The basic principle of the backup and recovery procedure is the usage of an image-level backup/restore method, leveraging the vSphere API for Data Protection (VADP). The recommended way to backup and restore vCenter Server is by means of the vSphere Data Protection (VDP) appliance, which is the VMware implementation of a VADP-enabled backup solution. Other VADP-based backup solutions from third-party vendors should be suitable as well.

The requirements needed for a vCenter VM to be backed up via a VADP-based backup solution are listed in the aforementioned documentation, and are briefly listed here for convenience:

• The VM must have VMware Tools installed and running. This is a requirement because VMware Tools allows the quiescing of the filesystem, which is mandatory when taking image-level backups of a vCenter VM.
• The VM must use a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) with the correct DNS resolution, or must be configured with a static IP address.
• VDP and other VADP-enabled backup solutions create a quiesced VMware snapshot of the VM, so the infrastructure or vSphere implementation, as well as the VM configuration, must support this.