On-demand backup

KubeBlocks supports on-demand backups. You can customize your backup method by specifying --method. The instructions below take using a backup tool and volume snapshot as examples.

Backup tool

The following command uses the xtrabackup backup method to create a backup named mybackup.

To Create a backup:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
kind: Backup
metadata:
  name: mybackup
  namespace: default
spec:
  backupMethod: xtrabackup
  backupPolicyName: mycluster-mysql-backup-policy
  deletionPolicy: Delete
EOF

View the backup:

kubectl get backup mybackup
>
NAME       POLICY                          METHOD       REPO     STATUS      TOTAL-SIZE   DURATION   DELETION-POLICY   CREATION-TIME          COMPLETION-TIME        EXPIRATION-TIME
mybackup   mycluster-mysql-backup-policy   xtrabackup   kb-oss   Completed   1632402      10s        Delete            2025-05-26T10:14:33Z   2025-05-26T10:14:42Z

Create a backup

kbcli cluster backup mycluster --name mybackup --method xtrabackup
>
Backup mybackup created successfully, you can view the progress:
	kbcli cluster list-backups --names=mybackup -n default

View the backup

kbcli cluster list-backups --names mybackup
>
NAME       NAMESPACE   SOURCE-CLUSTER   METHOD       STATUS      TOTAL-SIZE   DURATION   DELETION-POLICY   CREATE-TIME                  COMPLETION-TIME              EXPIRATION
mybackup   default     mycluster        xtrabackup   Completed   1632402      10s        Delete            May 26,2025 18:14 UTC+0800   May 26,2025 18:14 UTC+0800

Volume snapshot backup

NOTE

Prerequisites Volume snapshot backups require:

StorageClass must support volume snapshots

Please check the list of CS Drivers and their features at: https://kubernetes-csi.github.io/docs/drivers.html

To create a backup using the snapshot, the backupMethod in the YAML configuration file or the --method field in the kbcli command should be set to volume-snapshot.

# Create a backup
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: dataprotection.kubeblocks.io/v1alpha1
kind: Backup
metadata:
  name: my-snapshot-backup
  namespace: default
spec:
  backupMethod: volume-snapshot
  backupPolicyName: mycluster-mysql-backup-policy
EOF

View the backup

kubectl get backup my-snapshot-backup
>
NAME                 POLICY                           METHOD            REPO   STATUS    TOTAL-SIZE   DURATION   DELETION-POLICY   CREATION-TIME          COMPLETION-TIME   EXPIRATION-TIME
my-snapshot-backup   mycluster2-mysql-backup-policy   volume-snapshot          Running                           Delete            2025-05-26T10:30:10Z

# Create a backup
kbcli cluster backup mycluster --name my-snapshot-backup --method volume-snapshot
>
Backup mybackup created successfully, you can view the progress:
        kbcli cluster list-backups --names=mybackup -n default

# View the backup
kbcli cluster list-backups --names=my-snapshot-backup -n default
>
NAME                 NAMESPACE   SOURCE-CLUSTER   METHOD            STATUS    TOTAL-SIZE   DURATION   DELETION-POLICY   CREATE-TIME                  COMPLETION-TIME   EXPIRATION
my-snapshot-backup   default     mycluster        volume-snapshot   Running                           Delete            May 26,2025 18:30 UTC+0800

CAUTION

When creating backups using snapshots, ensure that the storage used supports the snapshot feature; otherwise, the backup may fail.
Backups created manually using kbcli will not be automatically deleted. You need to manually delete them.