Cluster Backups

Learn about backing up a Kubernetes cluster using the CLI.

Adopting a back up strategy to protect a Kubernetes cluster against control plane node failures is important, especially for clusters with only one control plane node. High availability clusters with many control plane nodes also need a fallback plan if the resilience provided by the replication and fail over functionality has been exceeded.

The state for Kubernetes clusters is maintained in an etcd database. Access to the database is shared between all Kubernetes API Server instances. Taking regular backups of the etcd database is a critical part of a Kubernetes disaster recovery plan.

Typically, the backup contains sensitive data, such as Kubernetes Secret objects, so care must be taken to store the backups in a secure location.

If restoring from an etcd backup is part of a disaster recovery strategy, the integrity of the backup file is important. Backups must therefore be stored in a location with integrity safeguards.

Important:

Only the key containers required for the Kubernetes control plane node are backed up. No application containers are backed up.

You don't need to bring down the cluster to perform a back up as part of a disaster recovery plan. Use the ocne cluster backup command to back up the key containers and manifests for all the control plane nodes in the cluster (the etcd database).

Important:

The CLI doesn't provide a command to restore a cluster from an etcd database backup. For information on restoring a cluster using the etcd backup, see the upstream Kubernetes documentation.

Backing Up a Cluster

Back up the etcd database for a Kubernetes cluster using the ocne cluster backup command.

Use the ocne cluster backup command to back up the etcd database for a Kubernetes cluster. The syntax is: 

ocne cluster backup 
{-o|--out} path

For more information on the syntax options, see Oracle Cloud Native Environment: CLI.

Example 10-1 Back up the etcd database for a cluster

To back up the etcd database for a cluster to the current directory: 

ocne cluster backup --out mybackup.db