Best practices to backup a vRealize Network Insight Cluster
Article ID: 314428
Updated On:
Products
VMware Aria Operations for Networks
VMware Aria Suite
Issue/Introduction
This article provides recommendations on how to backup/restore a vRealize Network Insight Platform cluster during a maintenance window activity such as upgrading.
Environment
VMware vRealize Network Insight 3.x
VMware vRealize Network Insight 5.x
VMware Aria Operations for Networks (formerly vRealize Network Insight) 6.x
VMware vRealize Network Insight 4.x
VMware vRealize Network Insight 5.x
VMware Aria Operations for Networks (formerly vRealize Network Insight) 6.x
VMware vRealize Network Insight 4.x
Resolution
Backup flow:
Shutdown vRNI Platform VMs in reverse order (N,N-1,N-2...1) → Backup → Power on in forward order (1,2..N) .
example: If it is a 5 nodes cluster, power off from platform 5 to platform 1, then proceed with the backups.
Shutdown vRNI Collector VMs -> Backup -> Power on ( if you have multiple collectors, the order of backing up the collectors does not matter).
Shutdown vRNI Platform VMs in reverse order (N,N-1,N-2...1) → Backup → Power on in forward order (1,2..N) .
example: If it is a 5 nodes cluster, power off from platform 5 to platform 1, then proceed with the backups.
Shutdown vRNI Collector VMs -> Backup -> Power on ( if you have multiple collectors, the order of backing up the collectors does not matter).
Restore flow:
Restore to backup point → Power on in forward order (1,2..N)
example: Once the VMs powered off, restore the backups/snapshots then power on from platform 1 to platform 5 and restore backups/snapshots on collector(s) then power on the collector(s).
Restore to backup point → Power on in forward order (1,2..N)
example: Once the VMs powered off, restore the backups/snapshots then power on from platform 1 to platform 5 and restore backups/snapshots on collector(s) then power on the collector(s).
Recommendations:
- Any VM based & VMware ready backup solution can be used. Example are EMC Avamar, VMware VDP, etc.
- Gracefully Shutdown (select "Shut Down Guest OS", do not "Power Off") all platform nodes sequentially in reverse order
- Initiate the backup
- After backup process completion, power on the vRNI cluster nodes sequentially in forward order
Note:
- No data will be lost during the backup process as proxy will continue to collect the data from Data sources
- After powering on vRNI platform nodes, all data will be processed
- Proxy can store up to 3 days of data after disconnecting from platform
- Snapshots cannot be considered as backup
- Snapshots are not recommended in production environments
- Snapshots/Backups must be taken while the VMs off and in the same sequence as mentioned above for the backups.
- VMware doesn’t recommend to run VMs with snapshots for more than 3 days
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