New to KubeDB? Please start here.

Database Snapshots

This tutorial will show you how to take snapshots of a KubeDB managed MongoDB database.

Note: The yaml files used in this tutorial are stored in docs/examples/mongodb folder in GitHub repository kubedb/cli.

Before You Begin

At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using Minikube.
Now, install KubeDB cli on your workstation and KubeDB operator in your cluster following the steps here.

StorageClass is required to run KubeDB. Check the available StorageClass in cluster.

$ kubectl get storageclasses
NAME                 PROVISIONER                AGE
standard (default)   k8s.io/minikube-hostpath   4h

A MongoDB database is needed to take snapshot for this tutorial. To keep things isolated, this tutorial uses a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial. Run the following command to prepare your cluster for this tutorial:
```
$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created

$ kubedb create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubedb/cli/0.10.0/docs/examples/mongodb/snapshot/demo-1.yaml
mongodb.kubedb.com/mgo-infant created
```

Instant Backups

You can easily take a snapshot of MongoDB database by creating a Snapshot object. When a Snapshot object is created, KubeDB operator will launch a Job that runs the mongodump command and uploads the output bson file to various cloud providers S3, GCS, Azure, OpenStack Swift and/or locally mounted volumes using osm.

In this tutorial, snapshots will be stored in a Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket. To do so, a secret is needed that has the following 2 keys:

Key	Description
`GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID`	`Required`. Google Cloud project ID
`GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_KEY`	`Required`. Google Cloud service account json key

$ echo -n '<your-project-id>' > GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID
$ mv downloaded-sa-json.key > GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_KEY
$ kubectl create secret generic mg-snap-secret -n demo \
    --from-file=./GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID \
    --from-file=./GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_KEY
secret/mg-snap-secret created

$ kubectl get secret mg-snap-secret -n demo -o yaml
apiVersion: v1
data:
  GOOGLE_PROJECT_ID: PHlvdXItcHJvamVjdC1pZD4=
  GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_KEY: ewogICJ0eXBlIjogInNlcnZpY2VfYWNjb3V...9tIgp9Cg==
kind: Secret
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: "2019-02-06T06:27:36Z"
  name: mg-snap-secret
  namespace: demo
  resourceVersion: "73604"
  selfLink: /api/v1/namespaces/demo/secrets/mg-snap-secret
  uid: 4b9d647b-29d8-11e9-aebf-080027875192
type: Opaque

To learn how to configure other storage destinations for Snapshots, please visit here. Now, create the Snapshot object.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  name: snapshot-infant
  namespace: demo
  labels:
    kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB
spec:
  databaseName: mgo-infant
  storageSecretName: mg-snap-secret
  gcs:
    bucket: kubedb-qa

$ kubedb create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubedb/cli/0.10.0/docs/examples/mongodb/snapshot/demo-2.yaml
snapshot.kubedb.com/snapshot-infant created

$ kubedb get snap -n demo
NAME              DATABASENAME   STATUS    AGE
snapshot-infant   mgo-infant     Running   10s

$ kubedb get snap -n demo
NAME              DATABASENAME   STATUS      AGE
snapshot-infant   mgo-infant     Succeeded   20s

$ kubedb get snap -n demo snapshot-infant -o yaml
apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: "2019-02-06T06:40:07Z"
  finalizers:
  - kubedb.com
  generation: 1
  labels:
    kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB
    kubedb.com/name: mgo-infant
  name: snapshot-infant
  namespace: demo
  resourceVersion: "74570"
  selfLink: /apis/kubedb.com/v1alpha1/namespaces/demo/snapshots/snapshot-infant
  uid: 0b20a530-29da-11e9-aebf-080027875192
spec:
  databaseName: mgo-infant
  gcs:
    bucket: kubedb-qa
  storageSecretName: mg-snap-secret
status:
  completionTime: "2019-02-06T06:40:14Z"
  phase: Succeeded
  startTime: "2019-02-06T06:40:07Z"

Here,

metadata.labels should include the type of database kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB whose snapshot will be taken.
spec.databaseName points to the database whose snapshot is taken.
spec.storageSecretName points to the Secret containing the credentials for snapshot storage destination.
spec.gcs.bucket points to the bucket name used to store the snapshot data.

You can also run the kubedb describe command to see the recent snapshots taken for a database.

$ kubedb describe mg -n demo mgo-infant
Name:               mgo-infant
Namespace:          demo
CreationTimestamp:  Wed, 06 Feb 2019 12:27:01 +0600
Labels:             <none>
Annotations:        <none>
Replicas:           1  total
Status:             Running
  StorageType:      Durable
Volume:
  StorageClass:  standard
  Capacity:      1Gi
  Access Modes:  RWO

StatefulSet:
  Name:               mgo-infant
  CreationTimestamp:  Wed, 06 Feb 2019 12:27:01 +0600
  Labels:               kubedb.com/kind=MongoDB
                        kubedb.com/name=mgo-infant
  Annotations:        <none>
  Replicas:           824638132588 desired | 1 total
  Pods Status:        1 Running / 0 Waiting / 0 Succeeded / 0 Failed

Service:
  Name:         mgo-infant
  Labels:         kubedb.com/kind=MongoDB
                  kubedb.com/name=mgo-infant
  Annotations:  <none>
  Type:         ClusterIP
  IP:           10.96.65.189
  Port:         db  27017/TCP
  TargetPort:   db/TCP
  Endpoints:    172.17.0.7:27017

Service:
  Name:         mgo-infant-gvr
  Labels:         kubedb.com/kind=MongoDB
                  kubedb.com/name=mgo-infant
  Annotations:    service.alpha.kubernetes.io/tolerate-unready-endpoints=true
  Type:         ClusterIP
  IP:           None
  Port:         db  27017/TCP
  TargetPort:   27017/TCP
  Endpoints:    172.17.0.7:27017

Database Secret:
  Name:         mgo-infant-auth
  Labels:         kubedb.com/kind=MongoDB
                  kubedb.com/name=mgo-infant
  Annotations:  <none>
  
Type:  Opaque
  
Data
====
  password:  16 bytes
  username:  4 bytes

Snapshots:
  Name             Bucket        StartTime                        CompletionTime                   Phase
  ----             ------        ---------                        --------------                   -----
  snapshot-infant  gs:kubedb-qa  Wed, 06 Feb 2019 12:40:07 +0600  Wed, 06 Feb 2019 12:40:14 +0600  Succeeded

Events:
  Type     Reason              Age   From              Message
  ----     ------              ----  ----              -------
  Normal   Successful          15m   MongoDB operator  Successfully created Service
  Normal   Successful          14m   MongoDB operator  Successfully created StatefulSet
  Normal   Successful          14m   MongoDB operator  Successfully created MongoDB
  Normal   Successful          14m   MongoDB operator  Successfully created appbinding
  Normal   Successful          14m   MongoDB operator  Successfully patched StatefulSet
  Normal   Successful          14m   MongoDB operator  Successfully patched MongoDB
  Normal   Starting            1m    MongoDB operator  Backup running
  Normal   SuccessfulSnapshot  1m    MongoDB operator  Successfully completed snapshot

Once the snapshot Job is complete, you should see the output of the mongodump command stored in the GCS bucket.

snapshot-console

From the above image, you can see that the snapshot output is stored in a folder called {bucket}/kubedb/{namespace}/{mongodb-object}/{snapshot}/.

Restore from Snapshot

You can create a new database from a previously taken Snapshot. Specify the Snapshot name in the spec.init.snapshotSource field of a new MongoDB object. See the example mgo-recovered object below:

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: MongoDB
metadata:
  name: mgo-recovered
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "3.4-v2"
  storage:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  init:
    snapshotSource:
      name: snapshot-infant
      namespace: demo

$ kubedb create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubedb/cli/0.10.0/docs/examples/mongodb/snapshot/demo-3.yaml
mongodb.kubedb.com/mgo-recovered created

Here,

spec.init.snapshotSource.name refers to a Snapshot object for a MongoDB database in the same namespaces as this new mgo-recovered MongoDB object.

Now, wait several seconds. KubeDB operator will create a new StatefulSet. Then KubeDB operator launches a Kubernetes Job to initialize the new database using the data from snapshot-infant Snapshot.

$ kubedb get mg -n demo
NAME            VERSION   STATUS         AGE
mgo-infant      3.4-v2    Running        13m
mgo-recovered   3.4-v2    Initializing   57s

$ kubedb get mg -n demo
NAME            VERSION   STATUS    AGE
mgo-infant      3.4-v2    Running   16m
mgo-recovered   3.4-v2    Running   45s

$ kubedb describe mg -n demo mgo-recovered
Name:               mgo-recovered
Namespace:          demo
CreationTimestamp:  Wed, 06 Feb 2019 12:43:00 +0600
Labels:             <none>
Annotations:        kubedb.com/initialized=
Replicas:           1  total
Status:             Running
  StorageType:      Durable
Volume:
  StorageClass:  standard
  Capacity:      1Gi
  Access Modes:  RWO

StatefulSet:
  Name:               mgo-recovered
  CreationTimestamp:  Wed, 06 Feb 2019 12:43:00 +0600
  Labels:               kubedb.com/kind=MongoDB
                        kubedb.com/name=mgo-recovered
  Annotations:        <none>
  Replicas:           824640777328 desired | 1 total
  Pods Status:        1 Running / 0 Waiting / 0 Succeeded / 0 Failed

Service:
  Name:         mgo-recovered
  Labels:         kubedb.com/kind=MongoDB
                  kubedb.com/name=mgo-recovered
  Annotations:  <none>
  Type:         ClusterIP
  IP:           10.111.0.62
  Port:         db  27017/TCP
  TargetPort:   db/TCP
  Endpoints:    172.17.0.8:27017

Service:
  Name:         mgo-recovered-gvr
  Labels:         kubedb.com/kind=MongoDB
                  kubedb.com/name=mgo-recovered
  Annotations:    service.alpha.kubernetes.io/tolerate-unready-endpoints=true
  Type:         ClusterIP
  IP:           None
  Port:         db  27017/TCP
  TargetPort:   27017/TCP
  Endpoints:    172.17.0.8:27017

Database Secret:
  Name:         mgo-recovered-auth
  Labels:         kubedb.com/kind=MongoDB
                  kubedb.com/name=mgo-recovered
  Annotations:  <none>
  
Type:  Opaque
  
Data
====
  password:  16 bytes
  username:  4 bytes

No Snapshots.

Events:
  Type    Reason                Age   From              Message
  ----    ------                ----  ----              -------
  Normal  Successful            56s   MongoDB operator  Successfully created Service
  Normal  Successful            47s   MongoDB operator  Successfully created StatefulSet
  Normal  Successful            47s   MongoDB operator  Successfully created MongoDB
  Normal  Initializing          46s   MongoDB operator  Initializing from Snapshot: "snapshot-infant"
  Normal  Successful            46s   MongoDB operator  Successfully patched StatefulSet
  Normal  Successful            46s   MongoDB operator  Successfully patched MongoDB
  Normal  SuccessfulInitialize  39s   MongoDB operator  Successfully completed initialization
  Normal  Successful            39s   MongoDB operator  Successfully patched StatefulSet
  Normal  Successful            39s   MongoDB operator  Successfully patched MongoDB
  Normal  Successful            39s   MongoDB operator  Successfully created appbinding
  Normal  Successful            39s   MongoDB operator  Successfully patched StatefulSet
  Normal  Successful            39s   MongoDB operator  Successfully patched MongoDB

Customizing Snapshot

You can customize pod template spec and volume claim spec for the backup and restore jobs. For details options read this doc.

Some common customization sample is shown below.

Specify PVC Template:

Backup and recovery job needs a temporary storage to hold dump files before it can be uploaded to cloud backend or inserted into database. By default, KubeDB reads storage specification from spec.storage section of database crd and creates PVC with similar specification for backup or recovery job. However, if you want to specify custom PVC template, you can do it through spec.podVolumeClaimSpec field of Snapshot crd. This is particularly helpful when you want to use different storageclass for backup or recovery job than the database.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  name: snapshot-infant
  namespace: demo
  labels:
    kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB
spec:
  databaseName: mgo-infant
  storageSecretName: mg-snap-secret
  gcs:
    bucket: kubedb
  podVolumeClaimSpec:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi # make sure size is larger or equal than your database size

Specify Resources for Backup/Recovery Job:

You can specify resources for backup or recovery job through spec.podTemplate.spec.resources field.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  name: snapshot-infant
  namespace: demo
  labels:
    kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB
spec:
  databaseName: mgo-infant
  storageSecretName: mg-snap-secret
  gcs:
    bucket: kubedb
  podTemplate:
    spec:
      resources:
        requests:
          memory: "64Mi"
          cpu: "250m"
        limits:
          memory: "128Mi"
          cpu: "500m"

Provide Annotation for Backup/Recovery Job:

If you need to add some annotations to backup or recovery job, you can specify this in spec.podTemplate.controller.annotations. You can also specify annotation for the pod created by backup or recovery job through spec.podTemplate.annotations field.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  name: snapshot-infant
  namespace: demo
  labels:
    kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB
spec:
  databaseName: mgo-infant
  storageSecretName: mg-snap-secret
  gcs:
    bucket: kubedb
  podTemplate:
    annotations:
      passMe: ToBackupJobPod
    controller:
      annotations:
        passMe: ToBackupJob

Pass Arguments to Backup/Recovery Job:

KubeDB also allows to pass extra arguments for backup or recovery job. You can provide these arguments through spec.podTemplate.spec.args field of Snapshot crd.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  name: snapshot-infant
  namespace: demo
  labels:
    kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB
spec:
  databaseName: mgo-infant
  storageSecretName: mg-snap-secret
  gcs:
    bucket: kubedb
  podTemplate:
    spec:
      args:
      - --extra-args-to-backup-command

Customizing Snapshot

You can customize pod template spec and volume claim spec for backup and restore jobs. For details options read this doc.

Some common customization examples are shown below:

Specify PVC Template:

Backup and recovery jobs use temporary storage to hold dump files before it can be uploaded to cloud backend or restored into database. By default, KubeDB reads storage specification from spec.storage section of database crd and creates a PVC with similar specification for backup or recovery job. However, if you want to specify a custom PVC template, you can do it via spec.podVolumeClaimSpec field of Snapshot crd. This is particularly helpful when you want to use different storageclass for backup or recovery jobs and the database.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  name: snapshot-infant
  namespace: demo
  labels:
    kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB
spec:
  databaseName: mgo-infant
  storageSecretName: mg-snap-secret
  gcs:
    bucket: kubedb
  podVolumeClaimSpec:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi # make sure size is larger or equal than your database size

Specify Resources for Backup/Recovery Jobs:

You can specify resources for backup or recovery jobs using spec.podTemplate.spec.resources field.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  name: snapshot-infant
  namespace: demo
  labels:
    kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB
spec:
  databaseName: mgo-infant
  storageSecretName: mg-snap-secret
  gcs:
    bucket: kubedb
  podTemplate:
    spec:
      resources:
        requests:
          memory: "64Mi"
          cpu: "250m"
        limits:
          memory: "128Mi"
          cpu: "500m"

Provide Annotations for Backup/Recovery Jobs:

If you need to add some annotations to backup or recovery jobs, you can specify those in spec.podTemplate.controller.annotations. You can also specify annotations for the pod created by backup or recovery jobs through spec.podTemplate.annotations field.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  name: snapshot-infant
  namespace: demo
  labels:
    kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB
spec:
  databaseName: mgo-infant
  storageSecretName: mg-snap-secret
  gcs:
    bucket: kubedb
  podTemplate:
    annotations:
      passMe: ToBackupJobPod
    controller:
      annotations:
        passMe: ToBackupJob

Pass Arguments to Backup/Recovery Job:

KubeDB allows users to pass extra arguments for backup or recovery jobs. You can provide these arguments through spec.podTemplate.spec.args field of Snapshot crd.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  name: snapshot-infant
  namespace: demo
  labels:
    kubedb.com/kind: MongoDB
spec:
  databaseName: mgo-infant
  storageSecretName: mg-snap-secret
  gcs:
    bucket: kubedb
  podTemplate:
    spec:
      args:
      - --extra-args-to-backup-command

Cleaning up

To cleanup the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:

kubectl patch -n demo mg/mgo-infant mg/mgo-recovered -p '{"spec":{"terminationPolicy":"WipeOut"}}' --type="merge"
kubectl delete -n demo mg/mgo-infant mg/mgo-recovered

kubectl patch -n demo drmn/mgo-infant drmn/mgo-recovered -p '{"spec":{"wipeOut":true}}' --type="merge"
kubectl delete -n demo drmn/mgo-infant drmn/mgo-recovered

kubectl delete ns demo

Next Steps

See the list of supported storage providers for snapshots here.
Take Scheduled Snapshot of MongoDB databases using KubeDB.
Initialize MongoDB with Script.
Initialize MongoDB with Snapshot.
Monitor your MongoDB database with KubeDB using out-of-the-box CoreOS Prometheus Operator.
Monitor your MongoDB database with KubeDB using out-of-the-box builtin-Prometheus.
Use private Docker registry to deploy MongoDB with KubeDB.
Detail concepts of MongoDB object.
Detail concepts of MongoDBVersion object.
Want to hack on KubeDB? Check our contribution guidelines.

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Database Snapshots

Before You Begin

Instant Backups

Restore from Snapshot

Customizing Snapshot

Customizing Snapshot

Cleaning up

Next Steps

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