Backup Vcenter

Hi @CharlesDuong -

Yes, it's good you remove the vCenter HA before updating.

Best way to do what you want imo is simply to log onto the ESXi Host vCenter is on & take a snapshot; then I'd also take an ad hoc Veeam backup. After both are done then perform your vCenter update. The snap will ensure your vCenter is good right at the time before upgrade. If the update doesn't go well you can simply revert to the snapshot you took. It's quicker than a VM restore.

To answer your question about vCenter HA. No...Veeam doesn't restore all of that...just the VM. 

If you want to restore your entire HA configuration you need to back up all the servers at around the same time for best results. Backing up the vCenter appliance was deprecated in vCenter 7.0 IIRC, can’t recall if it’s supported by Broadcom at all as of v8. You are supposed to use the backup process within vCenter itself.

That being said, if you were to shut down all the vCenter VMs and back them up, you could quite safely restore these without much risk.

If you need to perform a restore and want your HA config etc to be reverted you must restore all nodes at the same time, from the same point in time

Hi @coolsport00 

I log In to vCenter Server by Using the vSphere Client, I think when I config vCenter HA on GUI, it means on the vCenter virtual machine is also configured. So when I restore vCenter VM by Veeam, it stills the configuration. Is that right ? 

If you take the backup of vCenter at the time it's configured...yes, it'll still have that configuration. I've not heard of anyone backing up all 3 nodes in a vCenter HA...but as @MicoolPaul shares it appears as long as you back all up you could theoretically restore them all.

It would be best if you had a test environment to test this process out before attempting on production. But, if your upgrade goes fine then vCenter restore is moot. 

Hi @MicoolPaul , I use vCenter version 8.0.1, i will update to 8.0.3. When updating, I have to delete passive vm and witness vm (accordings to vmware document). I am confused whether restoring just vcenter vm will restore passive vm and witness vm ?.

It won’t, you’ve got to back up all of them and restore them all. Again, VM backup is deprecated for vCenter anyway, VMware want you to use their native backup of configuration to a file share and restore that to a new vCenter appliance if you have problems

Hi @CharlesDuong - keep in mind also about updating that Veeam isn't officially supported for vSphere 8U3 as it's not GA nor has it been QA'd by Veeam yet. 

Hi @CharlesDuong -

Since I haven't really heard about this being done I did a little searching & saw a 5yr old Forums post about VC HA not really being supported by Veeam.

https://forums.veeam.com/vmware-vsphere-f24/vcenter-high-availability-t60642.html

But, a couple comments suggest if you were to try it to back up all 3 nodes as Michael suggested. So just take that with a grain of salt.

Veeam also has a KB on backing up VC (doesn't mention with HA), but on it they suggest the vSphere way of backup/restore. Anyway, just a few things to keep in mind.

https://www.veeam.com/kb2328

This is the better option with vCenter using the built-in backup to file. It makes restores better as I don't backup vCenter VMs any more.

If you have multisite, power down the vCenters at both sites and then take backups at the same time. 

VMware/Brodcom recommend going into port 5480 and actually running a backup.  You should probably do both and have that one scheduled.

Hi @CharlesDuong -

I was just following up on your vCenter backup post here. Do you still have questions? Or, were one of the provided comments helpful to you and answered your question? If so, we ask you please mark which comment best helped you as ‘Best Answer’ so others with a similar question who come across your post may benefit.

If you do still have questions though, don’t hesitate to ask.

Best.