fully backing up a failing vcs-expressway

[baselzind]

my vcs-expressway have a fan issue and it keeps shutting down , i want to make sure i take everthing from it before it reaches a point where it wont work again , i have taken the backup (i ahve version 8.6.1) , is there a way to take the certificates as well? some people are telling me it wont work on the replacement VCS , is there anyhting else i could back up?

[Mohammed Khan · Accepted solution]

VCS backup file contains configuration settings, clustering configuration, security certificates and administrator account details.

Review page 319 and read limitation section of Backup and Restore on below link

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/vcs/admin_guide/Cisco-VCS-Administrator-Guide-X8-8-2.pdf

[Manish Gogna · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Please check the admin guide from VCS X8.7 below:

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/expressway/install_guide/Cisco-Expressway-Virtual-Machine-Install-Guide-X8-7.pdf

After the Expressway has been configured it is good practice to backup the Expressway configuration using the Expressway backup facility, and also to take a VM snapshot, please see page 15.

VMware snapshot is not a replacement for the Expressway backup - the Expressway backup should always be performed prior to the VMware snapshot being taken.

VCS backup files should include option keys, release keys, however you want to make sure this is also backed up up on a separate file as well as a separate file with Xconfig and Xstatus collected from CLI in case anything goes wrong with the official backup file.

Backup files should be taken once in a while when there are new configuration changes, configuration is not something that constantly change so automatic backups is not really a current available option on VCS.

HTH

Manish