Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Provide information on how to troubleshoot and fix VAMI backup problems.

Symptoms:
You encounter an error with the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) through the vSphere Appliance Management Interface (VAMI).

Environment

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

Cause

Potential causes include:

Required VCSA services are not running
Problems with configuration files
Problems with the VCSA database
Known programming problems in older versions of VCSA

Resolution

Unable to get VAMI backups to run:

Symptoms	Resolutions
Error "Path not exported by remote file system" and vCenter updated to 7.0 U3	VAMI Backup with SMB reports error: "Path not exported by the remote filesystem"
Backup hangs at 95% VCDB > 300 GB	vCenter 6.7 backup fails with ERROR: Timeout! Failed to complete in 72000 seconds after stuck at 95%
Error "Failed to calculate VCDB size", version < 6.7 P01	Error "Failed to calculate VCDB size" during backup in vCenter Server Appliance 6.0/6.5
Error: "option 'dns' in section 'Network' already exists"	VAMI Backup Fails \| BackupManager encountered an exception: While reading from '/etc/systemd/network/10-eth0.network.manual' [line 9]: option 'dns' in section 'Network' already exists
Error ""Stopped services: 'topologysvc'"	"Stopped services: 'topologysvc'" error running a VAMI backup
NFS or vSAN file service is target, Error "access denied"	VAMI based backup of vCenter Server 7.0 returns access denied for NFS and vSAN File Service target
SCP protocol backup fails, Error "Backup PNID is not resolved"	vCenter Server Appliance backup over SCP stuck between 40 - 60%
SFTP protocol backup fails, version < 7.0 U2	Not able to backup vCenter From VAMI using SFTP
SMB protocol backup fails, version = 6.7 U2	vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 U2 backup via SMB fails with error: "SMB location is invalid"
VCSA upgraded since 5.5, backup.log shows ssodb errors	VCSA VAMI based backup is failing when stats is not selected.
FTP or FTPS protocol fails, Errors "Connection time-out", "Failed to list FTP directory"	vCenter VAMI backup in FTP fails with connection errors
VAMI backup errors	"503 Service Unavailable" error on the vSphere Web Client when logging in or accessing the vCenter Server
Old VAMI backups not deleting	VCSA VAMI backup is failing to delete old backups according to retention policy
Other VAMI backup issues	vCenter Server Appliance backup progress not available on the VAMI page after upgrading to vSphere 6.7 Update

Additional Information

Backup and Restore options in vCenter Server 6.x/7.0.x - Overview

Impact/Risks:
Before making any configuration changes to vCenter Server, please ensure you have a good backup of it. If the file-based backup system isn't working, an image-based one may need to be used until the file-based backups are working properly.

Troubleshooting vCenter Server Appliance VAMI backup

Article ID: 316609

Updated On: