VMware vSphere

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  • 1.  Reverting vCenter Snap after Certificate Renewal failure

    Posted Nov 15, 2023 05:17 AM

    Hi!

    I was trying to renew the machine SSL certificate via vCenter CLI but it went wrong and vCenter GUI was not accessible. Everything in the background is working fine. We have 2 clusters, a Distributed switch with multiple ports group, and Shared storage iSCSI.

    Before SSL renewal I took a vCenter snapshot.

    I want to know if I revert back to the snapshot from the ESXI host of vCenter, Will it cause any issues on virtual machines because we have servers in production and we can't bear downtime?

    I need someone suggestions who is an expert. I would really appreciate that.

     

    Thanks in Advance.



  • 2.  RE: Reverting vCenter Snap after Certificate Renewal failure
    Best Answer

    Posted Nov 15, 2023 07:11 AM

    Hi,

    did you take an offline snapshot or did you exclude the VMs memory? Then the vCenter will come up as if it was shut down or crashed. 

    Speaking from my experience with similar infrastructure, you won't have a problem. 

    The ESX servers and the VMs on them are mostly decoupled from the vCenter and will keep running regardless. Regarding the distributed  switch - even when the vCenter is lost, the ESX servers will keep working with their running configuration.

     



  • 3.  RE: Reverting vCenter Snap after Certificate Renewal failure

    Posted Nov 15, 2023 07:23 AM

    I took the snapshot while it's running.

    Snapshot the virtual machine memory: yes



  • 4.  RE: Reverting vCenter Snap after Certificate Renewal failure

    Posted Nov 15, 2023 07:26 AM

    What does a snapshot of the virtual machine memory do? is it safe to check this option during the snapshot?

    I have to renew the SSL because Vcenter was not accessible after the SSL expired date is the 19th of November. So I was thinking of taking another snapshot. 

     

     



  • 5.  RE: Reverting vCenter Snap after Certificate Renewal failure
    Best Answer

    Posted Nov 15, 2023 07:38 AM

    This is taking a snapshot including the VMs RAM contents - if you restore this snapshot the VM will be powered on and running like at the exact time the snapshot was taken.

    If you exclude it, the VM will be powered off when restoring, resulting in the VM behaving like it has crashed and rebooted.

    The safest option overall though would be to temporarily shut down the vCenter and take an offline snapshot. 

     



  • 6.  RE: Reverting vCenter Snap after Certificate Renewal failure

    Posted Nov 15, 2023 07:41 AM

    If I shutdown vCenter and take snapshot will it cause any impact on virtual machines?



  • 7.  RE: Reverting vCenter Snap after Certificate Renewal failure
    Best Answer

    Posted Nov 15, 2023 07:43 AM

    No, the VMs will keep on running. The vCenter is only needed for management, the actual VMs, the dVS and the HA configuration will keep functioning.