vCenter Inventory Service Database Backup

Everyone backs up the vCenter database and the Single Sign On (SSO) configuration. (I Hope)   BUT, do you backup your Inventory Service Database?

Starting vCenter 5.1, the Inventory Service was broken out into it's own independent component.   The Inventory Service contains the vCenter Web Client Custom Tags and the Storage Profiles that you are using via the vSphere Profile-Driven Storage Service.  In addition, it's the cache for the Web Client. 

To backup the Inventory Service database, perform the following steps:

1. Stop the VMware vCenter Inventory Service.

 

2. Using the command prompt, drill down to the \Inventory Service\scripts directory.  By default, it's located here.

C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Inventory Service\scripts

3. Run the following command:

backup.bat -file backup_file_name

 

4. After the backup completes successfully,. restart the VMware vCenter Inventory Service.

5. Confirm that the backup file is properly backed up.