VMware KB: Backing up and restoring ESXi configuration using the vSphere Command-Line Interface and vSphere PowerCLI

Here is some great information about backing up and restoring ESXi host configurations. Great for taking backups before updating. The host profiles after restoring were all compliant too.

vicfg-cfgbackup.pl –server=ESXi_host_IP_address –username=root -s output_file_name


Where ESXi_host_IP_address is the IP address of the ESXi host and output_file_name is the name of the backup file you will create.

 
vicfg-cfgbackup.pl –server=ESXi_host_IP_address –username=root -l backup_file

Where ESXi_host_IP_address is the IP address of the ESXi host and backup_file is the name of the backup file to use for the restore.

Source: VMware KB: Backing up and restoring ESXi configuration using the vSphere Command-Line Interface and vSphere PowerCLI