This section summarizes the backup and restore processes for vApps managed by vCloud Director. It explains how to use VMware APIs to collect the metadata needed to control backup and restore operations. The actual backup and restore operations are performed using the VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP).
VMware vCloud Director uses one or more vCenter servers to manage virtualized resources. At the same time, it manages the vCloud feature of multi-tenancy by maintaining metadata related to various tenant artifacts such as vApp, users, networks, storage, and so on.
When a system administrator chooses to back up a vApp, certain vApp metadata must be retrieved from vCloud Director. The metadata includes general information about the vApp (name, description, virtual machine descriptions), networking information (organization network connectivity, external network connectivity), user information, lease, and quota. This information becomes particularly important when restoring the vApp, in addition to the names of virtual disk files and .vmx files typically retrieved from vSphere using the VADP.
