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How to Back Up an OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes Cluster Using Velero

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Michael M.
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In this tutorial, we are using Velero to backup and restore an OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes cluster configuration and resources.

Velero is an open source tool to safely backup and restore, perform disaster recovery, and migrate Kubernetes cluster resources. It can be used for backing up volumes, but we don’t support this usage, please look at our Backing Up Persistent Volumes using Stash tutorial for our recommended alternative.

We are using our Public Cloud’s Swift Object Storage with the Swift S3 API as storage backend for Velero. Velero uses the S3 protocol to store the cluster backups on a S3 compatible object storage.

Before you begin

This tutorial presupposes that you already have a working OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes cluster, and some basic knowledge of how to operate it. If you want to know more on those topics, please look at the deploying a Hello World application documentation.

Creating the S3 bucket for Velero

Velero needs a S3 bucket as storage backend to store the data from your cluster.
In this section you will create your S3 bucket on Swift.

Prepare your working environment

Before creating your S3 bucket you need to:

You should now have access to your OpenStack RC file, with a filename line <user_name>-openrc.sh, and the username and password for your OpenStack account.

Set the OpenStack environment variables

Set the environement variables by sourcing the OpenStack RC file:

# source <user_name>-openrc.sh

The shell will ask you for your OpenStack password:

# source <user_name>-openrc.sh
Please enter your OpenStack Password for project <project_name> as user <user_name>:

Create EC2 credentials

S3 tokens are different, you need 2 parameters (access and secret) to generate a S3 token.

These credentials will be safely stored in Keystone. To generate them with python-openstack client:

# openstack ec2 credentials create

Please write down the access and secret parameters:

# openstack ec2 credentials create
+------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Field      | Value
+------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| access     | 5a4d8b8d88104123a862c527ede5a3d3
| links      | {u'self': u'https://auth.cloud.ovh.net/v3/users/d74d05ff121b44bea9216495e7f0df61/credentials/OS-EC2/5a4d8b8d88104123a862c527ede5a3d3'}
| project_id | 20e124b71be141299e111ec26b1892fa
| secret     | 925d5fcfcd9f436d8ffcb20548cc53a2
| trust_id   | None
| user_id    | d74d05ff121b44bea9216495e7f0df61
+------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Configure awscli client

Install the awscli client:

# pip3 install awscli awscli-plugin-endpoint

Complete and write down the configuration for awscli into ~/.aws/config:

[plugins]
endpoint = awscli_plugin_endpoint

[profile default]
aws_access_key_id = <access fetched in previous step>
aws_secret_access_key = <secret fetched in previous step>
region = <public cloud region in lower case without digit>
s3 =
  endpoint_url = https://s3.<public cloud region without digit>.cloud.ovh.net
  signature_version = s3v4
  addressing_style = virtual
s3api =
  endpoint_url = https://s3.<public cloud region without digit>.cloud.ovh.net

Create a S3 bucket for Velero

Create a new bucket:

# aws --profile default s3 mb s3://velero-s3

Installing Velero

We strongly recommend that you use an official release of Velero. The tarballs for each release contain the velero command-line client. Expand the tarball and add it to your PATH.

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

[default]
aws_access_key_id=<AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID>
aws_secret_access_key=<AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY>

Where <AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID> and <AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY> and the access and secret S3 credentials generated in the precedent step.

Install Velero, including all prerequisites, into the cluster and start the deployment. This will create a namespace called velero, and place a deployment named velero in it.

# velero install \
  --provider aws \
  --plugins velero/velero-plugin-for-aws:v1.0.1 \
  --bucket <your bucket name> \
  --secret-file ./credentials-velero \
  --backup-location-config region=<public cloud region without digit>,s3ForcePathStyle="true",s3Url=https://s3.<public cloud region without digit>.cloud.ovh.net

In my case, with the cluster in the GRA region, that meant:

# velero install \
  --provider aws \
  --plugins velero/velero-plugin-for-aws:v1.0.1 \
  --bucket velero-s3 \
  --secret-file ./credentials/credentials-velero \
  --backup-location-config region=gra,s3ForcePathStyle="true",s3Url=https://s3.gra.cloud.ovh.net

# velero install \
  --provider aws \
  --plugins velero/velero-plugin-for-aws:v1.0.1 \
  --bucket velero-s3 \
  --secret-file ./credentials/credentials-velero \
  --backup-location-config region=gra,s3ForcePathStyle="true",s3Url=https://s3.gra.cloud.ovh.net
CustomResourceDefinition/backups.velero.io: attempting to create resource
CustomResourceDefinition/backups.velero.io: created
CustomResourceDefinition/restores.velero.io: attempting to create resource
CustomResourceDefinition/restores.velero.io: created
CustomResourceDefinition/downloadrequests.velero.io: attempting to create resource
CustomResourceDefinition/downloadrequests.velero.io: created
[...]
Deployment/velero: attempting to create resource
Deployment/velero: created
Velero is installed! ⛵ Use 'kubectl logs deployment/velero -n velero' to view the status.

Now Velero is installed, you can try your first backup…

Verifying Velero is working

To verify that Velero is working correctly, let’s test with one example deployment:

  1. Copy the following code into a velero-example-without-pv.yml file:
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: nginx-example
  labels:
    app: nginx

---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-deployment
  namespace: nginx-example
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
        - image: nginx:1.7.9
          name: nginx
          ports:
            - containerPort: 80

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  labels:
    app: nginx
  name: my-nginx
  namespace: nginx-example
spec:
  ports:
    - port: 80
      targetPort: 80
  selector:
    app: nginx
  type: LoadBalancer

And apply it to your cluster:

# kubectl apply -f velero-example-without-pv.yml

Create a backup of the namespace

# velero backup create nginx-backup --include-namespaces nginx-example

Verify that the backup is done

# velero backup describe nginx-backup

Simulate a disaster

# kubectl delete namespaces nginx-example

Restore the deleted namespace

# velero restore create --from-backup nginx-backup

Verify that the restore is correctly done

# kubectl get all -n nginx-example

In my case:

# kubectl apply -f exemples/velero/velero-example-without-pv.yml
namespace/nginx-example created
deployment.apps/nginx-deployment created
service/my-nginx created

# velero backup create nginx-backup --include-namespaces nginx-example
Backup request "nginx-backup" submitted successfully.
Run `velero backup describe nginx-backup` or `velero backup logs nginx-backup` for more details.

# velero backup describe nginx-backup
Name:         nginx-backup
Namespace:    velero
Labels:       velero.io/storage-location=default
[...]
Started:    2019-11-05 18:11:19 +0100 CET
Completed:  2019-11-05 18:11:20 +0100 CET

Expiration:  2019-12-05 18:11:19 +0100 CET

Persistent Volumes: <none included>

# kubectl delete namespaces nginx-example
namespace "nginx-example" deleted

# kubectl get all -n nginx-example
No resources found in nginx-example namespace.

# velero restore create --from-backup nginx-backup
Restore request "nginx-backup-20191105182030" submitted successfully.
Run `velero restore describe nginx-backup-20191105182030` or `velero restore logs nginx-backup-20191105182030` for more details.

# velero restore logs nginx-backup-20191105182030
time="2019-11-05T17:20:31Z" level=info msg="starting restore" logSource="pkg/controller/restore_controller.go:450" restore=velero/nginx-backup-20191105182030
time="2019-11-05T17:20:31Z" level=info msg="Not including resource" groupResource=events logSource="pkg/restore/restore.go:136" restore=velero/nginx-backup-20191105182030
[...]
time="2019-11-05T17:20:31Z" level=info msg="Attempting to restore Service: my-nginx" logSource="pkg/restore/restore.go:1031" restore=velero/nginx-backup-20191105182030
time="2019-11-05T17:20:31Z" level=info msg="restore completed" logSource="pkg/controller/restore_controller.go:465" restore=velero/nginx-backup-20191105182030

# kubectl get all -n nginx-example
NAME                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/nginx-deployment-54f57cf6bf-2qhbd   1/1     Running   0          4m19s
pod/nginx-deployment-54f57cf6bf-twrkm   1/1     Running   0          4m19s

NAME               TYPE           CLUSTER-IP    EXTERNAL-IP                        PORT(S)        AGE
service/my-nginx   LoadBalancer   10.3.19.133   xyzxyz.lb.c1.gra.k8s.ovh.net   80:30942/TCP   4m21s

NAME                               READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
deployment.apps/nginx-deployment   2/2     2            2           4m21s

NAME                                          DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AGE
replicaset.apps/nginx-deployment-54f57cf6bf   2         2         2       4m21s

Where do we go from here

So now you have a working Velero on your cluster.
Please refer to official Velero documentation to learn how to use it, including scheduling backups, using pre- and post-backup hooks and other matters.

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