You can schedule file-based backups for vSphere 6.7 and later. You can set up a schedule that is used to perform periodic backups.

The schedule can be set up with information about the backup location, recurrence, and retention for the backups.

You can only set up one schedule at a time.

Prerequisites

  • You must have a FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, SFTP, NFS, or SMB server up and running with sufficient disk space to store the backup.

Procedure

  1. In a Web browser, go to the vCenter Server Management Interface, https://appliance-IP-address-or-FQDN:5480.
  2. Log in as root.
  3. In the vCenter Server Management Interface, click Backup.
  4. Click Configure to set up a backup schedule.
  5. Enter the backup location details.
    Option Description
    Backup location Enter the backup location, including the protocol to use to connect to your backup server, the port, the server address, and backup folder to store the backup files.

    Use one of the following protocols: FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, SFTP, NFS, or SMB.

    For FTP, FTPS, HTTP, or HTTPS the path is relative to the home directory configured for the service.

    Backup server credentials Enter a user name and password of a user with write privileges on the backup server.
  6. Set the schedule recurrence and time for the backup.
    The recurrence can be set daily, weekly, or you can customize the schedule to run the backup on a specific day or days of the week. You can specify the time of day to run the backup. The default time is 11:59pm.
  7. (Optional) Enter an Encryption Password if you want to encrypt your backup file.
    If you select to encrypt the backup data, you must use the encryption password for the restore procedure.
  8. Select Retain all backups or enter the number of backups to retain.
    The retention information provides the number of backups to retain for a given vCenter Server.
    Note: This policy applies to both manual and scheduled backups.
  9. (Optional) Select Stats, Events, and Tasks to back up additional historical data from the database.
  10. Click Create.
    The backup schedule information is populated in the Backup page.

Results

The complete and in progress backups are listed under Activity.

What to do next

You can perform an immediate backup with the existing schedule information by selecting Use backup location and user name from backup schedule from the backup schedule on the Backup Now dialog box.