Bare Metal restore of vmware cluster.

[K D]

This is the scenario I am trying to solve.

4 node esxi cluster with vcenter and several vms on 4 physical hosts.

I want to repurpose the 4 hosts temporarily for something else.

Is there a way I can backup the entire setup before I format all disks and restore my vsphere setup as is after I'm done with my other project?

One possible solution I could think of is to move all vms to an nfs share and delete all local datastores. Shutdown everything and just unplug the USB drives containing esxi.

Afterwards, just plug them back in and boot. Everything should come back online as is. I will just have to reconfigure the local datastores.

Will this work? Any other options?

 

[realtomatoes]

You’ll have to reconfigure your datastores but yes, that will work.


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[Marsh]

@KD
If you use powercli script to deploy and config ESXi servers.
then you just re-run the same powercli script to config the portion that you need.

In this case , setup datastore .

I also use deployment script as my documentation when my memory failed me.

 

[K D]

I'm very much an esxi novice. PowerCLI is one of the things that I have no clue about and am just learning .

 

[Rand__]

Do you need to repurpose everything?
I'd
-Document names and datastore distribution
-Move all VMs off
-Take out ESX boot drives
-Proceed with other project which overwrites datastore disks
-Move in ESX boot drives
-Recreate datastores per documentation

Edit: Just reread your post and I see thats what you planned - so yes that would work

 

[Marsh]

@KD
Here is sample that I used to create NFS storage

# Physical ESXi host login info
$VIServer = "pESX9.local.lab"
$VIUsername = "root"
$VIPassword = "Passw0rd"

$pEsxi = Connect-VIServer $VIServer -User $VIUsername -Password $VIPassword -WarningAction SilentlyContinue

# NFS config
$nfserver = "192.168.1.74"
$nfspath1 = "/volume1/ESXTMPL"
$datastorename = "nX4TMPL"
New-Datastore -VMHost $VIServer -Name $datastorename -NFS -NFSHost $nfserver -Path $nfspath1

I use the same script everywhere by changing relevant IP , hostname , sharename

 

[Rand__]

@Marsh - is there a way to convert a running config into a script to recreate?

I mean I can backup a config o/c and reload that on a newly installed box, but a script with all the settings would be way cooler

 

[K D]

@Marsh - is there a way to convert a running config into a script to recreate?

I mean I can backup a config o/c and reload that on a newly installed box, but a script with all the settings would be way cooler

This would be great to have.

 

[Marsh]

@rand

I used to configure the ESX host by hand because it is so easy.
Then , I started using powercli script to create ESXi host, I paid with time first , then rip all the time saving later.

There are many wonderful examples of powercli deployment scripts on the NET.
My intend is to show it is not complicated . It save me lots of time to search for NFS server IP , data storage name.

Example to create vswitch

$vSwitchName = "Internal1"
$vSwitch = New-VirtualSwitch -VMHost $VIServer -Name $vSwitchName
New-VirtualPortGroup -VirtualSwitch $vswitch -Name $vSwitchName
Get-VirtualSwitch -Name $vSwitch | Get-SecurityPolicy | Set-SecurityPolicy -AllowPromiscuous $true

 

[Rand__]

Yes I dabbled into it a bit but in the end I always stayed with esxcli

 

[Marsh]

I was the same way, then I figured that I need to make the jump couple years back.
Powercli is more powerful and is the future.

The up side is that I could rip apart my vSphere homelab , rebuild it with few keystrokes including vCenter deployment.

I don't need to buy the $200 per year eval license.

 

[Rand__]

Nice
I assume this would work with dvswitch as well? Can you join a host to a dvswitch,set host ip's at vmk level as well as the uplunk interfaces?

 

[Marsh]

These links are good read.
Back to Basics – Creating and Managing a Distributed Switch with PowerCLI (9 of 9)

Create dvswtich from csv file , very useful for cluster creation
Mass creation of vDS portgroups using PowerCLI « Yaztech
http://yaztech.co.uk/blog/?entry=entry150525-000515
Don't forget
NESTED VIRTUALIZATION
vGhetto Automated vSphere Lab Deployment for vSphere 6.0u2 & vSphere 6.5

Created entire lab with vCenter and vsan cluster , in 20-30 min.
You could study the script and use the part that you need.

 

[K D]

Thanks. This is good reading.


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[K D]

Learnt about scripted installs. It was very easy to put together a file that setup a host including all config that I needed. Took about 10 mins of work to install esxi on 4 hosts. Now to learn how to do the same for vcenter using powercli.

ESXi scripted install