Dell Technologies 14th Generation PowerEdge Server Troubleshooting Guide

Restoring configuration of your ESXi host

To restore the configuration data of a host:

NOTE:The backup process does not support restoring to later builds. This requirement can be overridden by using the –f option.

Turn off any VM that is running on the host you want to restore.
Optionally, restore the host to the ESXi build number used when the backup file was created.
Start the vSphere CLI on a host other than the host you want to restore and log in.
Run the vicfg-cfgbackup command with the –l flag to load and restore the backup file to the host.
```
vicfg-cfgbackup --server <ESXi-host-IP> -- portnumber <port_number> --protocol <protocol_type>-- username <username> --password <password> -l <backup_filename>
```
The -portnumber and -protocol options are optional. If you exclude them, the defaults are port 443 and protocol HTTPS.

NOTE:If you do not specify a password in the command line, you are prompted for one when the command executes. For example: vicfgcfgbackup --server 172.17.13.211 --username root –l backupdate.dat

After a successful restore, the system reboots using the new configuration. For complete instructions on backup and restore commands, see VMware ESXi Embedded and vCenter Server Setup Guide at vmware.com/support/pubs.