Gotcha #4: Backup, Backup, Backup vCenter First!
- Backing Up 4.x/5.0 vCenter ADAM instances
- Backing Up 5.1 vCenter SSO instances
- Backing Up vCenter SQL Database instances
Why is it so important to backup vCenter? First, because it is the heart of your virtual data center. Take, for example, virtual Distributed Switches (vDS). While traffic will continue to flow in the event of a vCenter outage (when setup using "Static Binding"), you won't be able to make any changes. That alone should cause you to backup, and backup often.
Additionally, if there is a (unlikely) probably during the vCenter installation, that irreparably changes the database or corrupts it...how will you get everything back? The only solution, if you are without backup, is to rebuild, and that is a lot of time and work.
Save yourself some headache, and back that thing up!