Table of Contents

Backup ESXi Configuration

To backup the ESXi configuration we can do this via the esxi shell.

First we need to Sync the config by running this 

  1. vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/sync_config

To back-up the configuration data run this command 

  1. vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/backup_config

This command will output a URL which can then be downloaded by a remote client.

You can use curl, wget, or even a browser to download the file.

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2042141

To Restore the Configuration on a new ESXi Hypervisor

First rename the configuration file to 

configBundle.tgz

Now Put the host into maintenance mode by running this command 

  1. vim-cmd hostsvc/maintenance_mode_enter

Copy the backup configuration file to the ESXi host or an available datastore (or mount a NFS volume and put it there)

Run this command to restore the ESXi hosts configuration (replace backup_location with the location you put the file) 

  1. vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/restore_config /backup_location/configBundle.tgz

If you receive a UUID mismatch, then you can override this by adding a 1 (digit 1) after restore_config, but this will ONLY work if you are not using TPMS. 

  1. vim-cmd hostsvc/firmware/restore_config 1 /tmp/configBundle.tgz

Executing this command will initiate an automatic reboot of the host after command completion.