How to back up and restore the vCenter Server Appliance Inventory Service database.

Backing up the vCenter Inventory Service database:

• An SSH client for connecting to the vCenter Server Appliance
• WinSCP (or any SCP client) for retrieving and replacing the Inventory Service database recovery file.

1. Connect to the vCenter Server Appliance via SSH. For more information, see Enable or Disable SSH Administrator Login on the VMware vCenter Server Appliance section in the vCenter Server 5.5 and Host Management Guide (for vSphere 5.1 and 5.5) and the vCenter Server 5.0 and Host Management Guide (for vSphere 5.0).

2. Stop the vCenter Inventory Service by running the command:
   service vmware-inventoryservice stop

3. Navigate to this directory:
   cd /usr/lib/vmware-vpx/inventoryservice/scripts/

4. To back up the vCenter Inventory Service database, run the command:
   ./backup.sh -file backup_file_name
   
   Where backup_file_name is the location and file name to be generated, for example:
   /usr/lib/vmware-vpx/inventoryservice/scripts # ./backup.sh -file /tmp/InventoryServiceDB.DB
   
   A successful export of the vCenter Inventory Service database displays output similar to:
   
   Opening Inventory Service data files
   Inventory Service data files opened
   Backing up data...
   Backup completed successfully

5. Using WinSCP, connect to the the vCenter Server Appliance and download the InventoryServiceDB.DB file from the /tmp/ directory.

6. Start the vCenter Inventory Service by running the command:
   service vmware-inventoryservice start

Restoring the vCenter Inventory Service database:

1. Connect to the vCenter Server Appliance via SSH.

2. Using WinSCP, connect to the the vCenter Server Appliance and upload the backup copy of the InventoryServiceDB.DB file to the /tmp/ directory.

3. Stop the vCenter Inventory Service by running the command:
   
   service vmware-inventoryservice stop

4. Navigate to this directory:
   
   cd /usr/lib/vmware-vpx/inventoryservice/scripts/

5. To restore the vCenter Inventory Service database from backup, run the command:
   
   ./restore.sh -backup backup_file_name
   
   Where backup_file_name is the location and file name to be used, for example:
   
   /usr/lib/vmware-vpx/inventoryservice/scripts # ./restore.sh -backup /tmp/InventoryServiceDB.DB
   
   A successful export of the vCenter Inventory Service database displays output similar to:
   
   Restoring from backup: /tmp/InventoryServicedb.DB
   Restoring...
   Attempting to save existing data to /storage/db/inventoryservice/data-1382478584969.old
   Saved existing data to /storage/db/inventoryservice/data-1382478584969.old
   Restore completed successfully

6.  Start the vCenter Inventory Service by running the command:
   
   service vmware-inventoryservice start
   
   When the restore is complete, log in to the vSphere Web Client (The default URL is https://VCSA_FQDN:9443) to verify that the Inventory Service is working correctly. Perform these checks:

   1. Ensure that all virtual machines are listed in the VM and Templates view and the Hosts and Clusters view.

   2. Ensure that any Tags configured in the environment are restored.