Chances that you lose some valuable information of your Kubernetes cluster unintentionally is somehow likely to happen at some point.

1. Delete a namespace by accident.
2. Shutdown a Deployment without meaning to.
3. Specifying the wrong set of labels to a kubectl delete command, removing more than you intended.
4. Latest code changes introduced a critical bug that wiped a persistent volume and you lost the data.

Velero is an open source tool to safely backup and restore, perform disaster recovery, and migrate Kubernetes cluster resources and persistent volumes.

Velero runs in your cluster and connects to a storage service in the cloud (for instance, Amazon S3, or Azure Storage).

Features:

• Back up Clusters: Back up your Kubernetes resources and volumes for an entire cluster, or part of a cluster by using namespaces or label selectors.

• Schedule Backups: Set schedules to automatically kickoff backups at recurring intervals.

• Backup Hooks: Configure pre and post-backup hooks to perform custom operations before and after Velero backups.

Download Velero

$ wget https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/velero/releases/download/v1.2.0/velero-v1.2.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz

$ tar zxf velero-v1.2.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz

$ sudo mv velero-v1.2.0-linux-amd64/velero /usr/local/bin/

$ rm -rf velero*

These instructions start the Velero server and a Minio instance that is accessible from within the cluster at port 9000 and outside the cluster with a NodePort service at port 30001.

Minio is a local S3-compatible object storage service. It provides a convenient way to test Velero without tying you to a specific cloud provider.

Create a Velero-specific credentials file (credentials-velero) in your local directory:

[default]
aws_access_key_id = minio
aws_secret_access_key = minio123

Start the server and the local storage service. In the Velero directory, run:

$ kubectl apply -f ./src/00-minio-deployment.yaml

$ velero install \
    --provider aws \
    --plugins velero/velero-plugin-for-aws:v1.0.0 \
    --bucket velero \
    --secret-file ./src/credentials-velero \
    --use-volume-snapshots=false \
    --backup-location-config region=minio,s3ForcePathStyle="true",s3Url=http://minio.velero.svc:9000

You can access the Minio dashboard at http://127.0.0.1:30001

Deploy the example nginx application:

$ kubectl apply -f src/nginx-app/base.yaml

Check to see that both the Velero and nginx deployments are successfully created:

$ kubectl get deployments -l component=velero --namespace=velero

$ kubectl get deployments --namespace=nginx-example

Create a backup for any object that matches the app=nginx label selector:

$ velero backup create nginx-backup --selector app=nginx

Alternatively if you want to backup all objects except those matching the label backup=ignore:

$ velero backup create nginx-backup --selector 'backup notin (ignore)'

(Optional) Create regularly scheduled backups based on a cron expression using the app=nginx label selector:

$ velero schedule create nginx-daily --schedule="0 1 * * *" --selector app=nginx

Alternatively, you can use some non-standard shorthand cron expressions:

$ velero schedule create nginx-daily --schedule="@daily" --selector app=nginx

See the cron package's documentation for more usage examples.

💣💥 Simulate a disaster:

$ kubectl delete namespace nginx-example

To check that the nginx deployment and service are gone, run:

$ kubectl get deployments --namespace=nginx-example

$ kubectl get services --namespace=nginx-example

$ kubectl get namespace/nginx-example

You should get no results.

NOTE: You might need to wait for a few minutes for the namespace to be fully cleaned up.

Run:

$ velero restore create --from-backup nginx-backup

Run:

$ velero restore get

After the restore finishes, the output looks like the following:

NAME                          BACKUP         STATUS      WARNINGS   ERRORS    CREATED                         SELECTOR
nginx-backup-20170727200524   nginx-backup   Completed   0          0         2020-01-03 20:05:24 +0000 UTC   <none>

NOTE: The restore can take a few moments to finish. During this time, the STATUS column reads InProgress.

After a successful restore, the STATUS column is Completed, and WARNINGS and ERRORS are 0. All objects in the nginx-example namespace should be just as they were before you deleted them.

If there are errors or warnings, you can look at them in detail:

$ velero restore describe <RESTORE_NAME>

If you want to delete any backups you created, including data in object storage and persistent volume snapshots, you can run:

$ velero backup delete BACKUP_NAME

This asks the Velero server to delete all backup data associated with BACKUP_NAME. You need to do this for each backup you want to permanently delete. A future version of Velero will allow you to delete multiple backups by name or label selector.

Once fully removed, the backup is no longer visible when you run:

$ velero backup get BACKUP_NAME

To completely uninstall Velero, minio, and the nginx example app from your Kubernetes cluster:

$ kubectl delete namespace/velero clusterrolebinding/velero

$ kubectl delete crds -l component=velero

$ kubectl delete -f src/nginx-app/base.yaml

• Velero v.1.2.0 docs