Create persistent volume snapshot

When you need to create a back-up of a persistent volume claim in your cluster that makes use of block storage.

Step-by-step guide#

In your cluster there is a VolumeSnapshotClass resource available. On AWS, the default name is csi-aws-vsc.

You can view all available classes by performing the following command:

kubectl get volumesnapshotclass

If you see no volumesnapshotclasses, you may need to upgrade your cluster or the cloud provider your cluster runs in does not support snapshot functionality. Please contact Avisi Cloud support.

Similarly to persistent volumes, we use snapshotclass to determine what driver will be used for creating the snapshot.

Given the following persistent volume as an example of a PVC we want to back-up:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: test-snapshot-claim
namespace: default
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteOnce
  storageClassName: ebs
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi

This can be any PVC.

Creating a snapshot#

To create a new snapshot, apply the following resource to your cluster:

apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: VolumeSnapshot
metadata:
  name: test-snapshot-demo
  namespace: default
spec:
  volumeSnapshotClassName: csi-aws-vsc
  source:
    persistentVolumeClaimName: test-snapshot-claim

You can view the created snapshots by performing the following command:

$ kubectl get volumesnapshot -A;
NAMESPACE        NAME      READYTOUSE   SOURCEPVC           SOURCESNAPSHOTCONTENT   RESTORESIZE   SNAPSHOTCLASS   SNAPSHOTCONTENT                                    CREATIONTIME   AGE
default          example   true         data-example-db-0                           1Gi           rbd-snapshot    snapcontent-ca28a4d9-a340-45f0-a9c7-2f1eacd7c42f   49d            49d

The READYTOUSE column means you can use the snapshot to create a new persistent volume using the snapshot as a source.

Restoring a snapshot#

You can restore a snapshot by creating a new Persistent Volume Claim with a datasource configured. Note the spec.dataSource.name, which refers the VolumeSnapshot previously created.

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: test-snapshot-claim-restore
spec:
  storageClassName: ebs
  dataSource:
    name: test-snapshot-demo
    kind: VolumeSnapshot
    apiGroup: snapshot.storage.k8s.io
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteOnce
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi

Restoring a volume may take a minute or so, depending on the size of your snapshot and provider used.

Note that on AWS, disk performance will be slow after the initial restore while AWS is completing restore operations. All data can be read immediately after restore.

Related external documentation#

• https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/volume-snapshots/
• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/EBSSnapshots.html

Using acloud-toolkit#

When using acloud-toolkit, you can create a snapshot using the following command:

$ kubectl get pvc
NAME                                         STATUS   VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS    AGE
data-my-release-postgresql-ha-postgresql-0   Bound    pvc-6c2f336d-80d5-4298-88f7-bf81b7820800   8Gi        RWO            gp2             63d
tmp-test-snapshot-claim                      Bound    pvc-1d6cb933-2706-4471-9a89-e895a9cf3439   2Gi        RWO            gp2-immediate   50d

$ acloud-toolkit snapshot create test-snapshot01 --pvc tmp-test-snapshot-claim
PVC with volume pvc-1d6cb933-2706-4471-9a89-e895a9cf3439 found...
Creating snapshot "test-snapshot01" for PVC "tmp-test-snapshot-claim"...
Snapshot "test-snapshot01" created for PVC "tmp-test-snapshot-claim"...
Waiting until "test-snapshot01" is ready for use...
...