Velero

Velero is a backup and restore tool for Kubernetes. It is used to backup the cluster's resources, and to restore them in case of disaster. It is also used to migrate the cluster to another provider.

Before using Velero, all you need is an external S3 bucket to store your backups. You can use any S3 compatible storage provider. When creating the cluster, all velero variables are to be set either manualy in the terraform.tfvars file or during the automatic setup, according to the type of installation you choose.

Configuration

Set persistent volumes backup

We use the opt-in approach from Velero to backup persistent volumes (more information here). This means that you need to add the following annotation to your pods, when you want its PVC to be saved : backup.velero.io/backup-volumes: <volumes_names>, .... This will backup the persistent volume claim and the persistent volume associated with it.

You can use the opt-out approach by setting velero_default_volumes_to_fs_backup to true in the terraform.tfvars.

Velero's CLI

Velero comes with a CLI to manage the backups. You can install it here. To bind the CLI to your cluster, just set the --kubeconfig flag when you run a command. Otherwise, Velero will use your default kubeconfig file.

Manual backup

To backup the cluster, you need to create a backup file. This is done with the following command : velero backup create BACKUP_NAME. You can list your backups with velero backup get.

Auto backup

To schedule a backup of your namespace, just refer to the template common/Schedlule-template.yaml.template and fill it with the correct values. Then apply it with kubectl apply -f Schedlule-template.yaml.

Restore from backup

To restore from a backup, run the following command, with BACKUP_NAME being the name of the backup you want to restore from : velero restore create --from-backup BACKUP_NAME.

Next step → Standalone use