You can use the vCenter Server Appliance GUI installer to restore a vCenter Server Appliance to an ESXi host or a vCenter Server instance. The restore procedure has two stages. The first stage deploys a new vCenter Server Appliance. The second stage populates the newly deployed vCenter Server Appliance with the data stored in the file-based backup.
![Restore workflow](images/GUID-2C017025-C2E5-44C6-AE07-24AC65A7F3FB-low.png)
Perform a file-based restore of a Platform Services Controller only when the last Platform Services Controller in the domain fails. If there are other Platform Services Controller instances in the same vCenter Single Sign-On domain, deploy a new Platform Services Controller instance and join it to the existing Single Sign-On domain.
![Restore workflow](images/GUID-F28943EA-B54F-472B-9B36-72D95A909047-low.png)
Prerequisites
- Verify that your system meets the minimum software and hardware requirements. See System Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance.
- Download and Mount the vCenter Server Appliance Installer.
- If the vCenter Server instance is part of a vCenter High Availability cluster, you must power off the active, passive, and witness nodes of the cluster before restoring the vCenter Server.