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Version: v4

Create and Restore Volume Backups

Introduction​

With Private Clouds, you have the ability to create backups and snapshots of your volume data. If a volume's data goes corrupt or is removed by mistake, having a copy of that data could be invaluable. In this guide, we explain how to create and recover volume backups using Horizon or Skyline.

Create a Volume Backup​

Go to Project -> Volumes -> Volumes.

Volumes list in Horizon

Figure 1: Volumes List

Find the volume and choose Create Backup from its actions menu.

Create Volume Backup form in Horizon

Figure 2: Create Volume Backup Form

  • Backup Name: a name for the backup.
  • Description: optional.
  • Container Name: leave blank.
  • Backup Snapshot: optionally back up from a snapshot instead.

Submit the form, then go to Project -> Volumes -> Backups to see the backup.

Volume Backups list in Horizon

Figure 3: Volume Backup List

On a Private Cloud, volume backups are stored in the Ceph pool called backups.

Test Volume Backups​

Creating backup copies of your important data is only one part of having a solid backup and recovery plan. Additionally, consider testing backed-up data to ensure if something unexpected does happen that restoring your backups will actually be useful. To test volume backups, you can restore a volume backup within OpenStack alongside the original volume and compare the contents.

Restore a Volume Backup​

Go to Project -> Volumes -> Backups. Find the backup and choose Restore Backup from its actions menu.

Volume Backups list in Horizon

Figure 4: Restore Backup

Choose the volume to restore into. Leave it unset to restore into a new volume.

Ceph, Volumes, and Data Durability​

When volume backups are created, they are stored in your cloud's Ceph cluster in a pool called backups. By default, the Ceph cluster is configured with host level replication across each of your cloud's three control plane nodes. With this configuration, your cloud could suffer losing all but one Ceph node and still retain all of the cluster's data. For more about how your Ceph cluster was configure, see the heading Default Configuration for the Ceph Cluster in the Introduction to Ceph guide.

Store Data Outside of the Cloud​

Taking data backups a step further, consider storing critical data outside of the cloud. Storing data both in the cloud's Ceph cluster as well as outside of it increases the failure domain.

With Ceph you can use RBD mirroring, which effectively is a way to mirror your Ceph cluster's data to another Ceph cluster.