Backup MKE

MKE backups no longer require pausing the reconciler and deleting MKE containers, and backing up a MKE manager does not disrupt the manager’s activities.

Because MKE stores the same data on all manager nodes, you only need to back up a single MKE manager node.

User resources, such as services, containers, and stacks are not affected by this operation and continue operating as expected.

Limitations

  • Backups should not be utilized for restoring clusters on a cluster with a newer version of MKE. For example, if backups occur on version N (e.g., MKE 3.2.x), then a restore on version N+1 (e.g., MKE 3.3.z) is not supported.

  • More than one backup at the same time is not supported. If a backup is attempted while another backup is in progress, or if two backups are scheduled at the same time, a message is displayed to indicate that the second backup failed because another backup is running.

  • For crashed clusters, backup capability is not guaranteed. Perform regular backups to avoid this situation.

  • MKE backup does not include Swarm workloads.

MKE backup contents

Backup contents are stored in a .tar file. Backups contain MKE configuration metadata to re-create configurations such as Administration Settings values such as LDAP and SAML, and RBAC configurations (Collections, Grants, Roles, User, and more):

Data

Description

Backed up

Configurations

MKE configurations, including Mirantis Container Runtime license, Swarm, and client CAs

yes

Access control

Permissions for teams to Swarm resources, including collections, grants, and roles

yes

Certificates and keys

Certificates and public and private keys used for authentication and mutual TLS communication

yes

Metrics data

Monitoring data gathered by MKE

yes

Organizations

Users, teams, and organizations

yes

Volumes

All MKE named volumes including all MKE component certificates and data

yes

Overlay networks

Swarm-mode overlay network definitions, including port information

no

Configs, secrets

Create a Swarm backup to backup these data

no

Services

Stacks and services are stored in Swarm-mode or SCM/Config Management

no

Note

Because Kubernetes stores the state of resources on etcd, a backup of etcd is sufficient for stateless backups.

Data not included in the backup

  • ucp-metrics-data: holds the metrics server’s data.

  • ucp-node-certs : holds certs used to lock down MKE system components

  • Routing mesh settings. Interlock L7 ingress configuration information is not captured in MKE backups. A manual backup and restore process is possible and should be performed.

Kubernetes settings, data, and state

MKE backups include all Kubernetes declarative objects (pods, deployments, replicasets, configurations, and so on), including secrets. These objects are stored in the ucp-kv etcd database that is backed up (and restored) as part of MKE backup/restore.

Note

You cannot back up Kubernetes volumes and node labels. Instead, upon restore, Kubernetes declarative objects are re-created. Containers are re-created and IP addresses are resolved.

For more information, see Backing up an etcd cluster.

Specify a backup file

To avoid directly managing backup files, you can specify a file name and host directory on a secure and configured storage backend, such as NFS or another networked file system. The file system location is the backup folder on the manager node file system. This location must be writable by the nobody user, which is specified by changing the folder ownership to nobody. This operation requires administrator permissions to the manager node, and must only be run once for a given file system location.

sudo chown nobody:nogroup /path/to/folder

Important

Specify a different name for each backup file. Otherwise, the existing backup file with the same name is overwritten. Specify a location that is mounted on a fault-tolerant file system (such as NFS) rather than the node’s local disk. Otherwise, it is important to regularly move backups from the manager node’s local disk to ensure adequate space for ongoing backups.

MKE backup steps

There are several options for creating a MKE backup:

The backup process runs on one manager node.

Create a MKE backup using the CLI

The following example shows how to create a MKE manager node backup, encrypt it by using a passphrase, decrypt it, verify its contents, and store it locally on the node at /tmp/mybackup.tar:

Run the mirantis/ucp:3.3.16 backup command on a single MKE manager and include the --file and --include-logsoptions. This creates a tar archive with the contents of all volumes used by MKE and streams it to stdout. Replace 3.3.16 with the version you are currently running.

$ docker container run \
    --rm \
    --log-driver none \
    --name ucp \
    --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
    --volume /tmp:/backup \
    mirantis/ucp:3.3.16 backup \
    --file mybackup.tar \
    --passphrase "secret12chars" \
    --include-logs=false

Note

If you are running with Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) enabled, which is typical for RHEL hosts, you must include --security-opt label=disable in the docker command (replace version with the version you are currently running):

$ docker container run \
    --rm \
    --log-driver none \
    --security-opt label=disable \
    --name ucp \
    --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
    mirantis/ucp:3.3.16 backup \
    --passphrase "secret12chars" > /tmp/mybackup.tar

Note

To determine whether SELinux is enabled in MCR, view the host’s /etc/docker/daemon.json file, and search for the string "selinux-enabled":"true".

View log and progress information

To view backup progress and error reporting, view the contents of the stderr streams of the running backup container during the backup. Progress is updated for each backup step, for example, after validation, after volumes are backed up, after etcd is backed up, and after rethinkDB. Progress is not preserved after the backup has completed.

Verify a MKE backup

In a valid backup file, 27 or more files are displayed in the list and the ./ucp-controller-server-certs/key.pem file is present. Ensure the backup is a valid tar file by listing its contents, as shown in the following example:

$ gpg --decrypt /directory1/directory2/backup.tar | tar --list

If decryption is not needed, you can list the contents by removing the --decrypt flag, as shown in the following example:

$ tar --list -f /directory1/directory2/backup.tar

Create a MKE backup using the UI

To create a MKE backup using the UI:

  1. In the MKE UI, navigate to Admin Settings.

  2. Select Backup Admin.

  3. Select Backup Now to trigger an immediate backup.

The UI also provides the following options: - Display the status of a running backup - Display backup history - View backup contents

Create, list, and retrieve MKE backups using the API

The MKE API provides three endpoints for managing MKE backups. You must be a MKE administrator to access these API endpoints.

Create a MKE backup using the API

You can create a backup with the POST: /api/ucp/backup endpoint. This is a JSON endpoint with the following arguments:

field name

JSON data type*

description

passphrase

string

Encryption passphrase

noPassphrase

bool

Set to true if not using a passphrase

fileName

string

Backup file name

includeLogs

bool

Specifies whether to include a log file

hostPath

string

File system location

The request returns one of the following HTTP status codes, and, if successful, a backup ID.

  • 200: Success

  • 500: Internal server error

  • 400: Malformed request (payload fails validation)

Example
$ curl -sk -H 'Authorization: Bearer $AUTHTOKEN' https://$UCP_HOSTNAME/api/ucp/backup \
   -X POST \
   -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
   --data  '{"encrypted": true, "includeLogs": true, "fileName": "backup1.tar", "logFileName": "backup1.log", "hostPath": "/secure-location"}'
200 OK

where:

  • $AUTHTOKEN is your authentication bearer token if using auth token identification.

  • $UCP_HOSTNAME is your MKE hostname.

List all backups using the API

You can view all existing backups with the GET: /api/ucp/backups endpoint. This request does not expect a payload and returns a list of backups, each as a JSON object following the schema found in the Backup schema section.

The request returns one of the following HTTP status codes and, if successful, a list of existing backups:

  • 200: Success

  • 500: Internal server error

Example
curl -sk -H 'Authorization: Bearer $AUTHTOKEN' https://$UCP_HOSTNAME/api/ucp/backups
[
  {
    "id": "0d0525dd-948a-41b4-9f25-c6b4cd6d9fe4",
    "encrypted": true,
    "fileName": "backup2.tar",
    "logFileName": "backup2.log",
    "backupPath": "/secure-location",
    "backupState": "SUCCESS",
    "nodeLocation": "ucp-node-ubuntu-0",
    "shortError": "",
    "created_at": "2019-04-10T21:55:53.775Z",
    "completed_at": "2019-04-10T21:56:01.184Z"
  },
  {
    "id": "2cf210df-d641-44ca-bc21-bda757c08d18",
    "encrypted": true,
    "fileName": "backup1.tar",
    "logFileName": "backup1.log",
    "backupPath": "/secure-location",
    "backupState": "IN_PROGRESS",
    "nodeLocation": "ucp-node-ubuntu-0",
    "shortError": "",
    "created_at": "2019-04-10T01:23:59.404Z",
    "completed_at": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
  }
]

Retrieve backup details using the API

You can retrieve details for a specific backup using the GET: /api/ucp/backup/{backup_id} endpoint, where {backup_id} is the ID of an existing backup. This request returns the backup, if it exists, for the specified ID, as a JSON object following the schema found in the Backup schema section.

The request returns one of the following HTTP status codes, and if successful, the backup for the specified ID:

  • 200: Success

  • 404: Backup not found for the given {backup_id}

  • 500: Internal server error

Backup schema

The following table describes the backup schema returned by the GET and LIST APIs:

field name

JSON data type*

description

id

string

Unique ID

en crypted

boolean

Set to true if encrypted with a passphrase

f ileName

string

Backup file name if backing up to a file, empty otherwise

logF ileName

string

Backup log file name if saving backup logs, empty otherwise

bac kupPath

string

Host path where backup resides

back upState

string

Current state of the backup (IN_PROGRESS, SUCCESS, FAILED)

nodeL ocation

string

Node on which the backup was taken

sho rtError

string

Short error. Empty unless backupState is set to FAILED

cre ated_at

string

Time of backup creation

compl eted_at

string

Time of backup completion

See also