Manual removal of old NSX backup folders to resolve SFTP backup server storage exhaustion

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• The SFTP backup server for NSX reports high disk utilization (e.g., 90% or higher) on the volume where backups are stored.
• The NSX Backup & Restore UI page may load slowly or fail to display the backup history due to the large number of files on the server (NSX Backup & Restore page is very slow to fully load).
• Backup tasks may fail if the destination filesystem is full.

Environment

VMware NSX

Cause

The backup directory has accumulated multiple versions of NSX backups over a long period of time. In many cases, these include:

• Backups from older, incompatible NSX versions (e.g., 3.x, 2.x) that are no longer needed (NSX manager backups are missing after an NSX upgrade.).
• Stale backup folders from the current version that have exceeded the desired retention period.

Resolution

To immediately reclaim space on the backup server, manually purge/delete unnecessary backup folders:

1. Access the Backup Server: Log in to the SFTP server where the NSX backups are stored.
2. Navigate to the Backup Directory: Locate the root backup folder, typically containing subfolders such as cluster-node-backups and inventory-summary.
3. Identify Old Versions: List the contents of the cluster-node-backups and inventory-summary directories. Folders are typically named starting with the NSX version (e.g., 3.1.3.x, 3.2.4.x, 4.2.0.x).
4. Remove Incompatible Backups: Delete any folders corresponding to previous NSX versions that are no longer in use. These backups cannot be used for restores to the current version (NSX manager backups are missing after an NSX upgrade.).
5. Prune Stale Current Version Backups: Identify and remove folders for the current NSX version that are outside of the required retention window.

Additional Information

To prevent future storage exhaustion, implement the automated cleanup script nsx_backup_cleaner.py located on the NSX Manager. This script can be scheduled via a cron job to automatically delete backups older than a specified number of days.

For detailed instructions on configuring the automation script, see Remove Old Backups