Backing up and restoring Cloud Pak for Data
IBM Cloud Pak® for Data supports online and offline backup and restore.
- Online backups
- During an online backup, normal runtime operations in the Cloud Pak for Data cluster continue while the backup is taken. Container Storage Interface (CSI) volume snapshots of Kubernetes metadata and volume data are taken with minimal disruption.
- Offline backups
- During an offline backup, Cloud Pak for Data services
are quiesced to bring them to a consistent state. At the beginning of the backup process, each
service stops using its data volumes until the backup is completed. External operations for services
that participate in the backup are interrupted for the entire duration of the quiesce, backup, and
unquiesce steps.
You can create offline backups in the following ways:
- Create CSI volume snapshots of Kubernetes metadata and volume data.
- Create Restic backups on an S3-compatible object store of Kubernetes metadata and volume data.
- If you are using Portworx storage, create snapshots of volume data.
- Create backups of volume data on a separate Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) or S3-compatible object store.
Because large volumes of data result in significant down time during offline backup and restore, it is recommended that you do online backup and restore.
- NFS
- Offline backup and restore to the same cluster or to a different cluster by using Restic backups will continue to be supported.
- Amazon Elastic Block Store
- Offline backup and restore to the same cluster by using Restic backups will continue to be supported.
- Amazon Elastic File System
- Offline backup and restore to the same cluster by using Restic backups will continue to be supported.
Deciding how to back up and restore your data
Use the following questions to help you decide which approach to take to back up and restore your Cloud Pak for Data services and data.
| Question | What to do |
|---|---|
| What backup and restore options are available? | See Supported backup and restore scenarios to find out the different ways that you can back up and restore Cloud Pak for Data. |
| What storage type are you using? | Review Supported storage types to find out what backup and restore options are available for the storage type that you are using. |
| Do the services that I am using support backup and restore? | See Services that support backup and restore to find out if the services that you installed support backup and restore. |
| What if I only want to back up and restore a specific service? | Some services support exporting data from one Cloud Pak for Data installation and importing the data in another installation. |
Supported backup and restore scenarios
The following backup and restore scenarios are supported.
- Online backup and restore
-
- Back up and restore a Cloud Pak for Data instance project (namespace) on the same cluster by using CSI snapshots
- Back up and restore a Cloud Pak for Data deployment (IBM Cloud Pak foundational services and IBM Cloud Pak for Data platform operator project, Cloud Pak for Data instance project) to a different cluster by using CSI snapshots
- Offline backup and restore
-
- Back up and restore a Cloud Pak for Data instance project on the same cluster by using CSI snapshots or Restic backups
- Back up and restore a Cloud Pak for Data deployment (IBM Cloud Pak foundational services and IBM Cloud Pak for Data platform operator project, Cloud Pak for Data instance project) to a different cluster by using Restic backups
- Back up and restore a Cloud Pak for Data instance project's volume data to the same instance on the same cluster by using volume snapshots or backups
Supported storage types
The following table shows the storage types that Cloud Pak for Data supports that are also supported by each backup and restore method. Columns are organized by the products that you can use to back up and restore Cloud Pak for Data:
- The Cloud Pak for Data OpenShift® APIs for Data Protection (OADP) backup and restore utility
- IBM® Storage Fusion
- Portworx
- NetApp Astra Control Center
| Storage |
OADP
Offline backup and restore
|
Online backup and restore to the same cluster
|
Online backup and restore to different cluster
|
Disaster recovery
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat® OpenShift Data Foundation | ✓ | ✓ with
|
✓ with IBM Storage Fusion |
|
| IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation | ✓ with
|
✓ with IBM Storage Fusion |
||
| IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform | ✓ with
|
✓ with IBM Storage Fusion |
||
| IBM Storage Scale Container Native (with IBM Storage Scale Container Storage Interface) | ✓ with
|
✓ with IBM Storage Fusion |
||
| Portworx | ✓ with
|
✓ with Portworx disaster recovery (asynchronous data replication) |
✓ with Portworx disaster recovery (asynchronous data replication) |
|
| NetApp Trident | ✓ with
|
✓ with NetApp Astra Control Center |
||
| NFS | ✓ Restic backups only |
|||
| Amazon Elastic File System | ✓ Restore to same cluster with Restic backups only |
|||
| Amazon Elastic File System and Amazon Elastic Block Store | ✓ Restore to same cluster with Restic backups only |
|||
| Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP | ✓ with
|
✓ with NetApp Astra Control Center |
Backing up and restoring service data
You can also back up and restore the data for a specific service by exporting a service's data and metadata from one Cloud Pak for Data installation and importing the data to another Cloud Pak for Data installation. For more information, see Migrating data between Cloud Pak for Data installations.