Ask Me Anything - Cisco Catalyst Centre Backup and Restore

[Brooke Hammer]

Ask Me Anything Event

Welcome to the Cisco Community Ask Me Anything conversation. Submit your questions from  Monday, February 24, 2025  through Friday, March 7, 2025. Our colleagues Kalyan Raja and Janardhan, will be waiting to assist you and resolve any questions that have not been clarified, or answer any new questions that you may have. We are waiting for you!

More about this event:

Join us for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) event where you can dive deep into Cisco Catalyst Centre Backup and Restore!

What is it?

Cisco Catalyst Centre Back up and Restore is a component of Cisco's Catalyst Center (formerly DNA) You can use the backup and restore functions to create backup files to restore to a different appliance

Backup

You can back up automation data only or both automation and Assurance data.

Automation data consists of Cisco DNA Center databases, credentials, file systems, and files. The automation backup is a full backup.

The Assurance data consists of network assurance and analytics data. The first backup of Assurance data is a full backup. After that, backups are incremental.

Restore

You can restore the backup files from the remote server using Cisco DNA Center.

When you restore the backup files, Cisco DNA Center removes and replaces the existing database and files with the backup database and files. While a restore is being performed, Cisco DNA Center is unavailable.

You cannot do a backup from one version of Cisco DNA Center and restore it to another version of Cisco DNA Center. You can only restore a backup to an appliance that is running the same Cisco DNA Center software release with the same first four digits and the same application versions as the appliance from which the backup was taken.

Official resources:

Backup on on-prem

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center/2-3-7/admin_guide/b_cisco_dna_center_admin_guide_2_3_7/b_cisco_dna_center_admin_guide_2_3_7_chapter_0110.html

Backup on EXSI

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/catalyst-center/catalyst-center-va/esxi/2-3-7/Admin_Guide/b_cisco_catalyst_center_va_esxi_admin_guide_237x/m_cisco_dna_center_va_esxi_admin_backup_restor...

Backup on AWS

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/catalyst-center/catalyst-center-va/aws/admin-guide/1_9/b_cisco-global-launchpad-administrator-guide_1-9/m_backup_and_restore.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw3lCrW7xr8

Get Expert Advice!

• This AMA session is your chance to get expert insights on this powerful feature.
• Whether you're a seasoned network pro or just starting out, feel free to ask any questions you have about Backup and Restore, image repository or Cisco Catalyst Center in general.

Join us for this insightful Ask Me Anything session and gain valuable insights into the world of Cisco Catalyst Center Backup and re-store. Let's uncover the solutions to your challenges and explore the vast possibilities in this dynamic field.

Note: Please post your post as a comment below no later than March 6, 2025.

Post your question below by clicking "Reply"

(Answers will be processed depending on the availability of the experts)
Don't forget to thank the expert by giving it a helpful vote!

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Our experts

Janardhana Technical Consulting Engineer

Kalyan Raja Technical Consulting Engineer

For more information, visit the Cisco Networking discussion forums . If you have questions or are experiencing technical problems with any of the Cisco products, post your question, request information or use the Cisco Community before opening a case with the TAC.

[MarkAntony]

Hi, I've reimaged my DNAC Servers (3 node cluster) to 2.3.3.5 after a failed upgrade, does anyone know the process to follow before I attempt the restore from backup. Cant seem to find any documentation for it. A few things I thought of below but probably more. At the moment GUI is available which will start the First-Time Setup workflow once i log in for first time. Thanks

1. First-Time Setup Workflow (can some of this be skipped with me restoring from backup in a later step – as believe I won’t need to do discovery etc)
2. Ensure all packages installed as per previous build
3. Activate High Availability
4. ISE integration (unsure if this is done by the restore I’ll be doing)
5. Restore Backup

[kalraja]

We just need follwoing thing to keep in mind while restoring the backup :

1. Make sure the backup that you want to retsore has same version from where backup is taken

2. Ensure all aapplication version are same

IF you above two parameter match then you can restore backup without any issue . You can re-integrate ISE after the backup is restored

[MarkAntony]

Thanks @kalraja , I also use SDA with approx 80 Fabric sites, could any part of the DNAC restore process including reintegration with ISE cause any issues for my end users? all my sites are currently operating as normal without DNA Center.

Lastly in a 3 node cluster should 'high availability' be enabled prior to restoring previous backup or does it not matter, before or after? 

[kalraja]

No Restoring backup will not of impact on device operation

Yes it dosen't matter you can retore backup prior enabling High availabilty or after enabling High availabilty

[dinagar2]

what are the ports that need to be allowed for backup to work

[tjanarda]

no we cannot take backup on window machine

[bhas2]

what are the ports that need to be allowed for backup to work

[tjanarda]

111 , 2049 , 20048 , 32767 for Assurance backup

22 for rsync backup

[sivc]

How to check if NFS is mounted in DNAC

[tjanarda]

Please login into DNAC CLI and enter df -kf  you will see linux server nfs mount

[ashwatna]

can we download the backup on exsi to our local machine 

[kalraja]

NO as of now this feature is not there

[anjchaur]

Unlike Prime infra where we can take backup locally . will DNAC allow us to take backup locally instead of having a separate backup server

[kalraja]

No we should take backup locally the spaces allocated to DNAC is for internal purpose only and hence we should not take backup locally

[asivasam]

When i was trying to add the automation backup configuration i was getting an error that the target directory is not writable