernetes application that is fronted by a service of type LoadBalancer. This verifies that the NSX load balancer is functioning correctly.
2. Shut down all 3 NSX Manager VMs, and delete them.
3. Deploy a new NSX Manager node. For more information, refer to the NSX for TKGI installation documentation.
4. Restore the NSX Manager configuration from the backup. See See Restore a Backup in the NSX-T documentation.
5. Add 2 additional Managers.