With the growth of VMware ecosystem with components such as VSAN and NSX, vCenter Server has become a critical component of vSphere environment.
Therefore, VMware has provided a simple way to backup vCenter Server appliance as needed and according to the BCP guidelines of the institution.
vCenter Server Appliance supports file-based backup over protocols such as FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, SFTP, NFS, and SMB.
We need to provide a remote location as backup destination and VCSA does not retain any backups locally.
So let’s start the configuration. I am using an FTP endpoint as a backup location.
First, we need to log into the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface. Then, Click on backup from the left sidebar menu.
The status should be displayed as not configured if it is a fresh configuration.
Click on configure to open the backup configuration window.
First you need to provide an backup location. As mentioned above I will use an FTP location and you may use any supported destination as mentioned above.
If your backup destination requires authentication, provide username and password in the next two fields.
As required by your organizations backup policy. You can select a backup schedule.
Additionally, you can specify an encryption password to encrypt your backup if needed.
Then, you should select backup retention period. This specifies the number of previous backups you need to keep in the system.
Finally, select what should be backed up.
After that, click on create to configure the backup.
We can validate the configuration by expanding the backup configuration under “Backup Schedule”
You can monitor any backup activities under “Activity” and you can initiate manual backups from “Backup Now” button.
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