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Getting started

The following example sets up the Velero server and client, then backs up and restores a sample application.

For simplicity, the example uses Minio, an S3-compatible storage service that runs locally on your cluster. For additional functionality with this setup, see the docs on how to expose Minio outside your cluster.

NOTE The example lets you explore basic Velero functionality. Configuring Minio for production is out of scope.

See Set up Velero on your platform for how to configure Velero for a production environment.

If you encounter issues with installing or configuring, see Debugging Installation Issues.

Prerequisites

Access to a Kubernetes cluster, version 1.7 or later. Version 1.7.5 or later is required to run velero backup delete.
A DNS server on the cluster
kubectl installed

Download Velero

Download the latest release’s tarball for your client platform.
Extract the tarball:
```
tar -xvf <RELEASE-TARBALL-NAME>.tar.gz -C /dir/to/extract/to 
```
We’ll refer to the directory you extracted to as the “Velero directory” in subsequent steps.
Move the velero binary from the Velero directory to somewhere in your PATH.

We strongly recommend that you use an official release of Velero. The tarballs for each release contain the velero command-line client and version-specific sample YAML files for deploying Velero to your cluster. The code and sample YAML files in the main branch of the Velero repository are under active development and are not guaranteed to be stable. Use them at your own risk!

MacOS Installation

On Mac, you can use HomeBrew to install the velero client:

brew install velero

Set up server

These instructions start the Velero server and a Minio instance that is accessible from within the cluster only. See Expose Minio outside your cluster for information about configuring your cluster for outside access to Minio. Outside access is required to access logs and run velero describe commands.

Start the server and the local storage service. In the Velero directory, run:

kubectl apply -f config/common/00-prereqs.yaml
kubectl apply -f config/minio/

Deploy the example nginx application:

kubectl apply -f config/nginx-app/base.yaml

Check to see that both the Velero and nginx deployments are successfully created:

kubectl get deployments -l component=velero --namespace=velero
kubectl get deployments --namespace=nginx-example

Back up

Create a backup for any object that matches the app=nginx label selector:
```
velero backup create nginx-backup --selector app=nginx
```
Alternatively if you want to backup all objects except those matching the label backup=ignore:
```
velero backup create nginx-backup --selector 'backup notin (ignore)'
```
(Optional) Create regularly scheduled backups based on a cron expression using the app=nginx label selector:
```
velero schedule create nginx-daily --schedule="0 1 * * *" --selector app=nginx
```
Alternatively, you can use some non-standard shorthand cron expressions:
```
velero schedule create nginx-daily --schedule="@daily" --selector app=nginx
```
See the cron package’s documentation for more usage examples.
Simulate a disaster:
```
kubectl delete namespace nginx-example
```
To check that the nginx deployment and service are gone, run:
```
kubectl get deployments --namespace=nginx-example
kubectl get services --namespace=nginx-example
kubectl get namespace/nginx-example
```
You should get no results.

NOTE: You might need to wait for a few minutes for the namespace to be fully cleaned up.

Restore

Run:

velero restore create --from-backup nginx-backup

Run:

velero restore get

After the restore finishes, the output looks like the following:

NAME                          BACKUP         STATUS      WARNINGS   ERRORS    CREATED                         SELECTOR
nginx-backup-20170727200524   nginx-backup   Completed   0          0         2017-07-27 20:05:24 +0000 UTC   <none>

NOTE: The restore can take a few moments to finish. During this time, the STATUS column reads InProgress.

After a successful restore, the STATUS column is Completed, and WARNINGS and ERRORS are 0. All objects in the nginx-example namespace should be just as they were before you deleted them.

If there are errors or warnings, you can look at them in detail:

velero restore describe <RESTORE_NAME>

For more information, see the debugging information.

Clean up

If you want to delete any backups you created, including data in object storage and persistent volume snapshots, you can run:

velero backup delete BACKUP_NAME

This asks the Velero server to delete all backup data associated with BACKUP_NAME. You need to do this for each backup you want to permanently delete. A future version of Velero will allow you to delete multiple backups by name or label selector.

Once fully removed, the backup is no longer visible when you run:

velero backup get BACKUP_NAME

If you want to uninstall Velero but preserve the backup data in object storage and persistent volume snapshots, it is safe to remove the velero namespace and everything else created for this example:

kubectl delete -f config/common/
kubectl delete -f config/minio/
kubectl delete -f config/nginx-app/base.yaml

Documentation