You can use a third-party solution to restore an environment in which the vCenter Server instances are registered with different Platform Services Controller instances, and in which the infrastructure data is replicated between the Platform Services Controller instances.

Important: You can back up and restore only virtual machines that contain vCenter Server, vCenter Server Appliance, and Platform Services Controller. You cannot back up and restore physical machines that are running vCenter Server by using a third-party product.

For a vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller, you can only restore the last node in the cluster. If it is not the last node in the cluster, deploy a new Platform Services Controller node and join the cluster.

For the last Platform Services Controller in the cluster, use the third-party solution to restore the vCenter Server virtual machine onto the ESXi host. You do not need to perform reconciliation.

Procedure

  1. Restore the Platform Services Controller virtual machine onto the ESXi host using a third-party solution.
    Wait for all the Platform Services Controller services to start, which can take several minutes.
  2. After the restore succeeds, in the node associated with that Platform Services Controller, run the following commands. 
    service-control --stop --all
service-control --start --all
  3. Restore the vCenter Server virtual machine onto the ESXi host using a third-party solution.
    The services are masked and are not running.
  4. Use the systemctl status applmgmt command to verify that the systemd instance of the applmgmt service has started.
    Wait for all the vCenter Server services to start, which can take several minutes.
  5. Log into the vCenter Server Management Interface, https://appliance-IP-address-or-FQDN:5480.
  6. Run the reconciliation operation and provide the Single Sign-On credentials.
    Do not unmask any services, and do not run the reconciliation script directly.

What to do next

Power on the restored virtual machine that contains the restored vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller instances.