Catalyst center backups

[KevinR99]

Hi

Can I jusy clarify some backup information please?  The automation only backup is what you would restore if your cluster went awol and you are recovering all your fabric info?  Device configs, hand offs, port allocations, L2/L3 VN info, SGT matrix etc ?  So this is the backup I would restore to rebuild the fabric info in my Catalyst centre even though the fabric still runs fine without catalyst centre offline.  I just can't make changes.

The assurance backup is just the data we look at in the assurance area and has no impact on the fabric setup?

When I do, for example, an Automation backup and it appears on the backups list with delete next to it then will it delete all the related files from the destination server ?  I could test this but don't have a linux destination readily to hand.

A last point.  Will it ever be the case that Catalyst Centre versions are backward compatible with backup versions?  As I understand it as soon as I upgrade Catalys Centre the backups are no longer compatible.  That implies if I ever have a compete melt down I need to get my cluster back to the version the backups were taken at to be able to restore them.  That could be tricky.

Thanks, Kev.

[balaji.bandi]

There are some guide line provided backup and restore (most of the quesiton covered there) - is there anything missing there ?

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/catalyst-center/2-3-7/admin_guide/b_cisco_catalyst_center_admin_guide_237/b_cisco_dna_center_admin_guide_2_3_7_chapter_0110.html

[maflesch · Accepted solution]

You are correct about your statements. The automation portion of the backup contains the configuration and database information needed for restoration of device manageability. The assurance portion contains just the assurance related data but does not affect the manageability of the environment.

If you delete the backup in the UI of Cisco Catalyst Center, it should remove all related items from that particular backup, yes.

Correctly for our AWS and on-prem (physical) appliance products we do not support cross version backup restorations. What I mean by that is if you take a backup on 2.3.5.4 and upgrade to 2.3.5.5, the backup is no longer compatible.

With that stated, on our ESXi VA (Virtual Appliance) product, we will be supporting cross version backup restoration functionality. Also, eventually the other Cisco Catalyst Center products will be converted/upgraded to allow the same feature with the backups and restores, just not yet.