A few weeks ago a customer asked me how to automate the export of the vSphere vNetwork Distributed Switches (VDS) configuration. Their existing routine included to make a manual export of the VDS configuration whenever a VDS change was implemented including adding or removing a VDS port group.
In the vSphere Web Client you can easily export the configuration per VDS by right-click the VDS and select “All vCenter Actions” and “Export Configuration”
When performing a VDS backup you can select if you want to include the VDS port groups or not.
There is also an option to perform a configuration export of an individual VDS port group by right-click the VDS port group and select “All vCenter Actions” and “Export Configuration”.
Below you’ll find the PowerCLI script i implemented in my customers environment that is running vSphere 5.5.
Change the following parameters in the below script to match your environment:
- $vcenter = “vc01.vcdx56.local“
- $vcenteruser = “vcdx56\magnus“
- $vcenterpw = “not secret“
- Backup each vNetwork Distributed Switch not including the port groups directory = c:\vSphere\$switch.without_portgroups.$date.zip”
- Backup each vNetwork Distributed Switch including the port groups directory = “c:\vSphere\$switch.with_portgroups.$date.zip”
- Backup each port group individually directory = “c:\vSphere\$($_.name).portgroup.$date.zip”
Change the red marked text in the script to your required values.
# Script to backup the vNetwork Distributed Switches (VDS) including their port groups
# The script will generate:
# * 2 files per VDS, 1 including the VDS configuration without the port groups and 1 including the VDS configuration and the VDS port groups
# * 1 file per VDS port group
#
# The script will run once a day meaning no need to use the force option to overwrite any existing backups since the date is included in the backup file names.
#
# Version 1.0 Magnus Andersson RTS
#————————————————
# Start of script parameters section
#
# vCenter Server configuration
$vcenter = “vc-demo01.vcdx56.local“
$vcenteruser = “vcdx56\magnus“
$vcenterpw = “not secret“
#
$date=get-date -uformat %Y-%m-%d
#
# End of script parameter section
#—————————————— #
#
# Connect to vCenter Server
connect-viserver $vcenter -User $vcenteruser -Password $vcenterpw
#
# Get the vNetwork Distributed switches
$switches=get-vdswitch
#
# Perform the backups
foreach ($switch in $switches)
{
#
# Backup each vNetwork Distributed Switch not including the port groups
export-vdswitch $switch -Withoutportgroups -Description "Backup of $switch without port groups" -Destination "c:\vSphere\$switch.without_portgroups.$date.zip"
#
# Backup each vNetwork Distributed Switch including the port groups
export-vdswitch $switch -Description "Backup of $switch with port groups" -Destination "c:\vSphere\$switch.with_portgroups.$date.zip"
#
# Backup each port group individually
get-vdswitch $switch | Get-VDPortgroup | foreach { export-vdportgroup -vdportgroup $_ -Description "Backup of port group $($_.name)" -destination "c:\vSphere\$($_.name).portgroup.$date.zip"
}
}
To schedule the PowerCLI script on a Windows machine, see my Schedule PowerCLI script in Wndows task scheduler blog post.
To restore the VDS you right-click the VDS and select “All vCenter Actions” and “Restore Configuration”.
When performing a VDS restore you got two options, same as when exporting the VDS configuration, either restore the VDS with the port groups included or not.
Restore the VDS port group by right-click the VDS port group and select “All vCenter Actions” and “Restore Configuration”.
You can also use PowerCLI to restore the VDS and the VDS port group if you want.
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