The Process to Back-up – Manual
Open your vSphere client
Turn off the VM you want to back-up
Delete and consolidate any snapshots you may have
Highlight the VM in the left pane
Click File — Export OVF Template
Give your export a name, location to export to and whether you want it in single file or multi file mode. Folder of files (OVF) mode should be used if you want to later deploy the VM over a web server. Single file (OVA) mode should be used if it doesn’t need to be published via a web server. Use if you want to transfer over USB, back-up to some other storage, et cetera.
The Process to Restore
Open the vSphere client
Click File — Deploy OVF Template
Locate the .ova file or input the URL where the .ovf is stored
Click Next and input name of the new VM and other fields as necessary
