36 Solution Guide
Appendix E: Configuration Backup and Restore Procedures
Dell recommends backing up your VMware ESX Server 3i configuration once
your complete initial setup and on routinely on a schedule that fits your
datacenter environment. Backing up your configuration will capture the
license code (host serial number) and will restore this code upon restore. This
is important if you ever need to use the recovery CD to restore the ESX 3i
image because the server’s license code, this code is not stored on the server
or recovery media.
To backup or restore the configuration information, you must use the Remote
Command Line Interface (RCLI). The RCLI is available in two forms:
• As a virtual appliance virtual machine that is imported to and run from an
existing ESX server, VMware Workstation, and VMware Player.
• As a package that is installed to and run from a Windows or Linux
machine.
Both of these packages are available for download from the VMware site. For
information about setting up and running the RCLI, see the Systems
Management with VMware ESX Server 3i software on Dell PowerEdge
Servers Guide as well as the VMware ESX Server 3i Setup and VMware ESX
Server 3i Configuration guides.
The backup and restore steps below will assume you have already imported
the RCLI to a server other than the one you want to backup or restore or you
have installed the Windows or Linux management APIs.

Backing up the Configuration of your ESX 3i Host

To back up a host’s configuration data:
1
Start the RCLI and log in.
2
Run the vicfg-cfgbackup command with the -s flag to save the host
configuration to the specified backup filename.
vicfg-cfgbackup --server <3i-host-ip> --portnumber <port_number> --
protocol <protocol_type> --username root --password <root_password>
[-s <backup-filename>|-l <backup-filename>]
The -portnumber and -protocol options are optional. If you exclude them,
the defaults are port 443 and protocol HTTPS.