VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 8.0

8.0 7.0 6.7 6.5

Restore a
vCenter Server
 Instance by Using the API

You can use the
of to restore a
vCenter Server
 instance from a backup file containing the
vCenter Server
 database and key components of the
vCenter Server
 instance.
  • Verify that the backed up
    vCenter Server
     instance is powered off.
  • A new
    vCenter Server
     instance must be deployed in an unconfigured state, except that it must have a fully qualified domain name or IP address that matches the old one.
  • Verify that the new
    vCenter Server
     instance has the same build number as the one in the backup file.
  • Verify that the new
    vCenter Server
     instance has a size equal to or greater than the old one. If the old
    vCenter Server
     instance was customized to exceed the largest template size, the new one must be customized to the same size.
  • Verify that no other backup or restore jobs are running.
  • Verify that the destination storage location is accessible to the
    vCenter Server
     restore process.
  1. Create a restore request object
     to describe the restore operation.
  2. Issue a request to start the restore operation.
  3. Monitor the progress of the job until it is complete.
  4. Report job completion.
After the
vCenter Server
 instance is fully configured by the restore operation, you can resume using the
vSphere Automation
 API endpoint for subsequent operations.
Python
This example shows how to use Python to restore a
vCenter Server
 instance. This operation is the second phase of restoring the
vCenter Server
 instance from a backup image.
This example uses the following global variables.
  • my_vcsa_hostname
  • my_vcsa_username
  • my_vcsa_password
  • my_backup_name
  • my_storage_server
  • my_scp_user
  • my_scp_password
  • my_backup_folder
When you restore the
vCenter Server
 instance from a backup image, you need two sets of authentication credentials. The API client needs to authenticate to the
vCenter Server
 instance, and the
vCenter Server
 backup service needs to authenticate to the backup storage server.
The example uses local user name and password authentication for the connection to the
vCenter Server
 instance because the
vSphere Automation
 API endpoint is not yet running when you restore the
vCenter Server
 instance. The client must connect to port
5480
 for this operation.
In the restore request, you need to specify the folder that contains the backup image. The folder name is the same name that was specified in the backup request. It must be specified as a path name relative to the home directory of the user that authenticates with the storage server.
This example assumes the backup image is not encrypted. 
import requests
 from vmware.vapi.lib.connect import get_requests_connector
 from vmware.vapi.security.user_password import create_user_password_security_context
 from vmware.vapi.stdlib.client.factories import StubConfigurationFactory
 from com.vmware.appliance.recovery.restore_client import (Job)
 import time

 # Create a session object in the client.
 session = requests.Session()

 # For development environment only, suppress server certificate checking.
 session.verify = False
 from requests.packages.urllib3 import disable_warnings
 from requests.packages.urllib3.exceptions import InsecureRequestWarning
 disable_warnings(InsecureRequestWarning)

 # Create a connection to port 5480.
 local_url = 'https://%s:5480/api' % my_vcsa_hostname
 connector = get_requests_connector(session=session, url=local_url)

 # Add username/password security context to the connector.
 basic_context = create_user_password_security_context(my_vcsa_username, my_vcsa_password)
 connector.set_security_context(basic_context)

 # Create a stub configuration by using the username-password security context.
 local_stub_config = StubConfigurationFactory.new_std_configuration(connector)

 # Create a restore request object.
 req = Job.RestoreRequest()
 req.location_type = Job.LocationType.SCP
 req.location = my_storage_server + ':/home/scpuser/' + my_backup_folder + '/' + my_backup_name
 req.location_user = my_scp_user
 req.location_password = my_scp_password

 # Issue a request to start the restore operation.
 restore_job = Job( local_stub_config )
 job_status = restore_job.create( req )

 # Monitor progress of the job until it is complete.
 while (job_status.state == Job.BackupRestoreProcessState.INPROGRESS) :
     print( 'Restore job state: {} ({}%)'.format( job_status.state, 
 job_status.progress ) )
     time.sleep( 10 )
     job_status = restore_job.get()

 # Report job completion.
 print( 'Restore job completion status: {}'.format( job_status.state) )

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