Cisco Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure Software Configuration Guide, Release 26.2 and Later

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Cisco Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure Software Configuration Guide, Release 26.2 and Later

Backup and Restore NFVIS and VM Configurations

Updated: June 29, 2026

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Details procedures for backing up and restoring Cisco NFVIS and VM configurations, including host and VM-level operations, supported options, feature tables, restrictions, factory-default-reset scenarios, and troubleshooting backup and restore failures.

You can backup and restore NFVIS configurations and VMs. You can also restore a backup from one NFVIS device to another if they are running on the same version of NFVIS and have the same platform.
Note

  • To backup and restore a single VM, use vmExportAction (for VM backup) and vmImportAction (for VM restore) APIs.

  • Perform the following hostaction backup that avoids loss of VMs during hostaction restore due to insufficient disk space:

    1. Stop the functioning of the VMs that are associated with Cisco NFVIS.

    2. Perform individual image backups of the VMs using the vmExportAction command.

    3. Once the backup is successful, delete the VMs and the images from Cisco NFVIS.

    4. When you delete the VMs and the images, perform a host level backup with configurations-only option using the command hostaction backup configuration-only file-path extdatastore2:sample-dir/sample .

    5. Copy the backup files to a file server.

    6. Perform a factory reset using the factory-default-reset command.

    7. Paste the backup copied to a file server and restore the host level backup file using the hostaction restore file-path extdatastore2:sample-dir/sample.bkup command.

    8. When the restore fails due to disk storage issues, restore the configurations-only backup. When the restore is successful, restore the VMs and their images using the vmImportAction importPath /mnt/extdatastore1/tiny_backup.vmbkp command.

Restrictions for Backup and Restore on NFVIS

  • The backup includes all deployed VMs and the registered images except uploaded files.

  • VM restore using hostaction restore and vmImportAction requires original registered image to be on the system, on the same datastore. Missing registered image or image registered in a different datastore results in VM restore failure.

  • The time taken to backup a VM depends on the option you choose:

    • configuration-only - within 1 min.

    • configuration-and-vms - depends on the number of VM deployments on your system, system disk write speed, and compress the VM disks into one bundle.

  • You can either backup all the VMs or none.

  • The final backup is a compressed file which requires temporary disk space to create the VM backup file. If the system has only one datastore, the maximum deployment backups in a single file is around one-third to half of the datastore disk space. If the deployments occupies more disk space, use vmExportAction to backup an individual VM instead of relying on host backup for all VM deployments.

  • NFVIS only supports backup or restore on the same release. For example, backup created in Cisco NFVIS release 4.1.1 cannot be used to restore on Cisco NFVIS release 4.2.1.

Feature Comparison Table for Backup and Restore

Backup using hostaction backup:

Feature

NFVIS 26.2.1 Release

Default file location for backup

/data/intdatastore/backup.bkup

/mnt/extdatastore1/backup.bkup

/mnt/extdatastore2/backup.bkup

/mnt/extdatastore3/backup.bkup

VM backup format

Diff disk backup

Registered Image and Flavors

Yes

Status monitoring

Yes

Check disk space before backup

Yes

Restore using hostaction restore:

Feature

NFVIS 26.2.1 Release

Default file location for backup

/data/intdatastore/backup.bkup

/mnt/extdatastore1/backup.bkup

/mnt/extdatastore2/backup.bkup

/mnt/extdatastore3/backup.bkup

Restore images and flavors

Yes

Unique Mac Uid for VM

Yes

Status monitoring

Yes

SNMP v3 user/passphrase restore (with uniqMacUid)

If system engine ID is the same as backup, restore all v3 users.

If system engine ID is different from backup, ignore v3 users restoration.

SNMP engine ID restore on different system

Engine ID changed to same as backup bundle

VM backup using vmExportAction:

Feature

NFVIS 26.2.1 Release

VM backup format

Diff disk backup

Backup and Restore

To backup and save NFVIS and all VM configurations use configuration-only option. To backup and save VM disks, NFVIS and VM configurations use configuration-and-vms option.

You can only create a backup and save into datastore, or mounted USB storage device. Without specifying, the backup file will have .bkup extension.

Action

Backup configuration-only

Backup configuration-and-vms

Save system configurations

Yes

Yes

Save system upgrade configurations

Yes

Yes

Save system upgrade file

No

No

Save images and flavors configurations

Yes

Yes

Save image disks

No

Yes

Save deployments configurations

Yes

Yes

Save deployments disks

No

Yes

The following examples shows the backup options:


nfvis# hostaction backup configuration-and-vms file-path intdatastore:sample


nfvis# hostaction backup configuration-only file-path extdatastore2:sample-dir/sample

The following example shows the backup stored on a USB:


nfvis# hostaction backup configuration-only file-path usb:usb1/sample

Use the hostaction backup force-stop command to stop the running backup.

Use the show hostaction backup status command to view the status of the overall backup process and each components like system, image and flavors, vm and so on. The following is an example of the show command output after the backup process is complete: 


nfvis# show hostaction backup status
hostaction backup status 2020-07-16T07:02:44-00:00
destination intdatastore:backup_20200704.bkup
status      BACKUP-SUCCESS
size        "2798.0 MB"
components FIREWALL
  status      BACKUP-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:07:38-00:00
  size        "20.49 MB"
  details     ""
components Linux
  status      BACKUP-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:07:36-00:00
  size        "0.01 MB"
  details     ""
components NFS
  status      BACKUP-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:06:44-00:00
  size        "0.01 MB"
  details     ""
components NFVIS
  status      BACKUP-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:02:48-00:00
  size        "0.72 MB"
  details     ""
components ROUTER
  status      BACKUP-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:07:35-00:00
  size        "579.89 MB"
  details     ""
components VM_Images_Flavors
  status      BACKUP-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:06:45-00:00
  size        "2197.73 MB"
  details     ""
nfvis#

To restore a previous backup on an existing NFVIS setup or on a new NFVIS setup use except-connectivity option which preserves connectivity of the NFVIS and restores everything else from backup.

The restore is based on the system condition created during backup.

Condition

Restore configuration-only

Restore configuration-and-vms

Restore system configurations

Yes

Yes

Restore upgrade configurations

yes, requires same upgrade files in system if the host backup was taken has such upgrade files.

No, if host where backup was taken did not have any upgrade files registered. Restoree will fail.

Yes, requires same upgrade files in system if the host backup was taken has such upgrade files.

No, if host where backup was taken did not have any upgrade files registered. Restore will fail.

Restore registered images and flavors

Yes, if images sources are still available (URL link is still valid, or uploaded files are still in the same locations).

No, if images sources are not available (URL link is invalid, upload files are deleted or moved to new location). The restore process will fail.

Yes, restore from backup file.

Restore deployments

No

Yes, restore from backup file.
Note

This means if there are upgrade files registered in the NFVIS. The backup create on this host will contain those information. If using this backup on new host or same host after factory-default-reset, the restore will fail.

Condition

dpdk-disabled while backup

dpdk-enable while backup

dpdk-disabled while restore

Yes (system is dpdk-disabled)

Yes (system will beconverted to dpdk enabled, and VM vnic will be convereted inf needed)

dpdk-enabled while restore

No support

Yes (system is dpdk-enabled)
Note

In hostaction restore process, the full file name (with .bkup extension) is required in the CLI. 


nfvis# hostaction restore file-path intdatastore:sample.bkup

The following example shows how to restore a backup on a different NFVIS device:


nfvis# hostaction restore except-connectivity file-path extdatastore2:sample-dir/sample.bkup

Use the show hostaction restore-status command to view the status of the overall restore process and each components like system, image and flavors, vm and so on. The following is an example of the show command output after the restore process is complete: 


nfvis# 
                    show hostaction restore-status
hostaction restore-status 2020-07-16T07:18:54-00:00
source intdatastore:backup_20200704.bkup
status RESTORE-SUCCESS
components FIREWALL.vmbkp
  status      RESTORE-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:26:34-00:00
  details     ""
components Linux.vmbkp
  status      RESTORE-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:26:03-00:00
  details     ""
components NFS.vmbkp
  status      RESTORE-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:25:36-00:00
  details     ""
components NFVIS
  status      RESTORE-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:22:03-00:00
  details     ""
components ROUTER.vmbkp
  status      RESTORE-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:26:55-00:00
  details     ""
components VM_Images_Flavors
  status      RESTORE-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:26:01-00:00
  details     ""
components intdatastore:backup_20200704.bkup
  status      VERIFICATION-SUCCESS
  last update 2020-07-16T07:18:54-00:00
  details     ""
nfvis#

You can backup registered images and flavors into backup package and restore these images and flavors into the system. The new system does not require a pre-registered image before system restore. If the system has existing images, flavors or deployments, the system restore erases them all and restores from its own backup.

Backup, Restore, and Factory-Default-Reset

You can copy backup file to intdatastore/ if there is sufficient storage space. If the backup is larger than free disk space in intdatastore/, you can copy to a remote server like scp or NFVIS web portal.

The following table lists the data erased and retained upon using NFVIS factory default reset options:

Data

Factory-default-reset all

Factory-default-reset all-except-images

Factory-default-reset all-except-images-connectivity

files under intdatastore

Retain

Retain

Retain

files under intdatastore/uploads/

Delete

Delete

Delete

files under extdatastore${1,2}

Delete

Retain

Retain

files under extdatastore${1,2}/uploads/

Delete

Delete

Delete

files under USB

Retain

Retain

Retain

files under NFS mounted datastore

Retain

Retain

Retain

Deployments

Delete

Delete

Delete

Registered Images and Flavors

Delete

Retain

Retain

Failure to Restore

NFVIS configurations fails to restore if:

  • There is no sufficient disk space. Restore requires temporary disk space to save un-compressed files. You can move, copy or upload the backup file to a larger datastore and run system restore.

    
nfvis# show hostaction restore-status
hostaction restore-status 2020-07-16T21:29:08-00:00
source intdatastore:encs07-configVms-dpdk-2020-07101600.bkup
status RESTORE-ERROR
components intdatastore:encs07-configVms-dpdk-2020-07101600.bkup
  status      VERIFICATION-ERROR
  last update 2020-07-16T21:49:18-00:00
  details     "Backup package could not be inflated. No space left on device"
nfvis#

  • The application communication fails. You can see this error after the first restore attempt has failed, and when you try to restore for the second time. You can reboot NFVIS before you attempt restore again.

    
nfvis# hostaction restore file-path extdatastore2:backup_20200704.bkup
Error: application communication failure