KubeDB

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Volume Snapshot Backup and Restore Qdrant Database

KubeStash allows you to take volume snapshot backups of Qdrant databases. Volume snapshots provide a fast and efficient way to backup and restore the entire storage volume of your Qdrant cluster. This guide will show you how to configure volume snapshot backup and restore for Qdrant databases.

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.
  • To install External-snapshotter in your cluster following the steps here.

To keep things 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/examples/qdrant/backup/volume-snapshot directory of kubedb/docs repository.

Ensure VolumeSnapshotClass

$ kubectl get volumesnapshotclasses
NAME                    DRIVER               DELETIONPOLICY   AGE
longhorn-snapshot-vsc   driver.longhorn.io   Delete           7d22h

If not any, create a VolumeSnapshotClass using the following YAML,

kind: VolumeSnapshotClass
apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: longhorn-snapshot-vsc
driver: driver.longhorn.io
deletionPolicy: Delete
parameters:
  type: snap

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.6.19/docs/examples/qdrant/backup/volume-snapshot/volume-snapshot-class.yaml
volumesnapshotclass.snapshot.storage.k8s.io/longhorn-snapshot-vsc created

Note: Ensure that the VolumeSnapshotClass is provisioned with the same storage class driver used for provisioning your Qdrant database. In our case, we are using the longhorn storageclass as our database provisioner, with the driver set to driver.longhorn.io.

Prepare Backend

We are going to store our backed up data into a MinIO 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 storage-secret with access credentials to our desired MinIO backend,

$ kubectl create secret generic -n demo storage-secret \
    --from-literal=AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=minioadmin \
    --from-literal=AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=minioadmin
secret/storage-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: minio-storage
  namespace: demo
spec:
  storage:
    provider: s3
    s3:
      bucket: qdrant-backups
      endpoint: http://minio.demo.svc:9000
      insecureTLS: true
      prefix: backup/demo
      region: us-east-1
      secretName: storage-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/v2026.6.19/docs/examples/qdrant/backup/volume-snapshot/backup-storage.yaml
backupstorage.storage.kubestash.com/minio-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
  successfulSnapshots:
    last: 5
  usagePolicy:
    allowedNamespaces:
      from: All

Let’s create the above RetentionPolicy,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.6.19/docs/examples/qdrant/backup/volume-snapshot/retention-policy.yaml
retentionpolicy.storage.kubestash.com/demo-retention created

Deploy Sample Qdrant Database

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

Create Qdrant CR:

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

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Qdrant
metadata:
  name: qdrant-sample
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "1.17.0"
  mode: Distributed
  replicas: 3
  storage:
    storageClassName: longhorn
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 200Mi
  deletionPolicy: WipeOut

Create the above Qdrant CR,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.6.19/docs/examples/qdrant/backup/volume-snapshot/qdrant.yaml
qdrant.kubedb.com/qdrant-sample created

KubeDB will deploy a Qdrant 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 qdrant -n demo
NAME            VERSION   STATUS   AGE
qdrant-sample   1.17.0    Ready    65s

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 -l=app.kubernetes.io/instance=qdrant-sample
NAME                   TYPE     DATA   AGE
qdrant-sample-auth     Opaque   2      65s

$ kubectl get service -n demo -l=app.kubernetes.io/instance=qdrant-sample
NAME                 TYPE        CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)             AGE
qdrant-sample        ClusterIP   10.43.69.124   <none>        6333/TCP,6334/TCP   65s
qdrant-sample-pods   ClusterIP   None           <none>        6335/TCP            65s

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
qdrant-sample   kubedb.com/qdrant   1.17.0    64s

Insert Sample Data:

Now, let’s get the API key and port-forward to create a collection with sample data:

# Get the API key from the auth secret
$ export API_KEY=$(kubectl get secret -n demo qdrant-sample-auth -o jsonpath='{.data.api-key}' | base64 -d)

# Port-forward to the Qdrant service
$ kubectl port-forward -n demo svc/qdrant-sample 6333:6333 &
# Create a collection
$ curl -X PUT 'http://localhost:6333/collections/demo_collection' \
  -H "api-key: $API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"vectors": {"size": 4, "distance": "Cosine"}}'
# Insert points
$ curl -X PUT 'http://localhost:6333/collections/demo_collection/points' \
  -H "api-key: $API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "points": [
      { "id": 1, "vector": [0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4], "payload": {"label": "a"} },
      { "id": 2, "vector": [0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8], "payload": {"label": "b"} }
    ]
  }'

Now, we are ready to backup the database.

Backup

We have to create a BackupConfiguration targeting respective qdrant-sample Qdrant database. Then, KubeStash will create a CronJob for each session to take periodic backup of that database using volume snapshots.

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 backup the qdrant-sample database that we have deployed earlier,

apiVersion: core.kubestash.com/v1alpha1
kind: BackupConfiguration
metadata:
  name: qdrant-sample-backup
  namespace: demo
spec:
  target:
    apiGroup: kubedb.com
    kind: Qdrant
    namespace: demo
    name: qdrant-sample
  backends:
    - name: minio-backend
      storageRef:
        namespace: demo
        name: minio-storage
      retentionPolicy:
        name: demo-retention
        namespace: demo
  sessions:
    - name: frequent-backup
      scheduler:
        schedule: "*/5 * * * *"
        jobTemplate:
          backoffLimit: 1
      repositories:
        - name: minio-qdrant-repo
          backend: minio-backend
          directory: /qdrant
          encryptionSecret:
            name: encrypt-secret
            namespace: demo
      addon:
        name: qdrant-addon
        tasks:
          - name: volume-snapshot
            params:
              volumeSnapshotClassName: "longhorn-snapshot-vsc"

Here,

  • .spec.sessions[*].schedule specifies that we want to backup the database at 5 minutes interval.
  • .spec.target refers to the targeted qdrant-sample Qdrant database that we created earlier.
  • .spec.sessions[*].addon.tasks[*].params[*].volumeSnapshotClassName specifies the VolumeSnapshotClass to use for creating volume snapshots.

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

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.6.19/docs/examples/qdrant/backup/volume-snapshot/backup-configuration.yaml
backupconfiguration.core.kubestash.com/qdrant-sample-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
qdrant-sample-backup    Ready            36s

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
minio-qdrant-repo   true        5                19.914 KiB   Ready   91s                      101s

Verify VolumeSnapshot:

It will create a VolumeSnapshot for each PVC of the Qdrant database.

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

$ kubectl get volumesnapshot -n demo
NAME                         READYTOUSE   SOURCEPVC              RESTORESIZE   SNAPSHOTCLASS           CREATIONTIME   AGE
qdrant-sample-0-1779334719   true         data-qdrant-sample-0   200Mi         longhorn-snapshot-vsc   2m38s          2m38s
qdrant-sample-1-1779334729   true         data-qdrant-sample-1   200Mi         longhorn-snapshot-vsc   2m28s          2m28s
qdrant-sample-2-1779334744   true         data-qdrant-sample-2   200Mi         longhorn-snapshot-vsc   2m13s          2m13s

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
qdrant-sample-backup-frequent-backup-1779334706   BackupConfiguration   qdrant-sample-backup   Succeeded   41s        91s

We can see from the above output that the backup session has succeeded.

Restore

In this section, we are going to restore the database from the volume snapshot backup we have taken in the previous section. First, delete the original database, then deploy a new one initialized from the backup using the init.archiver field.

$ kubectl delete qdrant -n demo qdrant-sample
qdrant.kubedb.com "qdrant-sample" deleted

Deploy Restored Database:

Below is the YAML for Qdrant CRD we are going deploy to initialize from backup,

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Qdrant
metadata:
  name: qdrant-sample
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: "1.17.0"
  mode: Distributed
  replicas: 3
  # init:
  #   archiver:
  #     recoveryTimestamp: "2026-12-12T00:00:00Z"
  #     fullDBRepository:
  #       name: minio-qdrant-repo
  #       namespace: demo
  storage:
    storageClassName: longhorn
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 200Mi
  deletionPolicy: WipeOut

Let’s create the above database,

$ kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.6.19/docs/examples/qdrant/backup/volume-snapshot/qdrant-restore.yaml
qdrant.kubedb.com/qdrant-sample created

KubeDB will automatically restore the database from the volume snapshot backup. Wait for the database to become Ready,

$ kubectl get qdrant -n demo qdrant-sample
NAME            VERSION   STATUS   AGE
qdrant-sample   1.17.0    Ready    2m1s

Verify Restored Data:

In this section, we are going to verify whether the desired data has been restored successfully.

Now, let’s get the API key and port-forward to verify the restored data,

# Get the API key from the auth secret
$ export API_KEY=$(kubectl get secret -n demo qdrant-sample-auth -o jsonpath='{.data.api-key}' | base64 -d)

$ kubectl port-forward -n demo svc/qdrant-sample 6333:6333 &
# Scroll points to verify the restored data
$ curl -X POST 'http://localhost:6333/collections/demo_collection/points/scroll' \
  -H "api-key: $API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"limit": 10, "with_payload": true, "with_vector": true}'

{
  "result": {
    "points": [
      {
        "id": 1,
        "payload": {"label": "a"},
        "vector": [0.18257418, 0.36514837, 0.5477226, 0.73029673]
      },
      {
        "id": 2,
        "payload": {"label": "b"},
        "vector": [0.37904903, 0.45485884, 0.5306686, 0.60647845]
      }
    ],
    "next_page_offset": null
  },
  "status": "ok",
  "time": 0.006733993
}

So, from the above output, we can see that the demo_collection we created earlier in the original database is now restored successfully.

Cleanup

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

kubectl delete backupconfiguration.core.kubestash.com -n demo qdrant-sample-backup
kubectl delete retentionpolicy.storage.kubestash.com -n demo demo-retention
kubectl delete backupstorage -n demo minio-storage
kubectl delete secret -n demo storage-secret
kubectl delete secret -n demo encrypt-secret
kubectl delete qdrant -n demo qdrant-sample

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