Protecting the vCSA is another key point to ensure BC. Technically, vSphere can work without vCenter Server but advanced features, such as vMotion, vSphere HA, and vSphere DRS won't be available to keep your VM in a protected state.
If the vCSA gets corrupted or fails, you should restore the vCenter Server functionality as soon as possible to avoid worse problems. What happens if an ESXi host also fails? The running VM on that host will stop working, because the vSphere HA service is not available.
vSphere vCSA 6.5 introduces a new feature that allows a file-based backup of the vCSA and the PSC to be performed through the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface. This speeds up the restore process.
The backup file includes the core vCSA configuration, inventory, and historical data of your choice. The backup file is not stored in the vCSA but streamed over FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SCP to a remote system.
If the backup is taken for a vCSA in an HA cluster, only the active node of the vCenter Server instance is backed up.
To take the vCSA backup, follow these steps:
- Open your preferred browser and enter the address https://<VCSA_IP>:5480 to access the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface. Log in as root.
- Go to the Summary tab and click on the Backup button to open the backup appliance wizard.
- Specify the backup protocol, choosing from the HTTP, HTTPS, SCP, FTPS, and FTP options, then enter the details in the Location field, specifying also the credentials required to access the target destination. Enable Encrypt Backup Data if you want to encrypt the backup file and enter a password for the encryption. The password will be requested during the restore process. Click Next:
- Specify data to backup, selecting common parts (inventory and configuration) and Stats, Events, Alarms, and Tasks to backup additional historical data in the vCenter Server database. Click Next to continue.
- Review the summary information and click Finish to perform the backup. The progress of the backup is displayed in the Backup Progress window once the backup is launched. When the backup procedure is finished, click OK to close the window.
If for any reason the backup fails, cancel the backup job and start the process again.
To avoid service outages and to better protect the vCenter Server, vSphere 6.5 introduces a new feature available to vCSA only that provides HA to vCenter Server, called vCenter Server High Availability (VCHA). VCHA was covered in Chapter 13, Advanced Availability in vSphere 6.5.