Backup and Recovery

🛡️ Kubernetes Backup & Recovery: Your Cluster’s Safety Net

The Story of the Sandcastle

Imagine you spent all day building the most amazing sandcastle on the beach. Towers, moats, bridges—everything! 🏰

Then a wave comes and… whoosh… it’s gone.

Now imagine if you had a magic camera that could:

1. Take a perfect picture of your sandcastle
2. Rebuild it exactly the same way whenever you want

That’s what Velero does for your Kubernetes cluster!

🌊 What is Backup and Disaster Recovery?

The Simple Truth

Backup = Taking a “snapshot” of everything important Recovery = Using that snapshot to bring everything back

Think of it like:

• 📸 Backup = Taking photos of your toys
• 🔄 Recovery = Using photos to find and rebuild lost toys

Why Do We Need This?

Bad things happen. Even to computers:

graph TD
    A["Your Cluster"] --> B{Disaster Strikes!}
    B --> C["💥 Accidental Delete"]
    B --> D["🔥 Hardware Failure"]
    B --> E["🐛 Software Bug"]
    B --> F["👾 Security Attack"]
    C --> G["😱 Data Lost Forever?"]
    D --> G
    E --> G
    F --> G
    G --> H{Do you have backup?}
    H -->|Yes ✅| I["😊 Restore & Relax"]
    H -->|No ❌| J["😭 Start Over"]

Without backup: Start from scratch With backup: Press a button, everything returns!

🦸 Meet Velero: Your Backup Superhero

What is Velero?

Velero (once called “Heptio Ark”) is like a superhero for your Kubernetes cluster.

Its superpower? Making perfect copies of:

• ✅ All your applications
• ✅ All your configurations
• ✅ All your data (volumes)

Then storing them safely somewhere else!

The Velero Analogy: The Librarian 📚

Think of Velero as a super-organized librarian:

Why Velero is Special

graph TD
    A["Velero"] --> B["📦 Backs Up Everything"]
    A --> C["☁️ Stores Anywhere"]
    A --> D["⏰ Runs Automatically"]
    A --> E["🎯 Restores Precisely"]
    B --> F["Deployments"]
    B --> G["Services"]
    B --> H["ConfigMaps"]
    B --> I["Persistent Volumes"]
    C --> J["AWS S3"]
    C --> K["Google Cloud"]
    C --> L["Azure Blob"]
    C --> M["MinIO"]

🔧 Velero Backup Configuration

The Three Magic Ingredients

To make Velero work, you need three things:

1. Velero itself (the superhero)
2. A storage place (where to keep backups)
3. Backup rules (when and what to backup)

Step 1: Installing Velero

First, we tell Kubernetes to bring in our superhero:

# velero-install.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: velero
---
# Velero server runs here
# watching and protecting

Think of it like: Hiring a security guard 👮

Step 2: Setting Up Storage (BackupStorageLocation)

Where should Velero store your backups? You need a safe place!

apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: BackupStorageLocation
metadata:
  name: default
  namespace: velero
spec:
  provider: aws
  objectStorage:
    bucket: my-backup-bucket
  config:
    region: us-east-1

Breaking it down:

Step 3: Creating a Backup

Now the magic happens! Tell Velero what to save:

apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: Backup
metadata:
  name: my-first-backup
  namespace: velero
spec:
  includedNamespaces:
    - production
    - staging
  excludedResources:
    - secrets
  ttl: 720h

What each part means:

Step 4: Schedule Automatic Backups

Don’t want to remember? Make it automatic!

apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: Schedule
metadata:
  name: daily-backup
  namespace: velero
spec:
  schedule: "0 2 * * *"
  template:
    includedNamespaces:
      - production
    ttl: 168h

The schedule "0 2 * * *" means:

• Every day at 2:00 AM
• Like setting an alarm clock! ⏰

graph LR
    A["2 AM Every Day"] --> B["Velero Wakes Up"]
    B --> C["Takes Backup"]
    C --> D["Sends to Storage"]
    D --> E["Goes Back to Sleep"]

🔄 Restoring: Bringing Things Back

When Disaster Strikes

Oh no! Someone deleted the production namespace! 😱

Don’t panic. Here’s how to restore:

apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: Restore
metadata:
  name: restore-production
  namespace: velero
spec:
  backupName: daily-backup-20231215
  includedNamespaces:
    - production

That’s it! Velero will:

1. Find your backup
2. Read what was there
3. Recreate everything exactly

Restore Options

You have choices:

💾 Volume Snapshots

What About My Data?

Applications often store data on disks (Persistent Volumes).

Velero can backup these too!

apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: VolumeSnapshotLocation
metadata:
  name: default
  namespace: velero
spec:
  provider: aws
  config:
    region: us-east-1

Think of this like:

• Regular backup = Copying your homework 📝
• Volume snapshot = Copying your whole notebook 📓

🎯 Best Practices: The Golden Rules

Rule 1: Test Your Backups! 🧪

A backup you’ve never tested is just hope.

Regularly:

1. Create a test namespace
2. Restore your backup there
3. Check everything works

Rule 2: Follow the 3-2-1 Rule

graph TD
    A["3-2-1 Rule"] --> B["3 Copies of Data"]
    A --> C["2 Different Storage Types"]
    A --> D["1 Copy Offsite"]
    B --> E["Original + 2 backups"]
    C --> F["Disk + Cloud"]
    D --> G["Different location"]

Rule 3: Label Everything

Use labels to organize backups:

metadata:
  labels:
    environment: production
    app: my-app
    backup-type: daily

Rule 4: Monitor Your Backups

Set up alerts for:

• ❌ Backup failures
• ⚠️ Storage running low
• 📅 Backups too old

🎬 Real-World Example: The E-commerce Site

Let’s see Velero in action!

The Setup

my-shop-cluster/
├── frontend/     (React app)
├── backend/      (API server)
├── database/     (PostgreSQL)
└── redis/        (Cache)

The Backup Strategy

# Complete daily backup
apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: Schedule
metadata:
  name: full-daily-backup
spec:
  schedule: "0 3 * * *"
  template:
    includedNamespaces:
      - frontend
      - backend
      - database
      - redis
    snapshotVolumes: true
    ttl: 720h

The Disaster

Tuesday morning: Database namespace accidentally deleted! 😱

The Recovery

apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: Restore
metadata:
  name: restore-database
spec:
  backupName: full-daily-backup-20231219
  includedNamespaces:
    - database
  restorePVs: true

Result: Database back in 5 minutes! 🎉

📝 Quick Reference: Velero Commands

🌟 Your Backup Journey Begins!

You now know:

✅ Why backup matters (waves and sandcastles!) ✅ What Velero does (your backup superhero) ✅ How to configure it (storage, backups, schedules) ✅ When to restore (disasters happen, you’re ready!)

Remember

“The best time to set up backups was yesterday. The second best time is right now.” 🚀

Your Kubernetes cluster is precious. Protect it with Velero!

Next: Try the Interactive Lab to practice creating backups yourself! 🎮