"Metadata and system validation failed" message when attempting a file-based restore of vCenter Server Appliance

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• The partitions or resources of the VCSA have been manually increased previously
• Checking the /var/log/vmware/applmgmt/applmgmt.log file on the vCenter Server Appliance shows an error similar to the following:

  ####-##-##T##:##:## AM UTC [6554]ERROR:backupRestoreAPI:Metadata and system validation failed; Err: Resize 'memory' from 12MB to 19MB

• During stage 2 of the restore process the validation message shows "Metadata and system validation failed" along with the partitions that have been resized, which may include but is not limited to the following:

  Error: Unknown system resource type lv_lvm_snapshot
  Error: Unknown system resource type seat
  Error: Unknown system resource type vtsdb

Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on the environment

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.x

Cause

• This can occur if the deployment size selected during the restore process is smaller than the size contained in the backup. This can include if individual settings such as CPU, Memory or partition sizes have previously been manually increased.
• There may be other causes of this so please investigate the /var/log/vmware/applmgmt/applmgmt.log fully for each specific failure occurrence.

Resolution

Workaround:

• To determine the resource and partition sizes defined in the backup, check the backup-metadata.json file within the backup files to be restored. The configuration is listed under the section "SizeInfo"
• E.g. for a small deployment size with default storage size the defaults would appear as follows:

  "SizeInfo": {
          "memory": 19,
          "swap1": 25,
          "lv_root_0": 48,
          "netdump": 1,
          "updatemgr": 100,
          "vtsdb": 25,
          "dblog": 15,
          "vtsdblog": 15,
          "seat": 25,
          "lifecycle": 100,
          "core": 50,
          "log": 10,
          "imagebuilder": 10,
          "db": 10,
          "autodeploy": 10,
          "archive": 50,
          "cpu": 4

• On the newly deployed VCSA any incorrectly sized resources or partitions would need to be increased to at or above the values in the json file by following the steps in the KB Increasing the disk space for the vCenter Server Appliance in vSphere 6.5, 6.7, 7.0 and 8.0

Additional Information

For more information on deployment sizing please see the Hardware Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance and Storage Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance sections of the vCenter Server Installation and Setup guide.

Impact/Risks:
Unable to use existing backups to complete file based restore.

 

Experienced the similar scenario  while restoration the vcsa from backup to 7.0.3, additional to the above error also got the below error

 

Error: Unknown system resource type vtsdblog