The purpose of this guide to provide the steps needed to backup your VMware vCenter Server Appliance.
** Please keep in mind, this guides applies to my personal home lab environment so please proceed with caution and take the appropriate steps including documentation to ensure you have a successful backup. **
- Capture a Virtual Machine Snapshot. This includes providing a name for the snapshot and a description used to describe the snapshot. To do so, right-click the virtual machine (VM) in your vSphere Client (I’m currently running vSphere Client v8.0.1.00000) and select Snapshots, followed by Take Snapshot…
- Next, I logged into my Windows 11 virtual machine to download, install, and configure my FTP Server client. For the purpose of this post, I’m going to use the FileZilla Server Windows client:
- Launch the FileZilla Server client and then select Administration interface, followed by Connect to Server:
- Provide the password that was setup previously and then select OK to login:
- Select Yes to proceed:
- Select Server and then Configure:
- Select Server Listeners, followed by Add and then enter 127.0.0.1, Port 21. Click OK to confirm the settings:
- Select Server, Configure, and then Users:
- Select Add under Available Users, and then enter a Username and Password. Next, enter your desired User Folder, followed by OK to finish:
This concludes the FileZilla Server Windows client setup and configuration.
For the remainder of this guide, you will need to log into your VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VSCA).
- After you’ve successfully logged in, please select Backup and then Backup Now:
- Enter the FTP server address and folder path for the Backup Location, including the username and password that was assigned during the FileZilla Server configuration. Select Start when ready:
- The manual backup completed successfully:
- To configure a scheduled backup, select Configure and then enter your preferred backup schedule:
- The successfully completed Manual and Scheduled Backup jobs are listed below. The M stands for Manual Backup Job and the S stands for Scheduled Backup Job:
- Please remember to delete your VM Snapshot within 24-48 hours.
This concludes this blog post. If I have missed anything or if you have any suggestions, please let me know.
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