How to Verify the Host backup Configuration files

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This KB explains on how to verify the ESXI host configuration backup files are valid.

Environment

ESXi 8.x

Cause

tar files extracted might be corrupted or unusable or data inconsistency

Resolution

1. The state.tgz should contain the esx.conf, so you can extract the /bootbank/state.tgz to verify if the esx.conf has the configuration entries like networking, datastores, NTP, syslog, etc.

# tar -xvzf /bootbank/state.tgz

# less ./extracted_state_file/etc/vmware/esx.conf

2. configBundle.tgz should contain local.tgz, state.tgz (again), hardware.tgz (optional), etc. Check /downloads/configBundle-HostFQDN/local.tgz for more configuration, like esx.conf, vpxa.xml, etc.

Note: The backup file will be in the /downloads directory (default to browser or choose to download to a specific directory) as configBundle-HostFQDN.tgz. Please read the KB on how to backup the configuration and download the configuration files, https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/313510/how-to-back-up-and-restore-the-esxi-host.html  

We can either open it in local machine or using other means like winscp and placing it onto any esxi datastore and running below commands on esxi cli.

# tar -xvzf /tmp/configBundle-<hostname>.tgz 

# tar -xvzf /tmp/configBundle-<hostname>/local.tgz

3. Once you have confirmed that the files above exist, you can compare the /etc/vmware/esx.conf with the /extracted_state_file/etc/vmware/esx.conf

# diff /etc/vmware/esx.conf  /extracted_state_file/etc/vmware/esx.conf

4. Dry run the backup configuration if needed (optional), by replacing the /etc/vmware/esx.conf file with backed up /extracted_state_file/etc/vmware/esx.conf (Alternatively, you can follow restore steps in the KB https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/313510/how-to-back-up-and-restore-the-esxi-host.html)

# cp /etc/vmware/esx.conf /etc/vmware/esx.conf.bkp

# cp /extracted_state_file/etc/vmware/esx.conf /etc/vmware/

# reboot the host

Additional Information

How to back up and restore the ESXi host configuration
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/313510/how-to-back-up-and-restore-the-esxi-host.html