Backing Up Tanzu Application Service for Kubernetes

This topic provides an overview of how to manually back up Tanzu Application Service for Kubernetes (TAS for Kubernetes).

To back up TAS for Kubernetes automatically, see Backing Up TAS for Kubernetes Using Automation.

Overview

To back up TAS for Kubernetes:

• Back Up TAS for Kubernetes
• Monitor Backup Progress
• Review a Completed Backup

Prerequisites

Before you back up TAS for Kubernetes, you must have configured back up and restore. See Configuring Back Up and Restore for TAS for Kubernetes.

Back Up TAS for Kubernetes

To back up TAS for Kubernetes Tanzu Postgres Instances:

1. Start a Velero back up:

   velero create backup BACKUP-NAME \
       --include-namespaces NAMESPACES \
       --selector 'app in (RESOURCE-LIST)' \
       --storage-location STORAGE-LOCATION \
       --ttl TTL-LENGTH \
       --wait
   

   Where:

   • BACKUP-NAME is the name to apply to the generated backup. VMware recommends using a backup name that includes a timestamp for ease of discoverability. For example: TAS4K8s_$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ").
     
   • NAMESPACES is the comma-delimited list of namespaces for the selected resources to back up.
     The namespace list for backing up the default TAS for Kubernetes configuration is postgres-dbs,cf-system, where postgres-dbs is the default TAS for Kubernetes database namespace.
     
   • RESOURCE-LIST is the comma-delimited list of selected resources to back up.
     The resource list for backing up the default TAS for Kubernetes configuration is postgres, cf-metadata, where cf-metadata is specified for backing up the CF Metadata app, and postgres for backing up the TAS for Kubernetes Postgres instances.
     
   • STORAGE-LOCATION is the location where Velero should store the generated backup artifacts.
     
   • (Optional) TTL-LENGTH is the time to live (TTL) duration until the backup is deleted. The TTL should be formatted as hours, minutes, seconds: 000H00M00S. If you do not specify the TTL duration, the default duration length is 720h0m0s.
     
   • (Optional) Include the --wait parameter to follow the backup procedure progress.
     

   The recommended command line is:

   velero create backup BACKUP-NAME \
       --include-namespaces postgres-dbs,cf-system \
       --selector 'app in (postgres, cf-metadata)' \
       --ttl 35040h0m0s \
       --wait
   

Monitor Backup Progress

To monitor the progress of a running backup:

1. To determine the name of your backup:

   velero get backups
   

   For example:

   $ velero get backups
   
   
   NAME     STATUS                       CREATED EXPIRES STORAGE LOCATION  SELECTOR
   backup_1 Completed 2020-03-24 14:12:29 +0000 UTC     21d          default  (app in (cf-metadata,postgres)
   

2. To inspect a backup:

   velero describe backup BACKUP-NAME
   

   Where:

   • BACKUP-NAME is the name you applied to your backup.
     
   • (Optional) Include the --details parameter to display a highly verbose output.

Review a Completed Backup

To review a completed backup:

• Review Backup Logs
• Validate the Backup
• Troubleshoot a Failed Backup

Review Backup Logs

After a backup has completed, the backup logs can be reviewed for a detailed inspection of the root cause of potential failures.

To review the backup logs of a completed backup:

1. Run:

   velero backup logs  BACKUP-NAME
   

   Where BACKUP-NAME is the name you applied to your backup.

Validate the Backup

To validate a completed backup by reviewing the Cloud Foundry data that was backed up:

1. If you do not have the TAS for Kubernetes installation resources:

   1. Download and extract the resources from VMware Tanzu Network. For more information, see Preparing Installation Resources.
   2. Inspect the TAS for Kubernetes artifact. Confirm the get-backup-metadata.sh script is present in the following directory: tanzu-application-service/config/_ytt_lib/github.com/pivotal/cf-for-k8s-disaster-recovery/backup-metadata/bin.

2. To confirm the name of the backup to validate:

   velero get backups
   

   For example:

   $ velero get backups
   
   
   NAME     STATUS                       CREATED EXPIRES STORAGE LOCATION  SELECTOR
   backup_1 Completed 2020-03-24 14:12:29 +0000 UTC     21d          default  (app in (cf-metadata,postgres)

3. To display a detailed inspection of the backup:

   velero describe backup BACKUP-NAME
   

   Where:

   • BACKUP-NAME is the name you applied to your backup.
     
   • (Optional) Include the --details parameter to display a highly verbose output.
     

   For example:

   $ velero describe backup MY_BACKUP_NAME
   
   Name:         tas4k8s-2020-10-13-09h17m49s
   Namespace:    velero
   Labels:       velero.io/storage-location=default
   Annotations:  velero.io/source-cluster-k8s-gitversion=v1.17.9-gke.1504
                 velero.io/source-cluster-k8s-major-version=1
                 velero.io/source-cluster-k8s-minor-version=17+
   
   Phase:  Completed
   
   Errors:    0
   Warnings:  0
   
   Namespaces:
     Included:  postgres-dbs, cf-system
     Excluded:  <none>
   
   Resources:
     Included:        *
     Excluded:        <none>
     Cluster-scoped:  auto
   
   Label selector:  app in (cf-metadata,postgres)
   
   Storage Location:  default
   
   Velero-Native Snapshot PVs:  auto
   
   TTL:  35040h0m0s
   
   Hooks:  <none>
   
   Backup Format Version:  1.1.0
   
   Started:    2020-10-13 09:17:49 +0000 UTC
   Completed:  2020-10-13 09:18:46 +0000 UTC
   
   Expiration:  2024-10-12 09:17:49 +0000 UTC
   
   Total items to be backed up:  31
   Items backed up:              31
   
   Velero-Native Snapshots:  3 of 3 snapshots completed successfully (specify --details for more information)
   

4. To generate a JSON file which contains the snapshot of Cloud Foundry at the time of the backup:

   tanzu-application-service/config/_ytt_lib/github.com/pivotal/cf-for-k8s-disaster-recovery/backup-metadata/bin/get-backup-metadata.sh BACKUP-NAME OUTPUT-FILENAME
   

   Where

   • BACKUP-NAME is the name you applied to your backup.
   • OUTPUT-FILENAME is the name of the Cloud Foundry state file to create for the backup. The created state file is a JSON formatted file.

   For example:

   tanzu-application-service/config/ytt_lib/github.com/pivotal/cf-for-k8s-disaster-recovery/backup-metadata/bin/get-backup-metadata.sh backup1 cf-metadata.json
   

5. To review the created Cloud Foundry outline, open the generated JSON file in your IDE of choice.

Troubleshoot a Failed Backup

To troubleshoot a failed backup, complete Review Backup Logs, and proceed accordingly.