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Backing Up Your Kubernetes Applications with Velero v1.1

In this post, I’m going to walk through the process of installing and using Velero v1.1 to back up a Kubernetes application that includes persistent data stored in persisentvolumes. I will then simulate a DR scenario by completely deleting the application and using Velero to restore the application to the cluster, including the persistent data.

Meet Velero!! ⛵

Velero is a backup and recovery solution built specifically to assist in the backup (and migration) of Kubernetes applications, including their persistent storage volumes. You can even use Velero to back up an entire Kubernetes cluster for restore and/or migration! Velero address various use cases, including but not limited to:

  • Taking backups of your cluster to allow for restore in case of infrastructure loss/corruption
  • Migration of cluster resources to other clusters
  • Replication of production cluster/applications to dev and test clusters

Velero is essentially comprised of two components:

  • A server that runs as a set of resources with your Kubernetes cluster
  • A command-line client that runs locally

Velero also supports the back up and restore of Kubernetes volumes using restic, an open source backup tool. Velero will need to utilize a S3 API-compatible storage server to store these volumes. To satisfy this requirement, I will also deploy a Minio server in my Kubernetes cluster so Velero is able to store my Kubernetes volume backups. Minio is a light weight, easy to deploy S3 object store that you can run on premises. In a production environment, you’d want to deploy your S3 compatible storage solution in another cluster or environment to prevent from total data loss in case of infrastructure failure.

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Deploying Kubeapps and Exposing the Dashboard via Ingress Controller in Enterprise PKS

In this post, I’d like to take some time to walk through the process of deploying Kubeapps in an Enterprise PKS kubernetes cluster. I’ll also walk through the process of utilizing the built-in ingress controller provided by NSX-T to expose the Kubeapps dashboard via a fully qualified domain name.

What is Kubeapps?

There’s been a lot of excitement in the Cloud Native space at VMware since the acquisition of Bitnami last year. The Bitnami team has done a lot of amazing work over the years to simplify the process of application deployment across all types of infrastructure, both in public and private clouds. Today we are going to take a look at Kubeapps. Kubeapps, an open source project developed by the folks at Bitnami, is a web-based UI for deploying and managing applications in Kubernetes clusters. Kubeapps allows users to:

  • Browse and deploy Helm charts from chart repositories
  • Inspect, upgrade and delete Helm-based applications installed in the cluster
  • Add custom and private chart repositories (supports ChartMuseum and JFrog Artifactory)
  • Browse and provision external services from the Service Catalog and available Service Brokers
  • Connect Helm-based applications to external services with Service Catalog Bindings
  • Secure authentication and authorization based on Kubernetes Role-Based Access Control

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