Python Example of Restoring a vCenter Server Instance

This example shows how to use Python to restore a vCenter Server instance. This operation is the second phase of restoring the vCenter Server instance from a backup image.

This example uses the following global variables.

• my_vcsa_hostname
• my_vcsa_username
• my_vcsa_password
• my_backup_name
• my_storage_server
• my_scp_user
• my_scp_password
• my_backup_folder

When you restore the vCenter Server instance from a backup image, you need two sets of authentication credentials. The API client needs to authenticate to the vCenter Server instance, and the vCenter Server backup service needs to authenticate to the backup storage server.

The example uses local user name and password authentication for the connection to the vCenter Server instance because the vSphere Automation API endpoint is not yet running when you restore the vCenter Server instance. The client must connect to port 5480 for this operation.

In the restore request, you need to specify the folder that contains the backup image. The folder name is the same name that was specified in the backup request. It must be specified as a path name relative to the home directory of the user that authenticates with the storage server.

This example assumes the backup image is not encrypted.

import requests
 from vmware.vapi.lib.connect import get_requests_connector
 from vmware.vapi.security.user_password import create_user_password_security_context
 from vmware.vapi.stdlib.client.factories import StubConfigurationFactory
 from com.vmware.appliance.recovery.restore_client import (Job)
 import time

 # Create a session object in the client.
 session = requests.Session()

 # For development environment only, suppress server certificate checking.
 session.verify = False
 from requests.packages.urllib3 import disable_warnings
 from requests.packages.urllib3.exceptions import InsecureRequestWarning
 disable_warnings(InsecureRequestWarning)

 # Create a connection to port 5480.
 local_url = 'https://%s:5480/api' % my_vcsa_hostname
 connector = get_requests_connector(session=session, url=local_url)

 # Add username/password security context to the connector.
 basic_context = create_user_password_security_context(my_vcsa_username, my_vcsa_password)
 connector.set_security_context(basic_context)

 # Create a stub configuration by using the username-password security context.
 local_stub_config = StubConfigurationFactory.new_std_configuration(connector)

 # Create a restore request object.
 req = Job.RestoreRequest()
 req.location_type = Job.LocationType.SCP
 req.location = my_storage_server + ':/home/scpuser/' + my_backup_folder + '/' + my_backup_name
 req.location_user = my_scp_user
 req.location_password = my_scp_password

 # Issue a request to start the restore operation.
 restore_job = Job( local_stub_config )
 job_status = restore_job.create( req )

 # Monitor progress of the job until it is complete.
 while (job_status.state == Job.BackupRestoreProcessState.INPROGRESS) :
     print( 'Restore job state: {} ({}%)'.format( job_status.state, 
 job_status.progress ) )
     time.sleep( 10 )
     job_status = restore_job.get()

 # Report job completion.
 print( 'Restore job completion status: {}'.format( job_status.state) )