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.

[kalraja]

This is probably due to permission issue . the user which you were trying to configure didn't have privilege to write anything the user only had read access. To resolve this we need to allow user with READ , Write permission so the DNAC can use that username to create a folder and take backups

[mharshat]

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

[tjanarda]

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

[mharshat]

when i take a back of the dnac some time it throws like this what does this mean.?

Task error description:Error during _process_backup(): Internal server error: {"error":{"root_cause":[{"type":"snapshot_creation_exception","reason":"[ndp:050f413e-e3e9-48be-b5b0-fd11a10ba32a.000/AMuoXjd3Tx-voXMwCdsUyw] failed to create snapshot"}],"type":"snapshot_creation_exception","reason":"[ndp:050f413e-e3e9-48be-b5b0-fd11a10ba32a.000/AMuoXjd3Tx-voXMwCdsUyw] failed to create snapshot","caused_by":{"type":"access_denied_exception","reason":"/var/data/es/snapshots/meta-AMuoXjd3Tx-voXMwCdsUyw.dat"}},"status":500}
BACKUP.maglev-system:glusterfs-server

[tjanarda]

This error will be coming if you have not given the proper permissions to the NFS folder please re-check the configuration once according to the backup guide if you still see the issue again please feel free to open a TAC case we are happy to assist you 

[balaji.bandi]

Do you have any Detailed Steps for converting from DR (1+1+1 witness node) Deployment to a 3 Node cluster without losing data and configuration?

[tjanarda]

Yes, we can restore the backup from the Dr to 3 node cluster but make sure the version and application are same as DR setup.

[balaji.bandi]

So the Catalyst Centre (aka DNAC) should be the same version in the 3 Node Cluster and restore from DR, then you can upgrade - if I understand correctly, have you read any white papers and digested them.