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what is the best tool to back up an ESXi host on a regular basis.

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I see this question get asked quite a lot? It probably takes as long to build an ESX server as it would to try and restore one.

I’ve docuemented settings, but never backed up an ESX host and I’ve been deploying them since VI3 and probably have several hundred in production ATM.

Sorry, more of an opionion, rather than an answer, just my $0.02

9 Spice ups
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Good question. Let me know what you find out.

I make sure I use this after each major configuration change.

to summarize, enable SSH, connect to the host with PuTTY then at shell command line

vmware -vl

vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/sync_config

vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/backup_config

Then download from the presented URL where you substitute in your host FQDN or IP for the *

Wash, rinse, repeat. Works best with no more than a few dozen servers or if you know some magic scripting capabilities that allow you to do this at scale.

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The preceding instructions capture the configuration so if the host is lost, what you do to restore is install the same version or as close as you can get, then patch up to the same exact version, then restore the configuration. When you issue the configuration restore command the host instantly reboots and comes up with the old settings.

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Literally only backs up the configuration though. If you want the contents of the storage like your VMs or something, you would need something different for that part. This probably works best in an environment where you have shared storage so if you drop a host, the workload would automatic or manual just shift to another host. I have all local storage so I have extra steps like a DR appliance and Veeam to backup the individual VMs.

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The problem, is that this doesn’t work if you’ve used a TPM on the host (since 7.0 U2). A new host won’t be able to decrypt the config, only the host that was backed up.

So, in the modern age, best not to think about VMware host backups - in the traditional sense. Either use host profiles, or document the base config and just install vSphere from scratch - it’s like 15 minutes or less. Seriously, by the time you locate a backup to restore, and click through the wizard in the backup software to create a rescue disk, you could have started installing vSphere, and gotten half way through, maybe further.

At scale, you’d definitely use host profiles. With under 10 hosts installing manually is probably totally manageable (take an afternoon to practice installing vSphere - in a VM, don’t need hardware - a few times to familiarize yourself).

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I did not know that. I am sure that would have been a nasty surprise to get in the middle of an emergency. Thank you for pointing out that detail, I will watch out for the TPM configured hosts.

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How often is your host configuration changing to need it often, let alone, at all.

If this is a single host, your config is likely very simple, if this is in a cluster backed by a vCentre, configure host profiles so you don’t need to reset everything if you do have to reinstall.

Without more information your post is quite a basic request, but could be an even simpler fix, even without backing it up.

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A well-configured vCenter is the best defense for ESXi problems. If a host is lost or becomes problematic, just put in a new one, load ESXi and connect to vCenter. The time involved is minimal. If OP is, however, looking for a way to capture the whole physical device, ESXi and VM’s together, that’s a totally different direction and not at all what this question seems to ask.

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Jus to piggy back here, personally I have been in the field for over a decade and have never backed up the esxi hosts or config either As pointed out, it takes just as long to rebuild a hypervisor than to restore. Document the configs, specifically ips, hostname, dns and keep an iso handy if needed.

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