Continental Innovates with Rancher and Kubernetes
In this section, you’ll learn how to create backups of Rancher, how to restore Rancher from backup, and how to migrate Rancher to a new Kubernetes cluster.
As of Rancher v2.5, the rancher-backup operator is used to backup and restore Rancher. The rancher-backup Helm chart is here.
rancher-backup
The backup-restore operator needs to be installed in the local cluster, and only backs up the Rancher app. The backup and restore operations are performed only in the local Kubernetes cluster.
The Rancher version must be v2.5.0 and up to use this approach of backing up and restoring Rancher.
The new rancher-backup operator allows Rancher to be backed up and restored on any Kubernetes cluster. This application is a Helm chart, and it can be deployed through the Rancher Apps & Marketplace page, or by using the Helm CLI.
Previously, the way that cluster data was backed up depended on the type of Kubernetes cluster that was used.
In Rancher v2.4, it was only supported to install Rancher on two types of Kubernetes clusters: an RKE cluster, or a K3s cluster with an external database. If Rancher was installed on an RKE cluster, RKE would be used to take a snapshot of the etcd database and restore the cluster. If Rancher was installed on a K3s cluster with an external database, the database would need to be backed up and restored using the upstream documentation for the database.
In Rancher v2.5, it is now supported to install Rancher hosted Kubernetes clusters, such as Amazon EKS clusters, which do not expose etcd to a degree that would allow snapshots to be created by an external tool. etcd doesn’t need to be exposed for rancher-backup to work, because the operator gathers resources by making calls to kube-apiserver.
kube-apiserver
For Rancher installed with Docker, refer to the same steps used up till 2.5 for backups and restores.
For Rancher prior to v2.5, the way that Rancher is backed up and restored differs based on the way that Rancher was installed. Our legacy backup and restore documentation is here:
The rancher-backup operator introduces three custom resources: Backups, Restores, and ResourceSets. The following cluster-scoped custom resource definitions are added to the cluster:
backups.resources.cattle.io
resourcesets.resources.cattle.io
restores.resources.cattle.io
The ResourceSet defines which Kubernetes resources need to be backed up. The ResourceSet is not available to be configured in the Rancher UI because the values required to back up Rancher are predefined. This ResourceSet should not be modified.
When a Backup custom resource is created, the rancher-backup operator calls the kube-apiserver to get the resources in the ResourceSet (specifically, the predefined rancher-resource-set) that the Backup custom resource refers to.
rancher-resource-set
The operator then creates the backup file in the .tar.gz format and stores it in the location configured in the Backup resource.
When a Restore custom resource is created, the operator accesses the backup .tar.gz file specified by the Restore, and restores the application from that file.
The Backup and Restore custom resources can be created in the Rancher UI, or by using kubectl apply.
kubectl apply
The rancher-backup operator can be installed from the Rancher UI, or with the Helm CLI. In both cases, the rancher-backup Helm chart is installed on the Kubernetes cluster running the Rancher server. It is a cluster-admin only feature and available only for the local cluster. (If you do not see rancher-backup in the Rancher UI, you may have selected the wrong cluster.)
Result: The rancher-backup operator is installed.
From the Cluster Explorer, you can see the rancher-backup operator listed under Deployments.
To configure the backup app in Rancher, click Cluster Explorer in the upper left corner and click Rancher Backups.
Install the backup app as a Helm chart:
helm repo add rancher-charts https://charts.rancher.io helm repo update helm install rancher-backup-crd rancher-charts/rancher-backup-crd -n cattle-resources-system --create-namespace helm install rancher-backup rancher-charts/rancher-backup -n cattle-resources-system
Only the rancher admins and the local cluster’s cluster-owner can:
A backup is performed by creating a Backup custom resource. For a tutorial, refer to this page.
A restore is performed by creating a Restore custom resource. For a tutorial, refer to this page.
A migration is performed by following these steps.
Configure a storage location where all backups are saved by default. You will have the option to override this with each backup, but will be limited to using an S3-compatible or Minio object store.
For information on configuring these options, refer to this page.
The example values.yaml file can be used to configure the rancher-backup operator when the Helm CLI is used to install it.