To back up a host configuration, you can run vicfg-cfgbackup from a vMA instance. The vMA instance can run on the host that you are backing up or restoring, also referred to as the target host, or on a remote host.

To restore a host configuration, you must run vicfg-cfgbackup from a vMA instance running on a remote host. The host must be in maintenance mode, which means all virtual machines, including vMA, must be suspended on the target host.

For example, a backup operation for two ESXi hosts, host1 and host2, with vMA deployed on both hosts works as follows.

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To back up one of the host’s configuration, run vicfg-cfgbackup from the vMA appliance running on either host1 or host2. Use the --server option to specify the host for which you want backup information. The information is stored on vMA.

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To restore the host1 configuration, run vicfg-cfgbackup from the vMA appliance running on host2. Use the --server option to point to host1 to restore the configuration to that host.

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To restore the host2 configuration, run vicfg-cfgbackup from the vMA appliance running on host1. Use the --server option to point to host2 to restore the configuration to that host.