Last updated on: 2023-03-14 02:16:22.

Backup and restore guide

Snapshots capture the VNFM configuration state. Consider performing VNFM snapshots on regular intervals (during off peak hours), and automating this process using the REST API (see the API documentation).

Regularly, you MUST back up the virtual machine on which the F5 VNF Managers run; this is dictated by a backup policy, involving daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly backups, as required. The method and schedule for backing up the F5 VNF Manager virtual machines falls outside the scope of this document.

The following procedures outline the manual snapshot and restore processes, using the VNFM UI and your VIM.

  1. Create a backup VM for restoration purposes.
  2. Create a routine snapshot.
  3. Restore a failed VNF Manager.

Create a backup virtual machine for restoration

This procedure assumes you have uploaded, created, and started a VNF Manager in your VIM (see VNFM setup guide for steps), successfully.

Important

You MUST perform this procedure BEFORE updating any secrets, creating any deployments, or executing any workflows in your newly created VNF Manager.

In vSphere ESXi 6.7

In vSphere 6.7, clone your existing (VNFM) virtual machine (see, page 32 in the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration Guide for detailed steps).

  1. Verify that you have a VNFM instance or virtual machine in your VIM, meeting these setup requirements.

  2. OPTIONAL: If prompted to update/replace your external certificates, consult these steps here, and then reboot the VNFM virtual machine.

  3. OPTIONAL: Once the VNFM finishes rebooting, login to the VNFM UI or CLI.

  4. OPTIONAL: If prompted, license the new VNFM using the on-screen wizard.

  5. Do the following BEFORE proceeding with your VNFM:

    1. In vSphere vApp, right-click the VNFM image in your content library that you want to clone, and then select Clone to Virtual Machine option on the popup menu.

    2. Using the Clone Existing VM wizard, enter a Name with a backup label (for example, vnfm[version]_backup), and click Next.

    3. Select a destination Compute Resource for this backup VM, and click Next.

    4. Select a Storage, datacenter for the configuration and disk files, for the VM Storage Policy select the Keep existing VM storage policies option (default setting), and then click Next.

    5. On the Select clone options page, leave ALL options CLEARED (default setting). Doing so, avoids changing parameter settings and avoids powering on the VM.

    6. On the Customize vApp options page, leave ALL default guest.network settings.

      Caution

      These settings MUST remain exactly the same as the virtual machine you are cloning. Verify that the IP address information remains EXACTLY the same.

    7. Click Finish.

  6. Now that you cloned or created a snapshot of the VNFM to which you can use to restore, you can proceed with updating the secrets for the running VNF Manager, deploying blueprints, and so forth. See the Deployments guide for steps.

In OpenStack v13

In OpenStack 13, create a snapshot of your VNFM instance (see, OpenStack documentation for details).

Important

BEFORE proceeding, verify that you have a working VNF Manager instance from which to copy; otherwise, you will NOT create this snapshot, successfully.

  1. Verify that you have a working VNFM instance or virtual machine in your VIM, meeting these setup requirements.

    Important

    Be sure you have a management network with an attached network port defined (see setup requirements for details). Doing so, ensures that you can detach the network and port from a failed VNFM and reattach them to a copy of your snapshot for restoration purposes.

  2. OPTIONAL: If prompted to update/replace your external certificates, consult these steps here, and then reboot the VNFM virtual machine.

  3. OPTIONAL: Once the VNFM finishes rebooting, login to the VNFM UI or CLI.

  4. OPTIONAL: If prompted, license the new VNFM using the on-screen wizard.

  5. Do the following BEFORE proceeding with your VNFM:

    1. To create a VNFM instance in Openstack, click the Instances tab, click Launch Instance, and then complete the Launch Instance form using a “backup” label in the Instance Name and selecting the Network Port you created for the Management network. SKIP setting the Network, as this will be assigned when you set the Network Port.
    2. Once your instance finishes, find your instance in the table, and then click Create Snapshot. Once your snapshot completes, your backup instance will appear on the Images tab listed in alphabetical order.

  6. Now that you created a snapshot of the VNFM to which you can use to restore, in VNFM, you can proceed with updating the secrets for the running VNF Manager, deploying blueprints, and so forth. See the Deployments guide for steps.

Create a routine snapshot

F5 recommends establishing a routine backup of the VNF Manager. You can create a snapshot manually using the UI (see following steps) or create an automated schedule using the API (see the API documentation). Decide the frequency for creating these snapshots, ensuring that you capture all recent changes. Store the snapshots off box from the VNFM VM, on an external drive.

Create a snapshot manually

Do the following; alternatively, you can also use the VNFM CLI (for example: vnfm snapshots download [OPTIONS] SNAPSHOT_ID).

  1. In the VNFM UI, in the left menu, click the Admin Operations blade.
  2. Scroll to the Snapshots pane, and then click Create.
  3. Name the snapshot, enable the Include Credentials option, and then click Create.
  4. In the left menu, click the Logs blade to see the creation of the snapshot.
  5. When the snapshot finishes, click Download next to the snapshot in the list, and select a directory NOT on the VNFM VM for storing the snapshot. Use an external drive for storage.

Note

Be aware that the VNFM UI or your browser will NOT provide visual feedback of this snapshot download process; however, your download will complete.

Restore a failed VNF Manager

In the event your running VNF Manager fails, do the following to restore the VNFM from the clone (vSphere) or snapshot (OpenStack) created in your VIM.

In vSphere ESXi 6.7+

  1. Power off the failed VNF Manager.

  2. Create an additional clone of the vnfm_backup that you created in step 5 in the previous Create a backup virtual machine for restoration procedure.

  3. Name this image accordingly, as this will become your running/restored VNF Manager.

    Creating a clone of your backup instance, ensures you always have a solid place from which to restart. F5 recommends always keeping this cloned backup.

  4. Power on the newly cloned VNF Manager (created in Step 2 of this procedure).

  5. Login to the VNFM UI.

  6. Click the Admin Operations blade, scroll to the Snapshots pane, click Upload, and then browse to the LATEST version of the routine snapshot file (created in the previous Create a routine snapshot procedure).

  7. In the Snapshot row, click restore_backup Restore.

  8. On the popup dialog box, enable the Force restore even if manager is non-empty option, leaving all other options with the default setting.

  9. Click Restore.

  10. In the left menu, click the Logs blade to see the restoration of the snapshot to the VNFM (see Deployment Events and Logs for details).

    Once the restore finishes, the VNFM is aware of all deployments and secrets available to it at the time of creating the routine snapshot.

Tip

In the event a Heal or Scale workflow was triggered by the Nagios component while the VNFM VM was offline, the restored VNFM can receive that notification and begin the workflow to remedy the situation, if you trigger the workflow manually using Nagios.

In OpenStack v13

  1. Shut off the failed VNF Manager instance.

  2. To detach the interface (which also detaches the network port), on the Compute -> Instances tab, select the shut-down VNFM instance in the list, at the end of the row expand the drop-down menu, and select Detach Instance from the list. This detaches the network port, which you will reattach to the copy of your snapshot for restoration purposes.

  3. Create an additional copy of the vnfm_backup instance that you created in step 5 in the previous Create a backup virtual machine for restoration procedure, naming this copied image accordingly, as this will become your running/restored VNF Manager. Creating a copy of your backup instance, ensures you always have a solid place from which to restart. F5 recommends always keeping this cloned backup.

  4. To launch the backup copy, on the Compute -> Instances tab, click Launch Instance, complete all the forms including:

    • Source tab - expand the Select Boot Source menu, choose Instance Snapshot from the list, and then select the snapshot from the Available list.
    • Networks tab - SKIP THIS STEP.
    • Network Ports tab - select the port created for the Management network.

  5. Click Launch Instance.

  6. To reattach the Network Port (detached in step 2), on the Compute -> Instances tab, select the copy of the vnfm_backup in the list, and then at the end of the row, expand the drop-down menu, select Attach Interface from the list, and define the following:

    • Expand the To define The way to specify an interface drop-down menu, and select by Network (and IP address) option.
    • Expand the Network drop-down menu and from the list select the Management network associated with the Network Port you defined during the setup process.
    • Leave all other default settings.

  7. Login to the VNFM UI, and do the following:

    1. Click the Admin Operations blade, scroll to the Snapshots pane, click Upload, and then browse to the LATEST version of the routine snapshot file (created in the previous Create a routine snapshot procedure).
    2. In the Snapshot row, click restore_backup Restore.
    3. On the popup dialog box, enable the Force restore even if manager is non-empty option, leaving all other options with the default setting.
    4. Click Restore.
    5. In the left menu, click the Logs blade to see the restoration of the snapshot to the VNFM (see Deployment Events and Logs for details).

    Once the restore finishes, the VNFM is aware of all deployments and secrets available to it at the time of creating the routine snapshot.

Tip

In the event a Heal or Scale workflow was triggered by the Nagios component while the VNFM virtual machine was offline, the restored VNFM can receive that notification and begin the workflow to remedy the situation, if you trigger the workflow manually using Nagios.

What’s Next?

Trigger Heal and Scale workflows from Nagios REST API