Usage of Velero with IBM Cloud Private (Power)
Overview
Velero (formerly Heptio Ark) gives you tools to back up and restore your Kubernetes cluster resources and persistent volumes.
From the Product Documentation:
Velero lets you:
- Take backups of your cluster and restore in case of loss.
- Copy cluster resources to other clusters.
- Replicate your production environment for development and testing environments.
Velero consists of:
- A server that runs on your cluster
- A command-line client that runs locally
You can run Velero in clusters on a cloud provider or on-premises. For detailed information, see Compatible Storage Providers.
You can back up or restore all objects in your cluster, or you can filter objects by type, namespace, and/or label.
Velero is ideal for the disaster recovery use case, as well as for snapshotting your application state, prior to performing system operations on your cluster (e.g. upgrades).
For detailed information, see the Product Documentation.
Velero on Power (ppc64le)
Download Velero from here.
Velero Usage with IBM Cloud Private on Power
Environment
- IBM Cloud Private 3.1.2/3.2.0 -Enterprise Edition (Cluster A)
- IBM Cloud Private 3.1.2/3.2.0 -Enterprise Edition (Cluster B)
- Kubernetes CLI ( kubectl v1.12.4 )
- Velero v1.0.0+
- Minio ( BackupStorageLocation )
- Restic ( Fast, secure, efficient backup program )
Configuring Velero in Cluster ( A & B )
- Download sample Minio deployment file
Refer the document to install Velero with Minio on IBM Cloud Private: Installing Velero on IBM Cloud Private
Use-Case 1
- Demo:
Summary of the procedure:
- Create sample namespace (eg. sample-app).
- Deploy a sample nodejs application from the IBM Cloud Private catalog in the sample-app namespace on cluster A.
- Create a backup of nodejs application with the following command:
Velero backup create nodejs-sample-backup-demo --selector app=nodejsSample
- Restore nodejs application on cluster B with the following command:
Velero restore create --from-backup nodejs-sample-backup-demo
Use-Case 2
- Demo:
Summary of the procedure:
- Delete the restored nodejs application from cluster B.
- Deploy sample swift application from the IBM Cloud Private catalog in the sample-app namespace on cluster A.
- Create a backup of the entire sample-app namespace with the following command:
Velero backup create sample-app-backup-demo --include-namespaces sample-app
- Restore it on cluster B with the following command:
Velero restore create --from-backup sample-app-backup-demo
Use-Case 3
- Demo :
Summary of the procedure:
- Create a Persistent Volume with type local volume on cluster A.
{
"apiVersion": "v1",
"kind": "PersistentVolume",
"metadata": {
"name": "mongodb-sample-pv",
"resourceVersion": "",
"annotations": {
"pv.kubernetes.io/bound-by-controller": "yes"
},
"finalizers": [
"kubernetes.io/pv-protection"
]
},
"spec": {
"capacity": {
"storage": "50Mi"
},
"local": {
"path": "/var/lib/icp/Velero-mongodb-sample-pv"
},
"accessModes": [
"ReadWriteOnce"
],
"persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy": "Retain",
"storageClassName": "mongodb-sample-local-storage",
"nodeAffinity": {
"required": {
"nodeSelectorTerms": [
{
"matchExpressions": [
{
"key": "kubernetes.io/hostname",
"operator": "In",
"values": [
"cluster-A-IP",
"cluster-B-IP"
]
}
]
}
]
}
}
}
}
- Create Persistent Volume Claim to bind to Persistent volume created in the previous step on cluster A.
{
"apiVersion": "v1",
"kind": "PersistentVolumeClaim",
"metadata": {
"name": "mongodb-sample-ibm-mongodb-dev-mongodb-pvc",
"namespace": "sample-app",
"resourceVersion": "",
"labels": {
"app": "mongodb-sample-ibm-mongodb-dev",
"chart": "ibm-mongodb-dev-1.1.3",
"heritage": "Tiller",
"release": "mongodb-sample"
},
"annotations": {
"pv.kubernetes.io/bind-completed": "yes"
},
"finalizers": [
"kubernetes.io/pvc-protection"
]
},
"spec": {
"accessModes": [
"ReadWriteOnce"
],
"resources": {
"requests": {
"storage": "50Mi"
}
},
"volumeName": "mongodb-sample-pv",
"storageClassName": "mongodb-sample-local-storage",
"dataSource": null
}
}
- Deploy sample MongoDB application from the IBM Cloud Private catalog in the sample-app namespace on cluster A, configure it to use PVC created in the previous step.
- Annotate the pod associated with MongoDB application with the following command:
kubectl -n sample-test annotate pod/<POD_NAME> backup.Velero.io/backup-volumes=<BACKUP_NAME> --overwrite
- Create a backup of the entire sample-app namespace with the following command:
Velero backup create mongodb-app-with-pv-demo --include-namespaces sample-test --snapshot-volumes
- Restore it on cluster B with the following command:
Velero restore create --from-backup mongodb-app-with-pv-demo --restore-volumes
Conclusion
Velero is suitable for managing disaster recovery, specifically for Kubernetes
cluster resources. It provides a simple, configurable, and operationally robust
way to back up your application state and associated data.
Velero also provides us with the ability to seamlessly migrate resources from one cluster to another using cloud or on-premise storage. Using restic plugin we can easily backup and restore persistent volumes, as well.
Velero worked on Power as expected and will serve as a critical tool while backing up and restoring workloads from a Kubernetes or IBM Cloud Private cluster hosted on Power.
