VCAP6-DCV Deploy Objective 7.3

Manish Jha

Objective 7.3 of VCAP6-Deploy exam covers following topics:

  • Backup and restore distributed switch configurations

  • Backup and restore resource pool configurations

  • Export Virtual Machines to OVA/OVF format

  • Use a Host profile to recover an ESXi host configuration

Lets learn about these topics one by one

                                         Backup and restore distributed switch configurations
 
You can export vSphere distributed switch and distributed port group configurations to a file. The file preserves valid network configurations, enabling distribution of these configurations to other deployments.
To export vSphere Distributed Switch configurations using the vSphere Web Client:
 
1: Browse to a distributed switch in the vSphere Web Client navigator and Right-click the distributed switch and click Settings > Export Configuration
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2: Select the Export the distributed switch configuration or Export the distributed switch configuration and all port groups option.

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3: Click Yes to save the configuration file to your local system. 

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4: Select a location your computer where you want to save the backup file and also provide a name for the backup file.

You now have a configuration file that contains all settings for the selected distributed switch and distributed port group. 

Importing Distributed Switch configurations

To import a vSphere Distributed Switch Configuration, login to vCenter using the vSphere Web Client and navigate to Networking view.

1: Right-click on virtual datacenter and click Distributed Switch > Import Distributed Switch.

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2: Browse to the location of your saved configuration file. Select the Preserve original distributed switch and port group identifiers option. Click Next.

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3: Review the import settings before completing the import. Click Finish. 

Restore a vSphere Distributed Switch Configuration

Use the restore option to reset the configuration of an existing distributed switch to the settings in the configuration file. Restoring a distributed switch changes the settings on the selected switch back to the settings saved in the configuration file.

1: Browse to a distributed switch in the vSphere Web Client navigator and right-click the distributed switch and select Settings > Restore Configuration.

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2: Browse for the configuration backup file to use.

You can either choose to restore only vDS settings or portgroup as well along with vDS configuration

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3: On Ready to complete page, review the summary information for the restore and hit finish to initiate restore process. 

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Note: Restoring a distributed switch will overwrite the current settings of the distributed switch and its port groups. It will not delete existing port groups that are not part of the configuration file.

Restore vDS using PowerCLI

vDS settings can also be restored using below one liner command

Where -BackupPath is path to vDS backup file, -Location is datacenter we restore vDS to and -KeepIdentifiers:$true preserves port groups IDs

                                    Backup and Restore Resource Pool Configurations

When DRS is disabled on a cluster, it removes all the resource pools that are part of the cluster and the resource pool hierarchy and affinity rules are not re-established when DRS is turned back on.

Now if you really want to disable DRS and want to save yourself from the pain of re-creating resource pools and configuring share/limits etc, you can take backup of resource pools and and restore it later post completing the maintenance and enabling DRS again.

When you disable DRS on a cluster, vSphere gives you an opportunity to save the resource pool tree in a file which can be used later to restore the resource pool hierarchy.

Just click on yes on the warning window presented.

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Save the file on your local PC.

Restoring Resource Pool Tree

Turn ON DRS and right click on cluster and choose Restore Resource Pool Tree.

Note that a resource tree can only be restored to the cluster it came from. Also restoring resource pool tree is only feasible via vSphere Web Client. 

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Browse to the path where you have saved the snapshot file and hit OK.

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Important Note: If you are disabling DRS on a cluster which is part of the vCenter associated with vCloud Director, then engage VMware technical support team for restoring the resource pool config.

                                           Export Virtual Machines to OVA/OVF format

A VM can be exported as an OVF/OVA template so that it can be used to export a VM as into another vCenter.  The VM must be in shutdown state for export task.

To export a VM, right click on it and select Template > Export OVF Template

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Provide a name for the exported template and select wether export will be an .ovf or .ova export. 

 Choose to export BIOS UUIS, MAC address and extra configuration under the advanced options.

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                                Use a Host profile to recover an ESXi host configuration

Objective of this topic is a bit unclear but in order to recover an Esxi host configuration using host profile we have to remediate it. I already cover host profile creation steps under VCAP6-Objective 5.2 and not going to repeat steps here. 

Typically these are steps to remediate an Esxi host: 

  1. Put the host in maintenance mode
  2. Attach the host profile to that host
  3. Check for compliance
  4. Remediate the host.

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