A follow up to my previous post on setting up NSX backups…
If you have configured a backup schedule on your NSX Manager, you may notice that there is no setting on the number of backups to retain, or any option to remove older backups.  This is even true in the latest 6.3.3 version.
On several NSX Managers that I administer, I had noticed a slowdown accessing the managers, and when creating or deploying any new components, such as an edge gateway.
 It was discovered that the slowness started occurring if the NSX Manager has 100 or more backup files.  The only way to remove the files was to delete them from the FTP server folder, and then reboot the NSX Manager.
​
If you start to experience any odd behavior of your NSX Managers, check the number of backup files and remove the ones not needed.  I keep mine under 20.
I am hoping a feature will be added in the upcoming release to allow you to set a backup retention and to delete backup files in the web ui.
Will keep you posted on my progress for that...

Whether you need to recover your NSX Manager from a failure or revert from changes, it is always good to have a current backup!
And if you have several NSX Managers to configure backups on, updating them using the API call will save you quite a lot of time.
NSX Manager supports setting up backups using FTP or SFTP, and to schedule them to run on an hourly,
daily or weekly frequency.
If you are looking for a FTP Server, I have used the FileZilla Server and pointed NSX Manager backups. It will support SFTP as well, check out the FileZilla info- forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?t=8812
I have had the best success running API calls to NSX using the Firefox RESTClient.  To start with-
1. Locate the RESTClient Mozilla add‐on, and add it to Firefox.
2. Click Tools > REST Client to start the add‐on.
3. Click Authentication,then Basic Authentication, and enter the NSX Manager login credentials, which then appear encoded in the Request Header.
Note: you may need to browse to the NSX Managers web ui, and accept the certificate warning before running query.
4. Select a method such as GET, POST, or PUT, and type the URL of a REST API.
Response Header, Response Body, and Rendered HTML appear in the bottom window.
5. For POST and PUT, you will need to add a Custom Header.
Select Headers, Custom header and add the name Content-Type and Value application/xml

Below is an example of adding a backup for a daily schedule:

Method   PUT   URL: https://nsx-manager.corp.local/api/1.0/appliance-management/backuprestore /backupsettings
Headers: Authorization: Basic       Content-Type: application/xml
Body:
<backupRestoreSettings>
<ftpSettings>
<transferProtocol>FTP</transferProtocol>
<hostNameIPAddress>ftp-server.corp.local</hostNameIPAddress>
<port>21</port>
<userName>ftp-user</userName><password>my-pasword</password>
<backupDirectory>NSXBackupDir</backupDirectory>
<filenamePrefix>nsx-manager-</filenamePrefix>
<passPhrase>my-password</passPhrase>  - This item was not listed in the API guide
<passiveMode>true</passiveMode>
<useEPRT>false</useEPRT>
<useEPSV>true</useEPSV>
</ftpSettings>
<backupFrequency>
<frequency>DAILY</frequency>
<hourOfDay>19</hourOfDay>
<minuteOfHour>30</minuteOfHour>
</backupFrequency>
<excludeTables>
<excludeTable>AUDIT_LOGS</excludeTable>
<excludeTable>SYSTEM_EVENTS</excludeTable>
</excludeTables>
</backupRestoreSettings>
 
The items in Bold are the options for your specific configuration…
To check your backup settings, just change the Method to GET, and run the same URL with the Authentication: Basic Header-
Method   GET   URL: https://nsx-manager.corp.local/api/1.0/appliance-management/backuprestore /backupsettings
Headers: Authorization: Basic       
The configured settings will display in the Body:
<backupRestoreSettings>
<ftpSettings>
<transferProtocol>FTP</transferProtocol>
<hostNameIPAddress>ftp-server.corp.local</hostNameIPAddress>
<port>21</port>
<userName>ftp-user</userName><password>my-pasword</password>
<backupDirectory>NSXBackupDir</backupDirectory>
<filenamePrefix>nsx-manager-</filenamePrefix>
<passiveMode>true</passiveMode>
<useEPRT>false</useEPRT>
<useEPSV>true</useEPSV>
</ftpSettings>
<backupFrequency>
<frequency>DAILY</frequency>
<hourOfDay>19</hourOfDay>
<minuteOfHour>30</minuteOfHour>
</backupFrequency>
<excludeTables>
<excludeTable>AUDIT_LOGS</excludeTable>
<excludeTable>SYSTEM_EVENTS</excludeTable>
</excludeTables>
</backupRestoreSettings>

I ​am very honored to be selected as a vExpert for the fifth year in a row! 
Congratulations to everyone that was selected this year, you can see the list and announcement here: https://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2017/02/vexpert-2017-award-announcement.html
Congratulations to all of the vExperts of 2017!!

Yeah, I am way behind on posting things.  I passed the VCP6-NV exam last spring, since I have been working with NSX, and a bit of networking on a daily basis for a while I thought I would just schedule and take exam.

The exam is multiple choice, with several diagram questions, that have you select how a VM or host communicates with another VM or host.  I think there were 4 or 5 questions on this.  I also had a couple of questions on basic subnetting, so be sure and review that before you take the exam!

I watched two NSX courses from Pluralsight, www.pluralsight.com  by Jason Nash.  VMware NSX for vSphere Introduction and Installation and VMware NSX for vSphere: Network Services. 

These are both a huge help in learning NSX, especially the details needed for many of the services it can provide.

I had several questions with a diagram, not as nice as the one below, asking how VM1 would find the Mac address, or IP address of VM2.

Here is the process if the VM’s are on the same host:

1. VM1 sends Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request for the MAC address of VM2 on the
   same logical switch (VNI 5001) on the same host.
2. Broadcast is sent to all virtual machines on the logical switch of the same host. The switch
   security module uses the management network to query the NSX Controller instances ARP
   table for VM2 ARP entry.
3. Because VM2 is on the same logical switch, VM2 sends an ARP reply before NSX Controller
   responds to the switch security module:
   1. If VM2 has not participated in previous ARP reply or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), the NSX Controller instance lacks the information.
   2.  Switch security module updates local ARP table and notifies NSX Controller to update the ARP entry for VM2 (in the ARP table).

4. Logical switch delivers a unicast ARP reply to VM1.

And the same but with the VM’s on different hosts:

The steps, for Unicast mode at least, are:

There were also a few questions on Distributed Switches, creating Port Groups ect.

I didn’t find the exam overly difficult, but with 85 or so questions I was pretty worn out at the end of the exam….

Good luck to everyone who is working towards this certification!!