vCenter Server Appliance Data Integrity Best Practices

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article explains the Best Practices around maintaining data integrity in the vCenter Server Appliance.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.0.x
VMware vSphere 7.0.x
VMware vSphere 6.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.x

Resolution

Resource Constriction

1. During deployment, ensure that the proper size (tiny, small, medium, large, xlarge) used will meet or exceed recommendations. If it becomes necessary to expand allocated disk resources, reference the following knowledge articles.
   • vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 - Increasing the disk space for the VMware vCenter Server Appliance in vSphere 6.5
   • vSphere 6.0 - Increasing the disk space for the VMware vCenter Server Appliance in vSphere 6.0
2. Monitor the disk space usage of the vCenter Appliance. This is done differently depending on your vSphere version
   • vSphere 6.7
     1. Log into the VAMI interface at https://<vcenter_fqdn>:5480 with the root credentials 
     2. Navigate to the Monitor section on the left
     3. Select Disks from the top row
   • vSphere 6.0/6.5
     1. Open an SSH session to the vCenter Server Appliance
     2. Use the df -h command to show partition usage information.

Snapshots and Backups

1. The recommended backup and restore process for the vCenter Appliance is done through the VAMI. Refer to File-Based Backup and Restore of vCenter Server Appliance for instructions on using this feature.
2. Before taking a snapshot of the vCenter Appliance, ensure the ESXi hosts in the cluster are updated or have a workaround implemented to address the SEsparse issue documented in Virtual Machines running on an SEsparse snapshot may report guest data inconsistencies.
3. Do not take a snapshot of the vCenter Appliance when a backup is already in progress. Similarly, do not start a backup when a snapshot is in progress.
4. Schedule backup operations when the vCenter Server is not normally under heavy load. Backups should be executed daily.
5. For vCenter's part of Enhance Linked Mode please refer this KB :- 85662

Database

1. Manually accessing or modifying the vCenter database should rarely be necessary. A working backup must be created before any manual database operations are executed.
2. Ensure the Performance Statistics Collection Level is not configured to 3 or 4 for an extended period of time. This should be set to level 1 unless otherwise required by capacity planning or monitoring solutions. 
3. Tasks and Events are a main contributor to database size. The amount of space this data uses will vary depending on how often the environment creates a Task or Event. Ensure a reasonable Database Retention Policy is set to avoid having these over-consume space.

General Operations

1. Keep vSphere components updated to the most recent release when possible.
2. The logging levels for all vCenter services should remain at the default value unless actively troubleshooting an issue.
3. VMware recommends using vCenter Server High Availability (VCHA) to reduce the impact of host, hardware and application failures.