Backing Up the VMware Aria Automation 8.x Appliance

Steps to backup the VMware Aria Automation 8.x appliance is provided in this topic.

You must back up all VMware Aria Automation appliances, at the same time.
When you back up the VMware Aria Automation appliance, disable in-memory snapshots.

Shut Down VMware Aria Automation

This procedure is required only for VMware Aria Automation 8.0 and is optional for 8.0.1 or newer. It is recommended to upgrade to VMware Aria Automation 8.0.1 or newer and use online backups. It outlines how you can automate the shutdown and startup of the VMware Aria Automation application services.

Procedure

Log in to the VMware Aria Automation appliance over SSH.

Note:
Perform this procedure only on one of the nodes in your VMware Aria Automation cluster. The application services of all cluster nodes can be stopped from one of the appliances.
Navigate to /usr/bin and create a directory named backup
```
cd /usr/bin
mkdir backup
```

Create two scripts titled start-vra.sh and stop-vra.sh.

start-vra.sh

#!/bin/bash
 # Clear services state
 /opt/scripts/deploy.sh --onlyClean>/dev/null 2>&1
 sleep 60
 # Start services
 /opt/scripts/deploy.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
 RETURN_CODE=$?
 sleep 60
 if [[ "$RETURN_CODE" -eq 0 ]]
  then
   echo "$LOG_PREFIX VMware Aria Automation services successfully started"
   exit 0
  else
   echo "$LOG_PREFIX VMware Aria Automation services failed to start"
   exit 1
 fi

stop-vra.sh

#!/bin/bash
 # Stop application services
 /opt/scripts/svc-stop.sh >/dev/null2>&1
 sleep 60
 # Stop infrastructure services
 /opt/scripts/deploy.sh --onlyClean >/dev/null 2>&1
 RETURN_CODE=$?
 sleep 60
 if [[ "$RETURN_CODE" -eq 0 ]]
  then
   echo "$LOG_PREFIX VMware Aria Automation services successfully stopped"
   exit 0
  else
   echo "$LOG_PREFIX VMware Aria Automation services failed to stop"
   exit 1
 fi

Set the correct permissions.

chmod 700 stop-vra.sh start-vra.sh
chmod 700 /usr/bin/backup

Set the scripts as pre-snapshot and post-snapshot executables in EMC Avamar
1. Open the Avamar Administration Client.
2. Go to Tools > Manage Datasets.
3. Copy the built-in VMware Image Dataset and name the new dataset vRA 8 Backup.
4. Edit the vRA 8 Backup dataset.
5. Navigate to Options > Show Advanced Options.
6. Set the Guest credentials, Pre-Snapshot Script, and Post-Snapshot script as seen in this example:
Assign the dataset to only one VMware Aria Automation node. If assigned to more than one node, the system flags warnings for partially completed backups.