Backup

This is the second part of a series of articles regarding Kubernetes backups. You can find the first part about Velero tool here. Why Backup Kubernetes? In the previous part I provided a brief overview of the backup & restore tool for Kubernetes called Velero. Now, I would like to talk, why backup your cluster at all? What makes a cluster? A typical production cluster has a three-layer structure. There are Kubernetes components themselves. There are plugins that ease your operations e.g. ingress controllers, admission webhooks, etc. I will refer to them as “core plugins” from now on. At the end of the day, there are applications - actual workloads that make your company’s money. ...

Disclaimer: Initially, I wanted to write a single article about Velero (former Heptio Ark) and share some opinions on when it makes sense to use it. However, I realized that this article became too broad, and I derived from the original focus. Therefore, I decided to split it into several parts. The first one will be just a brief overview of Velero and some of its features since this is the tool that gave a start to the whole idea. Then in the second one, I plan to share my opinions on Kubernetes backups in general. Lastly, in the third part, I would like to talk about some Kubernetes clusters as cattle and the caveats of this approach. ...