Cisco DNA Center Reimage / Restore Process

[MarkAntony]

Hi Everyone, 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

[MarkAntony]

Just realized there's a ask me anything thread relating to Backup and restore process pinned at top of this forum so have ask my question there, couldnt find a way to delete this post

[maflesch]

Hi Mark,

1. You do not need to do any discovery. Just provide your CCO credentials. And integration the backup server again.
2. Yes, ensure you have the same packages deployed as you did on your latest backup.
3. HA will need to be activated after installation of all three nodes is completed and before attempting to deploy optional packages.
4. You do not need to integrate ISE prior to doing a restore as most of that info is stored in a DB that is taken in the backup operation.

So your steps should be as followed:
1. Complete installation of first node.
2. Complete first-time setup, without Discovery.
3. Complete installation of 2nd and then 3rd node.
4. Activate HA.
5. Integrate backup server
6. Confirm packages match latest viable backup. (Download and install any option package missing to make the backup compatible).
7. Restore.