Restore the Failed vCenter Server Virtual Machine With the Direct-to-Host Emergency Restore Operation

The direct‐to‐host emergency restore operation lets you restore the virtual machine that contains vCenter Server when vCenter Server becomes unavailable or when you cannot access the vSphere Data Protection user interface by using the vSphere Web Client.

vSphere Data Protection depends on vCenter Server for many of the vSphere Data Protection core operations. When vCenter Server becomes unavailable, an emergency restore operation can restore the virtual machine that contains the vCenter Server, vCenter Server Appliance, or Platform Services Controller directly on the ESXi host that is running the vSphere Data Protection Appliance. The Emergency Restore tab displays a list of VMs that have been backed up by the vSphere Data Protection Appliance. These VMs that contain vCenter Server or Platform Services Controller instances can be restored as new VMs on the ESXi host where the vSphere Data Protection Appliance is running. For best practices, recommendations, and limitations of the emergency restore operation, see the vSphere Data Protection documentation.

Note: This procedure describes the steps by using vSphere Data Protection 6.1.3. The steps might vary if you use a different version of vSphere Data Protection.

Prerequisites

Back up the vCenter Server virtual machine or thevCenter Server Appliance by using vSphere Data Protection.

Procedure

In a Web browser navigate to http://host-name/ui or http://host-IP-address/ui.
Here, host-name is the name of the ESXi host and host-IP-address is the IP of the ESXi host on which the vSphere Data Protection Appliance resides. Log in as an administrator to the VMware Host Client.
1. Right-click Host in the VMware Host Client inventory and select Disconnect from vCenter Server from the menu.
2. Click Disconnect from vCenter Server when prompted to disassociate the host from vCenter Server.
Note: If the ESXi host is version 5.1, log in to the vSphere Client instead the VMware Host Client and, on the Summary tab, click Disassociate Host from vCenter Server.
In a Web browser, navigate to the vSphere Data Protection Configure Utility.
https:// ip_address_VDP_Appliance:8543/vdp-configure/.
On the Emergency Restore tab, select the virtual machine that will serve as the restore point, and click Restore.
In the Host Credentials dialog box, enter valid host credentials and click OK.
In the Restore a Backup dialog box, enter a new name.
Select a datastore as the destination target for the backup, and click Restore.

Caution: The datastore capacity size is listed. Make sure you select a datastore with enough disk space to accommodate the restore. Insufficient space causes the restore to fail.

The restored virtual machine is listed in the inventory at the vSphere host level. Restoring to a more specific inventory path is unsupported.
Verify that no vCenter Server services are running.
- For a vCenter Server Appliance, run the service-control --status --all command in the appliance shell.
- For a vCenter Server instance installed on Windows, from the Windows Start menu, select Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.

Run the vcenter-restore script to complete the restore operation and start all the vCenter Server services.

Option	Action
For a vCenter Server Appliance	Run the vcenter-restore script in the appliance shell. vcenter-restore -u `psc_administrator_username` -p `psc_administrator_password`
For vCenter Server installed on Windows	From the Windows command prompt, navigate to the vcenter-restore script. By default, the script is located in C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\. Run the vcenter-restore script. vcenter-restore -u `psc_administrator_username` -p `psc_administrator_password` Note: If you do not provide arguments three subsequent times, the script closes after notifying you that the required arguments were not provided.

Option

Action

For a vCenter Server Appliance

Run the vcenter-restore script in the appliance shell.

vcenter-restore -u psc_administrator_username -p psc_administrator_password

For vCenter Server installed on Windows

From the Windows command prompt, navigate to the vcenter-restore script.
By default, the script is located in C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\.
Run the vcenter-restore script.
```
vcenter-restore -u psc_administrator_username -p psc_administrator_password
 
```
Note: If you do not provide arguments three subsequent times, the script closes after notifying you that the required arguments were not provided.

Here, psc_administrator_username is the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name which must be in UPN format.

Verify that all vCenter Server services are running.
- For a vCenter Server Appliance deployed as an appliance, run the service-control --status --all command in the appliance shell.
- For a vCenter Server installed on Windows, from the Windows Start menu, select Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.