Introduction

BackupRepo is the storage repository for backup data. Currently, KubeBlocks supports configuring various object storage services as backup repositories, including OSS (Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service), S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service), COS (Tencent Cloud Object Storage), GCS (Google Cloud Storage), OBS (Huawei Cloud Object Storage), MinIO, and other S3-compatible services.

You can create multiple BackupRepos to suit different scenarios. For example, based on different businesses, the data of business A is stored in repository A, and the data of business B is stored in repository B. Or you can configure multiple repositories by region to realize geo-disaster recovery. But it is required to specify backup repositories when you create a backup. You can also create a default backup repository and KubeBlocks uses this default repository to store backup data if no specific repository is specified.

Before you start

Make sure you have all the following prepared.

Configure BackupRepo

With object storage services prepared, it's time to configure BackupRepo. KubeBlocks provides two ways for the configuration:

Automatic BackupRepo configuration during KubeBlocks installation;
Manual BackupRepo configuration for on-demand scenarios.

If you don't have any object storage at hand, please refer to Install MinIO

Access BackupRepo

There are two methods to access remote object storage:

Method	Description	Requirements	Security Consideration
Tool	Uses command-line tools to directly access remote storage	No additional driver required	Synchronizes credentials as secrets across namespaces
Mount	Mounts remote storage locally using a CSI driver	Requires CSI driver installation	No credential sharing between namespaces

The access method is specified in the accessMethod field when creating a BackupRepo and cannot be changed later.

Recommendation:

Use "Tool" method for simpler setups in trusted environments
Use "Mount" method for enhanced security in multi-tenant scenarios

Manual BackupRepo configuration

If you do not configure the BackupRepo information when installing KubeBlocks, you can manually configure it by the following instructions.

Install the S3 CSI driver (only used in the Mount method).

helm repo add kubeblocks https://jihulab.com/api/v4/projects/85949/packages/helm/stable
helm install csi-s3 kubeblocks/csi-s3 --version=0.7.0 -n kb-system

# You can add flags to customize the installation of this addon
# CSI-S3 installs a daemonSet Pod on all nodes by default and you can set tolerations to install it on the specified node
--set-json tolerations='[{"key":"taintkey","operator":"Equal","effect":"NoSchedule","value":"taintValue"}]'
--set-json daemonsetTolerations='[{"key":"taintkey","operator":"Equal","effect":"NoSchedule","value":"taintValue"}]'

Create BackupRepo.

# Create a secret to save the access key for S3
kubectl create secret generic s3-credential-for-backuprepo \
  -n kb-system \
  --from-literal=accessKeyId=<ACCESS KEY> \
  --from-literal=secretAccessKey=<SECRET KEY>

# Create the BackupRepo resource
kubectl apply -f - <<-'EOF'
apiVersion: dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
kind: BackupRepo
metadata:
  name: my-repo
  annotations:
    dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/is-default-repo: "true"
spec:
  storageProviderRef: s3
  accessMethod: Tool
  pvReclaimPolicy: Retain
  volumeCapacity: 100Gi
  config:
    bucket: test-kb-backup
    endpoint: ""
    mountOptions: --memory-limit 1000 --dir-mode 0777 --file-mode 0666
    region: cn-northwest-1
  credential:
    name: s3-credential-for-backuprepo
    namespace: kb-system
  pathPrefix: ""
EOF

# Create a secret to save the access key for OSS
kubectl create secret generic oss-credential-for-backuprepo \
  -n kb-system \
  --from-literal=accessKeyId=<ACCESS KEY> \
  --from-literal=secretAccessKey=<SECRET KEY>

# Create the BackupRepo resource
kubectl apply -f - <<-'EOF'
apiVersion: dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
kind: BackupRepo
metadata:
  name: my-repo
  annotations:
    dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/is-default-repo: "true"
spec:
  storageProviderRef: oss
  accessMethod: Tool
  pvReclaimPolicy: Retain
  volumeCapacity: 100Gi
  config:
    bucket: test-kb-backup
    mountOptions: ""
    endpoint: ""
    region: cn-zhangjiakou
  credential:
    name: oss-credential-for-backuprepo
    namespace: kb-system
  pathPrefix: ""
EOF

# Create a secret to save the access key for OBS
kubectl create secret generic obs-credential-for-backuprepo \
-n kb-system \
--from-literal=accessKeyId=<ACCESS KEY> \
--from-literal=secretAccessKey=<SECRET KEY>

# Create the BackupRepo resource
kubectl apply -f - <<-'EOF'
apiVersion: dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
kind: BackupRepo
metadata:
  name: my-repo
  annotations:
    dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/is-default-repo: "true"
spec:
  storageProviderRef: obs
  accessMethod: Tool
  pvReclaimPolicy: Retain
  volumeCapacity: 100Gi
  config:
    bucket: test-kb-backup
    mountOptions: ""
    endpoint: ""
    region: cn-north-4
  credential:
    name: obs-credential-for-backuprepo
    namespace: kb-system
  pathPrefix: ""
EOF

# Create a secret to save the access key for COS
kubectl create secret generic cos-credential-for-backuprepo \
  -n kb-system \
  --from-literal=accessKeyId=<ACCESS KEY> \
  --from-literal=secretAccessKey=<SECRET KEY>

# Create the BackupRepo resource
kubectl apply -f - <<-'EOF'
apiVersion: dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
kind: BackupRepo
metadata:
  name: my-repo
  annotations:
    dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/is-default-repo: "true"
spec:
  storageProviderRef: cos
  accessMethod: Tool
  pvReclaimPolicy: Retain
  volumeCapacity: 100Gi
  config:
    bucket: test-kb-backup
    mountOptions: ""
    endpoint: ""
    region: ap-guangzhou
  credential:
    name: cos-credential-for-backuprepo
    namespace: kb-system
  pathPrefix: ""
EOF

# Create a secret to save the access key for GCS
kubectl create secret generic gcs-credential-for-backuprepo \
  -n kb-system \
  --from-literal=accessKeyId=<ACCESS KEY> \
  --from-literal=secretAccessKey=<SECRET KEY>

# Create the BackupRepo resource
kubectl apply -f - <<-'EOF'
apiVersion: dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
kind: BackupRepo
metadata:
  name: my-repo
  annotations:
    dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/is-default-repo: "true"
spec:
  storageProviderRef: gcs-s3comp
  accessMethod: Tool
  pvReclaimPolicy: Retain
  volumeCapacity: 100Gi
  config:
    bucket: test-kb-backup
    mountOptions: ""
    endpoint: ""
    region: auto
  credential:
    name: gcs-credential-for-backuprepo
    namespace: kb-system
  pathPrefix: ""
EOF

# Create a secret to save the access key for MinIO
kubectl create secret generic minio-credential-for-backuprepo \
  -n kb-system \
  --from-literal=accessKeyId=<ACCESS KEY> \
  --from-literal=secretAccessKey=<SECRET KEY>

# Create the BackupRepo resource
kubectl apply -f - <<-'EOF'
apiVersion: dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
kind: BackupRepo
metadata:
  name: my-repo
  annotations:
    dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/is-default-repo: "true"
spec:
  storageProviderRef: minio
  accessMethod: Tool
  pvReclaimPolicy: Retain
  volumeCapacity: 100Gi
  config:
    bucket: test-kb-backup
    mountOptions: ""
    endpoint: <ip:port>
  credential:
    name: minio-credential-for-backuprepo
    namespace: kb-system
  pathPrefix: ""
EOF

# Create a secret to save the access key for the S3 compatible storage
kubectl create secret generic s3-comp-credential-for-backuprepo \
  -n kb-system \
  --from-literal=accessKeyId=<ACCESS KEY> \
  --from-literal=secretAccessKey=<SECRET KEY>

# Create the BackupRepo resource
kubectl apply -f - <<-'EOF'
apiVersion: dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
kind: BackupRepo
metadata:
  name: my-repo
  annotations:
    dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/is-default-repo: "true"
spec:
  storageProviderRef: s3-compatible
  accessMethod: Tool
  pvReclaimPolicy: Retain
  volumeCapacity: 100Gi
  config:
    bucket: test-kb-backup
    endpoint: <endpoint>
    forcePathStyle: true
  credential:
    name: s3-comp-credential-for-backuprepo
    namespace: kb-system
  pathPrefix: ""
EOF

View the BackupRepo and its status. If the status is Ready, the BackupRepo is ready.
```
kubectl get backuprepo
```

Install the S3 CSI driver (only used in the Mount method).

# Enable the CSI-S3 addon
kbcli addon enable csi-s3

# You can add flags to customize the installation of this addon
# CSI-S3 installs a daemonSet Pod on all nodes by default and you can set tolerations to install it on the specified node
kbcli addon enable csi-s3 \
  --tolerations '[{"key":"taintkey","operator":"Equal","effect":"NoSchedule","value":"true"}]' \
  --tolerations 'daemonset:[{"key":"taintkey","operator":"Equal","effect":"NoSchedule","value":"true"}]'

# View the status of CSI-S3 driver and make sure it is Enabled
kbcli addon list csi-s3

Create BackupRepo.

kbcli backuprepo create my-repo \
  --provider s3 \
  --region cn-northwest-1 \
  --bucket test-kb-backup \
  --access-key-id <ACCESS KEY> \
  --secret-access-key <SECRET KEY> \
  --access-method Tool \
  --default

You can also specify --access-method as Mount.

kbcli backuprepo create my-repo \
  --provider oss \
  --region cn-zhangjiakou \
  --bucket  test-kb-backup \
  --access-key-id <ACCESS KEY> \
  --secret-access-key <SECRET KEY> \
  --access-method Tool \
  --default

You can also explicitly specify the OSS endpoint using the --endpoint flag. For example,

kbcli backuprepo create my-repo \
  --provider oss \
  --region cn-zhangjiakou \
  --bucket  test-kb-backup \
  --endpoint https://oss-cn-zhangjiakou-internal.aliyuncs.com \
  --access-key-id <ACCESS KEY> \
  --secret-access-key <SECRET KEY> \
  --access-method Tool \
  --default

kbcli backuprepo create my-repo \
  --provider obs \
  --region cn-north-4 \
  --bucket  test-kb-backup \
  --access-key-id <ACCESS KEY> \
  --secret-access-key <SECRET KEY> \
  --access-method Tool \
  --default

For COS, the naming format of a bucket is <BucketName-APPID>，where APPID is automatically generated by Tencent Cloud. When setting --bucket, first create the bucket on the Tencent Cloud console and retrieve the bucket name.

kbcli backuprepo create my-repo \
  --provider cos \
  --region ap-guangzhou \
  --bucket  test-kb-backup \
  --access-key-id <ACCESS KEY> \
  --secret-access-key <SECRET KEY> \
  --access-method Tool \
  --default

kbcli backuprepo create my-repo \
  --provider gcs-s3comp \
  --region auto \
  --bucket  test-kb-backup \
  --access-key-id <ACCESS KEY> \
  --secret-access-key <SECRET KEY> \
  --access-method Tool \
  --default

GCS supported by KubeBlocks is the S3-compatible version provided by Google Cloud.

kbcli backuprepo create my-repo \
  --provider minio \
  --endpoint <ip:port> \
  --bucket test-minio \
  --access-key-id <ACCESS KEY> \
  --secret-access-key <SECRET KEY> \
  --access-method Tool \
  --default

The address for the deployed MinIO is http://minio.kb-system.svc.cluster.local:9000.

kbcli backuprepo create my-repo \
  --provider s3-compatible \
  --endpoint <endpoint> \
  --bucket test-minio \
  --access-key-id <ACCESS KEY> \
  --secret-access-key <SECRET KEY> \
  --access-method Tool \
  --force-path-style=true \
  --default

The above command creates a default backup repository my-repo.

my-repo is the name of the created backup repository. If you do not specify a name, the system creates a random name, following the format backuprepo-xxxxx.
--default means that this repository is set as the default repository. Note that there can only be one default global repository. If there exist multiple default repositories, KubeBlocks cannot decide which one to use (similar to the default StorageClass of Kubernetes), which further results in backup failure. Using kbcli to create BackupRepo can avoid such problems because kbcli checks whether there is another default repository before creating a new one.
--provider specifies the storage type, i.e. storageProvider, and is required for creating a BakcupRepo. The available values are s3, cos, gcs-s3comp, obs, oss, minio, s3-compatible, ftp, and nfs. Parameters for different storage providers vary and you can run kbcli backuprepo create --provider STORAGE-PROVIDER-NAME -h to view the flags for different storage providers. Please note that --provider is mandatory in configuration.

After kbcli backuprepo create is executed successfully, the system creates the K8s resource whose type is BackupRepo. You can modify the annotation of this resource to adjust the default repository.

# Cancel the default repository
kubectl annotate backuprepo old-default-repo \
  --overwrite=true \
  dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/is-default-repo=false

# Set a new default repository
kubectl annotate backuprepo backuprepo-4qms6 \
  --overwrite=true \
  dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/is-default-repo=true

View the BackupRepo and its status. If the status is Ready, the BackupRepo is ready.
```
kbcli backuprepo list
```

NOTE

If the BackupRepo status shows Failed or remains in PreChecking for a long time, run kubectl describe backuprepo my-repo or kbcli backuprepo describe my-repo to check the status.conditions for details.

To troubleshoot:

Check whether configuration parameters, such as endpoint, accessKeyId, and secretAccessKey, are correctly specified.
For self-hosted object storage (e.g., Ceph Object Storage), try using s3-compatible as StorageProvider. The default s3 StorageProvider uses a virtual hosting URL style, which some self-hosted storage may not support.
If an InvalidLocationConstraint error occurs, check whether its parameter is correctly configured. If this error persists, leave the region parameter empty and try again.
If the status remains in the PreChecking state, check your network connection. Ensure the storage service is accessible from within the Kubernetes cluster. You can test this by running a Pod and connecting to the storage service using the corresponding client.
KubeBlocks uses rclone internally for data transfer. Check whether rclone can successfully access the storage service.

Automatic BackupRepo configuration

You can specify the BackupRepo information in a YAML configuration file when installing KubeBlocks, and KubeBlocks will create the BackupRepo accordingly.

Prepare the configuration file.

Taking AWS S3 as an example, the configuration file backuprepo.yaml is:
```
backupRepo:
  create: true
  storageProvider: s3
  config:
    region: cn-northwest-1
    bucket: test-kb-backup
  secrets:
    accessKeyId: <ACCESS KEY>
    secretAccessKey: <SECRET KEY>
```
- region: specifies the region where S3 is located.
- bucket: specifies the bucket name of S3.
- accessKeyId: specifies the Access Key of AWS.
- secretAccessKey: specifies the Secret Key of AWS.
- storageProvider：specifies the object storage provider, which is S3 in this case.

NOTE

In KubeBlocks, the available storageProvider options are s3, cos, gcs-s3comp, obs, oss, minio, s3-compatible, ftp, and nfs.
For different storageProvider, the configuration may differ. config and secrets in the above example are applied to S3.
Execute the command kubectl get storageproviders.dataprotection.kubeblocks.io to view the supported storageProvider options.

Specify the configuration file when installing KubeBlocks.
```
kubectl create -f backuprepo.yaml
```
Use the command below to check the BackupRepo after installation.
```
kubectl get backuprepo
```
```
kbcli kubeblocks install -f backuprepo.yaml
```
Use the command below to check the BackupRepo after installation.
```
kbcli backuprepo list
```

Install MinIO

If you don't have an object storage service from a cloud provider, you can deploy the open-source service MinIO in Kubernetes and use it to configure BackupRepo.

Steps

Install MinIO in the kb-system namespace.

helm install minio oci://registry-1.docker.io/bitnamicharts/minio --namespace kb-system --create-namespace --set "extraEnvVars[0].name=MINIO_BROWSER_LOGIN_ANIMATION" --set "extraEnvVars[0].value=off"

Get the initial username and password:

# Initial username
echo $(kubectl get secret --namespace kb-system minio -o jsonpath="{.data.root-user}" | base64 -d)

# Initial password
echo $(kubectl get secret --namespace kb-system minio -o jsonpath="{.data.root-password}" | base64 -d)

Generate credentials.

Access the login page by running kubectl port-forward --namespace kb-system svc/minio 9001:9001 and then accessing 127.0.0.1:9001.

Once you are logged in to the dashboard, you can generate an access key and secret key.
Create a bucket.

Create a bucket named test-minio for the test.

NOTE

The access address (endpoint) for the installed MinIO is http://minio.kb-system.svc.cluster.local:9000, which will be used to configure BackupRepo. In this case, kb-system is the name of the namespace where MinIO is installed.