Virtual machine and data deletion when restoring the vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 from backup

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
After restoring a vCenter Server or vCenter Server Appliance 6.x from a backup and allowing the services to start, you experience these symptoms:

• Virtual Machines created during or after the backup window are no longer in the vCenter Server inventory
• Virtual Machines created during or after the backup window are are no longer stored on the datastore

Cause

Restoring from a backup reverts the vCenter Server back to that point-in-time and causes the services to enter into a crash recovery mode. This causes the vCenter Server to read back through its operation journal files and roll back the operations that were in-flight at the time of the backup.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware vCenter Server 6.0 Update 2, available at VMware Downloads. For more information, see the vCenter Server 6.0 Update 2 Release Notes.

To work around this issue when you do not want to upgrade, replace these vCenter Server files:

vpxdRestore.py
vpxdRestart.py
cis-config.py

vCenter Server for Windows

To replace these files on vCenter Server for Windows:

1. Download the 2143799-Backup_Restore.zip file attached to this article.

• Extract these files to the vCenter Server:
  
  vpxdRestore.py
  vpxdRestart.py
  cis-config.py
• Back up the current cis-config.py file on the vCenter Server in this directory:
  
  C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin\
  
  
• Copy these files vpxdRestore.py , vpxdRestart.py and cis-config.py to the appropriate directories below:
  
  Copy vpxdRestart.py into C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\visl-integration\usr\sbin\vpxdRestart.py
  
• 
  Copy vpxdRestore.py into C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\python-modules\vpxdRestore.py
  
• 
  Copy cis-config.py into C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin\cis-config.py

• Backup the vCenter Server.
  
  Note: VMware recommends not to perform any Fault Tolerance operation for any virtual machine managed by the vCenter Server during the backup window. After the restore, turn on FT on any virtual machine, which had FT enabled earlier.

vCenter Server Appliance:

Replace the following files on the vCenter Server Appliance:

1. Download the 2143799-Backup_Restore.zip file attached to this article.
2. Extract these files for the to your workstation:
   
   vpxdRestore.py
   vpxdRestart.py
   restore-script
   
   
3. Connect to the vCenter Server Applaince using an SSH session.
4. Provide the root user name and password when prompted.
5. Run this command to enable the Bash shell:
   
   shell.set --enable True
   
   
6. Run this command to access the Bash shell:
   
   shell
   
   
7. Backup the current restore-script file stored in the vCenter Server Appliance using the below command:
   
   mv /usr/sbin/restore-script /usr/sbin/restore-script.bkp
   
   
8. Using an SCP client, upload the vpxdRestore.py , vpxdRestart.py and restore-script files to the this directory:
   
   /usr/sbin
   
   
9. Run these commands to change permissions on the files:
   
   chmod 755 /usr/sbin/vpxdRestore.py
   chmod 755 /usr/sbin/vpxdRestart.py
   chmod 755 /usr/sbin/restore-script
   
   
10. Backupthe vCenter Server
    
    Note: VMware recommends not to perform any Fault Tolerance operation for any virtual machine managed by the vCenter Server during the backup window. After the restore, turn on FT on any virtual machine, which had FT enabled earlier.

Additional Information

Once completed, additional logging will be available for backup and restore statuses in these directories.

• For the vCenter Server Appliance, consult /var/log/restore/restore.log and /var/log/restore/vpxd_restore.log.
• For the vCenter Server for Windows, consult C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\logs\restore\vpxd_restore.log.

バックアップから vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 をリストアする際の仮想マシンとデータの削除の可能性
从备份还原 vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 时发生虚拟机和数据删除