Application Level Backup and Restore Redis database using KubeStash

KubeStash offers application-level backup and restore functionality for Redis databases. It captures both manifest and data backups of any Redis database in a single snapshot. During the restore process, KubeStash first applies the Redis manifest to the cluster and then restores the data into it.

This guide will give you an overview how you can take application-level backup and restore your Redis databases using Kubestash.

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 or Kind.
  • Install KubeDB in your cluster following the steps here.
  • Install KubeStash in your cluster following the steps here.
  • Install KubeStash kubectl plugin following the steps here.
  • If you are not familiar with how KubeStash backup and restore Redis databases, please check the following guide here.

You should be familiar with the following KubeStash concepts:

To keep everything isolated, we are going to use a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.

$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created

Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in docs/guides/redis/backup/kubestash/application-level/examples directory of kubedb/docs repository.

Backup Redis

KubeStash supports backups for Redis instances across different configurations, including Standalone, Cluster and Sentinel modes. In this demonstration, we’ll focus on a Redis database of Standalone mode. The backup and restore process is similar for Sentinel and Cluster configuration.

This section will demonstrate how to take application-level backup of a Redis database. Here, we are going to deploy a Redis database using KubeDB. Then, we are going to back up the database at the application level to a GCS bucket. Finally, we will restore the entire Redis database.

Deploy Sample Redis Database

Let’s deploy a sample Redis database and insert some data into it.

Create Redis CR:

Below is the YAML of a sample Redis CR that we are going to create for this tutorial:

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
kind: Redis
metadata:
  name: sample-redis
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: 7.4.0
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: "standard"
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  deletionPolicy: Delete

Create the above Redis CR,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.9.30/docs/guides/redis/backup/kubestash/application-level/examples/sample-redis.yaml
redis.kubedb.com/sample-redis created

KubeDB will deploy a Redis database according to the above specification. It will also create the necessary Secrets and Services to access the database.

Let’s check if the database is ready to use,

$ kubectl get rd -n demo sample-redis
NAME           VERSION   STATUS   AGE
sample-redis   7.4.0     Ready    2m

The database is Ready. Verify that KubeDB has created a Secret and a Service for this database using the following commands,

$ kubectl get secret -n demo 
NAME                  TYPE                       DATA   AGE
sample-redis-auth     kubernetes.io/basic-auth   2      3m5s
sample-redis-config   Opaque                     1      2m14s

$ kubectl get service -n demo -l=app.kubernetes.io/instance=sample-redis
NAME                TYPE        CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)    AGE
sample-redis        ClusterIP   10.96.131.142   <none>        6379/TCP   2m53s
sample-redis-pods   ClusterIP   None            <none>        6379/TCP   2m53s

Here, we have to use service sample-redis and secret sample-redis-auth to connect with the database. KubeDB creates an AppBinding CR that holds the necessary information to connect with the database.

Verify AppBinding:

Verify that the AppBinding has been created successfully using the following command,

$ kubectl get appbindings -n demo
NAME           TYPE               VERSION   AGE
sample-redis   kubedb.com/redis   7.4.0     2m53s

Let’s check the YAML of the above AppBinding,

$ kubectl get appbindings -n demo sample-redis -o yaml
apiVersion: appcatalog.appscode.com/v1alpha1
kind: AppBinding
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration: |
      {"apiVersion":"kubedb.com/v1","kind":"Redis","metadata":{"annotations":{},"name":"sample-redis","namespace":"demo"},"spec":{"deletionPolicy":"Delete","storage":{"accessModes":["ReadWriteOnce"],"resources":{"requests":{"storage":"1Gi"}},"storageClassName":"standard"},"storageType":"Durable","version":"7.4.0"}}      
  creationTimestamp: "2024-09-19T11:33:26Z"
  generation: 1
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/component: database
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: sample-redis
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: kubedb.com
    app.kubernetes.io/name: redises.kubedb.com
  name: sample-redis
  namespace: demo
  ownerReferences:
    - apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1
      blockOwnerDeletion: true
      controller: true
      kind: Redis
      name: sample-redis
      uid: bb6cb9d1-6350-4d32-b0ff-309585075e85
  resourceVersion: "1221288"
  uid: 57fe3454-2498-45f0-9254-6aeba5f87818
spec:
  appRef:
    apiGroup: kubedb.com
    kind: Redis
    name: sample-redis
    namespace: demo
  clientConfig:
    service:
      name: sample-redis
      port: 6379
      scheme: redis
  parameters:
    apiVersion: config.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
    kind: RedisConfiguration
    stash:
      addon:
        backupTask:
          name: redis-backup-7.0.5
        restoreTask:
          name: redis-restore-7.0.5
  secret:
    name: sample-redis-auth
  type: kubedb.com/redis
  version: 7.4.0

KubeStash uses the AppBinding CR to connect with the target database. It requires the following two fields to set in AppBinding’s .spec section.

Here,

  • .spec.clientConfig.service.name specifies the name of the Service that connects to the database.
  • .spec.secret specifies the name of the Secret that holds necessary credentials to access the database.
  • .spec.type specifies the types of the app that this AppBinding is pointing to. KubeDB generated AppBinding follows the following format: <app group>/<app resource type>.

Insert Sample Data:

Now, we are going to exec into the database pod and create some sample data. At first, find out the database Pod using the following command,

$ kubectl get pods -n demo --selector="app.kubernetes.io/instance=sample-redis" 
NAME             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
sample-redis-0   1/1     Running   0          5m39s

Now, let’s exec into the pod and insert some data,

$ kubectl exec -it -n demo sample-redis-0 -c redis -- bash
redis@sample-redis-0:/data$ redis-cli
127.0.0.1:6379> set db redis
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> set name batman
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> set key value
OK
127.0.0.1:6379> exit
redis@sample-redis-0:/data$ exit
exit

Now, we are ready to backup the database.

Prepare Backend

We are going to store our backed up data into a GCS bucket. We have to create a Secret with necessary credentials and a BackupStorage CR to use this backend. If you want to use a different backend, please read the respective backend configuration doc from here.

Create Secret:

Let’s create a secret called gcs-secret with access credentials to our desired GCS bucket,

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

Create BackupStorage:

Now, create a BackupStorage using this secret. Below is the YAML of BackupStorage CR we are going to create,

apiVersion: storage.kubestash.com/v1alpha1
kind: BackupStorage
metadata:
  name: gcs-storage
  namespace: demo
spec:
  storage:
    provider: gcs
    gcs:
      bucket: kubestash-qa
      prefix: demo
      secretName: gcs-secret
  usagePolicy:
    allowedNamespaces:
      from: All
  default: true
  deletionPolicy: Delete

Let’s create the BackupStorage we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.9.30/docs/guides/redis/backup/kubestash/logical/examples/backupstorage.yaml
backupstorage.storage.kubestash.com/gcs-storage created

Now, we are ready to backup our database to our desired backend.

Create RetentionPolicy:

Now, let’s create a RetentionPolicy to specify how the old Snapshots should be cleaned up.

Below is the YAML of the RetentionPolicy object that we are going to create,

apiVersion: storage.kubestash.com/v1alpha1
kind: RetentionPolicy
metadata:
  name: demo-retention
  namespace: demo
spec:
  default: true
  failedSnapshots:
    last: 2
  maxRetentionPeriod: 2mo
  successfulSnapshots:
    last: 5
  usagePolicy:
    allowedNamespaces:
      from: All

Let’s create the above RetentionPolicy,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.9.30/docs/guides/redis/backup/kubestash/logical/examples/retentionpolicy.yaml
retentionpolicy.storage.kubestash.com/demo-retention created

Backup

We have to create a BackupConfiguration targeting respective sample-redis Redis database. Then, KubeStash will create a CronJob for each session to take periodic backup of that database.

At first, we need to create a secret with a Restic password for backup data encryption.

Create Secret:

Let’s create a secret called encrypt-secret with the Restic password,

$ echo -n 'changeit' > RESTIC_PASSWORD
$ kubectl create secret generic -n demo encrypt-secret \
    --from-file=./RESTIC_PASSWORD \
secret "encrypt-secret" created

Create BackupConfiguration:

Below is the YAML for BackupConfiguration CR to take application-level backup of the sample-redis database that we have deployed earlier,

apiVersion: core.kubestash.com/v1alpha1
kind: BackupConfiguration
metadata:
  name: sample-redis-backup
  namespace: demo
spec:
  target:
    apiGroup: kubedb.com
    kind: Redis
    namespace: demo
    name: sample-redis
  backends:
    - name: gcs-backend
      storageRef:
        namespace: demo
        name: gcs-storage
      retentionPolicy:
        name: demo-retention
        namespace: demo
  sessions:
    - name: frequent-backup
      scheduler:
        schedule: "*/5 * * * *"
        jobTemplate:
          backoffLimit: 1
      repositories:
        - name: gcs-redis-repo
          backend: gcs-backend
          directory: /redis
          encryptionSecret:
            name: encrypt-secret
            namespace: demo
      addon:
        name: redis-addon
        tasks:
          - name: manifest-backup
          - name: logical-backup
  • .spec.sessions[*].schedule specifies that we want to backup at 5 minutes interval.
  • .spec.target refers to the targeted sample-redis Redis database that we created earlier.
  • .spec.sessions[*].addon.tasks[*].name[*] specifies that both the manifest-backup and logical-backup tasks will be executed.

Let’s create the BackupConfiguration CR that we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.9.30/docs/guides/redis/kubestash/application-level/examples/backupconfiguration.yaml
backupconfiguration.core.kubestash.com/sample-redis-backup created

Verify Backup Setup Successful

If everything goes well, the phase of the BackupConfiguration should be Ready. The Ready phase indicates that the backup setup is successful. Let’s verify the Phase of the BackupConfiguration,

$ kubectl get backupconfiguration -n demo
NAME                     PHASE   PAUSED   AGE
sample-redis-backup      Ready            2m50s

Additionally, we can verify that the Repository specified in the BackupConfiguration has been created using the following command,

$ kubectl get repo -n demo
NAME                  INTEGRITY   SNAPSHOT-COUNT   SIZE     PHASE   LAST-SUCCESSFUL-BACKUP   AGE
gcs-redis-repo                    0                0 B      Ready                            3m

KubeStash keeps the backup for Repository YAMLs. If we navigate to the GCS bucket, we will see the Repository YAML stored in the demo/redis directory.

Verify CronJob:

It will also create a CronJob with the schedule specified in spec.sessions[*].scheduler.schedule field of BackupConfiguration CR.

Verify that the CronJob has been created using the following command,

$ kubectl get cronjob -n demo
NAME                                             SCHEDULE      SUSPEND   ACTIVE   LAST SCHEDULE   AGE
trigger-sample-redis-backup-frequent-backup      */5 * * * *             0        2m45s           3m25s

Verify BackupSession:

KubeStash triggers an instant backup as soon as the BackupConfiguration is ready. After that, backups are scheduled according to the specified schedule.

$ kubectl get backupsession -n demo -w
NAME                                                INVOKER-TYPE          INVOKER-NAME              PHASE       DURATION   AGE
sample-redis-backup-frequent-backup-1725449400      BackupConfiguration   sample-redis-backup    Succeeded              7m22s

We can see from the above output that the backup session has succeeded. Now, we are going to verify whether the backed up data has been stored in the backend.

Verify Backup:

Once a backup is complete, KubeStash will update the respective Repository CR to reflect the backup. Check that the repository gcs-redis-repo has been updated by the following command,

$ kubectl get repository -n demo gcs-redis-repo
NAME                       INTEGRITY   SNAPSHOT-COUNT   SIZE    PHASE   LAST-SUCCESSFUL-BACKUP   AGE
gcs-redis-repo             true        1                806 B   Ready   8m27s                    9m18s

At this moment we have one Snapshot. Run the following command to check the respective Snapshot which represents the state of a backup run for an application.

$ kubectl get snapshots -n demo -l=kubestash.com/repo-name=gcs-redis-repo
NAME                                                                  REPOSITORY          SESSION           SNAPSHOT-TIME          DELETION-POLICY   PHASE       AGE
gcs-redis-repo-sample-redis-backup-frequent-backup-1725449400         gcs-redis-repo      frequent-backup   2024-01-23T13:10:54Z   Delete            Succeeded   16h

Note: KubeStash creates a Snapshot with the following labels:

  • kubestash.com/app-ref-kind: <target-kind>
  • kubestash.com/app-ref-name: <target-name>
  • kubestash.com/app-ref-namespace: <target-namespace>
  • kubestash.com/repo-name: <repository-name>

These labels can be used to watch only the Snapshots related to our target Database or Repository.

If we check the YAML of the Snapshot, we can find the information about the backed up components of the Database.

$ kubectl get snapshots -n demo gcs-redis-repo-sample-redis-backup-frequent-backup-1725449400 -oyaml
apiVersion: storage.kubestash.com/v1alpha1
kind: Snapshot
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: "2024-09-18T13:04:35Z"
  finalizers:
    - kubestash.com/cleanup
  generation: 1
  labels:
    kubedb.com/db-version: 7.4.0
    kubestash.com/app-ref-kind: Redis
    kubestash.com/app-ref-name: redis-standalone-2
    kubestash.com/app-ref-namespace: demo
    kubestash.com/repo-name: customize-blueprint
  name: customize-blueprint-appbinding-rne-2-frequent-backup-1726664655
  namespace: demo
  ownerReferences:
    - apiVersion: storage.kubestash.com/v1alpha1
      blockOwnerDeletion: true
      controller: true
      kind: Repository
      name: customize-blueprint
      uid: c107da60-af66-4ad6-83cc-d80053a11de3
  resourceVersion: "1182349"
  uid: 93b20b59-abce-41a5-88da-f2ce6e98713d
spec:
  appRef:
    apiGroup: kubedb.com
    kind: Redis
    name: redis-standalone-2
    namespace: demo
  backupSession: appbinding-redis-standalone-2-frequent-backup-1726664655
  deletionPolicy: Delete
  repository: customize-blueprint
  session: frequent-backup
  snapshotID: 01J82KR4C7ZER9ZM0W52TVBEET
  type: FullBackup
  version: v1
status:
  components:
    dump:
      driver: Restic
      duration: 29.378445351s
      integrity: true
      path: repository/v1/frequent-backup/dump
      phase: Succeeded
      resticStats:
        - hostPath: dumpfile.resp
          id: 73cf596a525bcdb439e87812045e7a25c6bd82574513351ab434793c134fc817
          size: 184 B
          uploaded: 483 B
      size: 380 B
  conditions:
    - lastTransitionTime: "2024-09-18T13:04:35Z"
      message: Recent snapshot list updated successfully
      reason: SuccessfullyUpdatedRecentSnapshotList
      status: "True"
      type: RecentSnapshotListUpdated
    - lastTransitionTime: "2024-09-18T13:07:06Z"
      message: Metadata uploaded to backend successfully
      reason: SuccessfullyUploadedSnapshotMetadata
      status: "True"
      type: SnapshotMetadataUploaded
  integrity: true
  phase: Succeeded
  size: 380 B
  snapshotTime: "2024-09-18T13:04:35Z"
  totalComponents: 1

KubeStash uses redis-dump-go to perform backups of target Redis databases. Therefore, the component name for logical backups is set as dump.

KubeStash set component name as manifest for the manifest backup of Redis databases.

Now, if we navigate to the GCS bucket, we will see the backed up data stored in the demo/redis/repository/v1/frequent-backup/dump directory. KubeStash also keeps the backup for Snapshot YAMLs, which can be found in the demo/redis/snapshots directory.

Note: KubeStash stores all dumped data encrypted in the backup directory, meaning it remains unreadable until decrypted.

Restore

In this section, we are going to restore the entire database from the backup that we have taken in the previous section.

For this tutorial, we will restore the database in a separate namespace called dev.

First, create the namespace by running the following command:

$ kubectl create ns dev
namespace/dev created

Create RestoreSession:

We need to create a RestoreSession CR.

Below, is the contents of YAML file of the RestoreSession CR that we are going to create to restore the entire database.

apiVersion: core.kubestash.com/v1alpha1
kind: RestoreSession
metadata:
  name: restore-sample-redis
  namespace: demo
spec:
#  manifestOptions:
#    restoreNamespace: dev
#    redis:
#      db: true
  dataSource:
    repository: gcs-redis-repo
    snapshot: latest
    encryptionSecret:
      name: encrypt-secret
      namespace: demo
  addon:
    name: redis-addon
    tasks:
      - name: logical-backup-restore
#      - name: manifest-restore

Here,

  • .spec.manifestOptions.redis.db specifies whether to restore the DB manifest or not.
  • .spec.dataSource.repository specifies the Repository object that holds the backed up data.
  • .spec.dataSource.snapshot specifies to restore from latest Snapshot.
  • .spec.addon.tasks[*] specifies that both the manifest-restore and logical-backup-restore tasks.

Let’s create the RestoreSession CR object we have shown above,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2024.9.30/docs/guides/redis/backup/kubestash/application-level/examples/restoresession.yaml
restoresession.core.kubestash.com/restore-sample-redis created

Once, you have created the RestoreSession object, KubeStash will create restore Job. Run the following command to watch the phase of the RestoreSession object,

$ watch kubectl get restoresession -n demo
Every 2.0s: kubectl get restores... AppsCode-PC-03: Wed Aug 21 10:44:05 2024
NAME                      REPOSITORY            FAILURE-POLICY   PHASE       DURATION   AGE
restore-sample-redis      gcs-redis-repo                         Succeeded   3s         53s

The Succeeded phase means that the restore process has been completed successfully.

Verify Restored Redis Manifest:

In this section, we will verify whether the desired Redis database manifest has been successfully applied to the cluster.

$ kubectl get redis -n dev 
NAME              VERSION   STATUS   AGE
sample-redis      7.4.0     Ready    9m46s

The output confirms that the Redis database has been successfully created with the same configuration as it had at the time of backup.

Verify Restored Data:

In this section, we are going to verify whether the desired data has been restored successfully. We are going to connect to the database server and check whether the data we inserted earlier in the original database are restored.

At first, check if the database has gone into Ready state by the following command,

$ kubectl get redis -n dev sample-redis
NAME              VERSION   STATUS   AGE
sample-redis      7.4.0     Ready    9m46s

Now, find out the database Pod by the following command,

$ kubectl get pods -n dev --selector="app.kubernetes.io/instance=sample-redis"
NAME             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
sample-redis-0   1/1     Running   0          12m

Now, lets exec one of the Pod and verify restored data.

$ kubectl exec -it -n dev sample-redis-0 -c redis -- bash
redis@sample-redis-0:/data$ redis-cli
127.0.0.1:6379> get db
"redis"
127.0.0.1:6379> get name
"batman"
127.0.0.1:6379> get key
"value"
127.0.0.1:6379> exit
redis@sample-redis-0:/data$ exit
exit

So, from the above output, we can see the demo database we had created in the original database sample-redis has been restored successfully.

Cleanup

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

kubectl delete backupconfigurations.core.kubestash.com  -n demo sample-redis-backup
kubectl delete retentionpolicies.storage.kubestash.com -n demo demo-retention
kubectl delete restoresessions.core.kubestash.com -n demo restore-sample-redis
kubectl delete backupstorage -n demo gcs-storage
kubectl delete secret -n demo gcs-secret
kubectl delete secret -n demo encrypt-secret
kubectl delete redis -n demo sample-redis
kubectl delete redis -n dev sample-redis