Backing up Kubernetes container data directly to cloud storage

To use a cloud storage system as the primary storage for container backups, you must set up your cluster to send snapshot backups directly to cloud storage (also known as object storage). During a backup job, Container Backup Support creates a snapshot of the container data and sends the snapshot directly to cloud storage without using the IBM Spectrum® Protect Plus vSnap server as intermediary storage.

Before you begin

Ensure that Container Backup Support is installed on your cluster. For instructions, see Installing the Container Backup Support operator and instance at the Kubernetes command line.

About this task

The following cloud storage systems are supported for container workloads:
  • Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)
  • IBM Cloud® Object Storage
  • Microsoft Azure Blob storage
  • S3 compatible storage
Limitations:
  • For IBM Cloud Object Storage, support for retention-enabled vaults is not available.
  • For S3 compatible storage, generic S3 support is based on external certification processes. For the list of supported S3 compatible providers, see technote 1087149.

After you register a cloud storage provider, you can create a service level agreement (SLA) that specifies cloud storage as the primary backup storage type. When cloud storage is the primary backup storage type, you cannot specify secondary backup storage from which data can be replicated, copied to standard object storage, or copied to archive object storage. To create additional copies of your container data, you must set up another SLA that specifies a vSnap server as the primary backup storage type. From the vSnap server, data can be replicated or copied to standard or archive object storage.

Procedure

To back up your container workload to cloud storage, complete the following tasks:

  1. Register your cloud storage by specifying the endpoint, cloud storage credentials, and backup storage bucket. The backup storage bucket must have been created in the cloud storage system. For instructions about registering a cloud storage provider, see the links in the following table.
    Cloud storage provider Instructions
    Amazon S3 Object Storage Adding Amazon S3 Object Storage
    IBM Cloud Object Storage Adding IBM Cloud Object Storage as a backup storage provider
    Microsoft Azure Blob Storage Adding Microsoft Azure cloud storage as a backup storage provider
    S3 compatible object storage Adding S3 compatible object storage
  2. Create an SLA for container backups. Ensure that you select Object Storage as the target storage type, and select the cloud storage provider that you registered.
    For instructions, see Creating an SLA policy for containers.
  3. Associate the SLA that you created with the persistent volume claims, namespace-scoped resources, or cluster-scoped resources that you want to protect. Run the SLA manually or wait for the job to run at its scheduled time.
    For instructions, see Backing up Kubernetes container data.

Results

Data is copied to cloud storage as part of the backup job.

Restriction: Space that is occupied by incomplete container backups on cloud storage is not released until expiration.

If you cancel a running backup job, you are prompted to keep the data that was already backed up. This option has no effect on container backup operations to cloud storage. Items that were backed up successfully can be restored and can expire according to the associated SLA policy. The space that is occupied by items that were canceled by this operation will be released during the next expiration run.

What to do next

If you must restore a container backup, follow the instructions in Restoring Kubernetes container data.