The backup process requires the backup/restore software to collect and store information both from vCloud Director and from vSphere. This process assumes that you use vCloud Director system administrator credentials to connect to vCloud Director. System administrator credentials allow the software to access vApps belonging to any Organization, and to access all the necessary information about a vApp and associated vCloud constructs.

A vApp in vCloud Director can comprise one or more virtual machines. When you work with a single vApp in vCloud Director, you might be working with a number of virtual machines in vSphere.

To back up a vApp or set of vApps:

Procedure

  1. Connect to vCloud Director and access the organization where vApp (or vApps) will be backed up.
  2. When backing up a vApp for a given Organization or VDC in vCloud Director, access the vCloud Director inventory for a list of all desired vApps.
  3. Select maintenance mode for each vApp to prevent updates during the backup process.
  4. Collect all the metadata related to the vApp(s), including any user-defined metadata associated with any given vApp.
  5. Use the vApp metadata to identify the virtual machines associated with each vApp.
  6. Connect to vCenter Server as a user with sufficient permissions to access the virtual machines. Use the vSphere inventory to locate the virtual machine configuration and virtual disk files.
  7. Use the VMware APIs for Data Protection to back up the vSphere virtual machine files:
    1. (optional) Save a snapshot of the virtual machine.
    2. Save the virtual machine configuration, using the WS API.
    3. Save the virtual disks using the VDDK API.
    4. (optional) Delete the virtual machine snapshot, if applicable.
  8. Store the vApp metadata in an appropriate format along with the associated virtual machine files.
  9. Deselect maintenance mode for each vApp.