How to Backup vCenter Server Appliance

To backup the VCSA with Veeam, it's important to understand that Veeam does not directly support Postgres SQL (VMware's embedded DB). Instead, it's optimal to perform backup in 2 parts:

1. Image Level Backup with Veeam.
2. Database backup via VMware Best Practice.

Part 2 is not required, however, please beware that restoring the image-level backup ensures the same state the Database was in at the point in time of the backup. VMware Best Practice shows to backup the database as regular maintenance. Then you would be able to restore the server from step 1, then restore the database to whichever point in time with the backup from step 2.

To backup the VCSA with Veeam (step 1):

1. Create a typical backup job.
2. VMware Tools Quiescence is disabled on the job level.
3. Ensure Application-Aware Processing and Guest File System Indexing are either disabled or excluded for the VCSA VM.
4. Customize other settings to desired configuration.

To backup the VCSA Database (step 2):

1. See this VMware KB on how to backup the database.