How to restore backup to a new Kubernetes-based environment¶

The Operator allows restoring a backup not only on the Kubernetes cluster where it was made, but also on any Kubernetes-based environment with the installed Operator.

When restoring to a new Kubernetes-based environment, make sure it has a Secrets object with the same user passwords as in the original cluster. If restoring a physical backup, the encryption key of the target cluster needs to be set accordingly as well. More details about secrets can be found in System Users. The name of the required Secrets object can be found out from the spec.secrets key in the deploy/cr.yaml (my-cluster-name-secrets by default).

You will need correct names for the backup and the cluster. If you have access to the original cluster, available backups can be listed with the following command:

$ kubectl get psmdb-backup

And the following command will list available clusters:

$ kubectl get psmdb

Note

If you have configured storing operations logs for point-in-time recovery, you will have possibility to roll back the cluster to a specific date and time. Otherwise, restoring backups without point-in-time recovery is the only option.

When the correct names for the backup and the cluster are known, backup restoration can be done in the following way.

Without point-in-time recovery¶

Set appropriate keys in the deploy/backup/restore.yaml file.
- set spec.clusterName key to the name of the target cluster to restore the backup on,
- set spec.backupSource subsection to point on the appropriate cloud storage. This backupSource subsection should contain the backup type (either logical or physical), and a destination key, followed by necessary storage configuration keys, same as in the deploy/cr.yaml file:
```
...
backupSource:
  type: logical
  destination: s3://S3-BUCKET-NAME/BACKUP-NAME
  s3:
    credentialsSecret: my-cluster-name-backup-s3
    region: us-west-2
    endpointUrl: https://URL-OF-THE-S3-COMPATIBLE-STORAGE
```
  As you have noticed, destination value is composed of three parts in case of S3-compatible storage: the s3:// prefix, the s3 bucket name, and the actual backup name, which you have already found out using the kubectl get psmdb-backup command). For Azure Blob storage, you don’t put the prefix, and use your container name as an equivalent of a bucket.
- you can also use a storageName key to specify the exact name of the storage (the actual storage should be already defined in the backup.storages subsection of the deploy/cr.yaml file):
```
...
storageName: s3-us-west
backupSource:
  destination: s3://S3-BUCKET-NAME/BACKUP-NAME
```
After that, the actual restoration process can be started as follows:
```
$ kubectl apply -f deploy/backup/restore.yaml
```

With point-in-time recovery¶

Set appropriate keys in the deploy/backup/restore.yaml file.
- set spec.clusterName key to the name of the target cluster to restore the backup on
- put additional restoration parameters to the pitr section:
  - type key can be equal to one of the following options
    - date - roll back to specific date
    - latest - recover to the latest possible transaction
  - date key is used with type=date option and contains value in datetime format
- set spec.backupSource subsection to point on the appropriate cloud storage. For S3-compatible storage thisbackupSource subsection should contain a destination key equal to the s3 bucket with a special s3:// prefix, followed by necessary S3 configuration keys, same as in deploy/cr.yaml file:
```
apiVersion: psmdb.percona.com/v1
kind: PerconaServerMongoDBRestore
metadata:
  name: restore1
spec:
  clusterName: my-cluster-name
  pitr:
    type: date
    date: YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss
  backupSource:
    destination: s3://S3-BUCKET-NAME/BACKUP-NAME
    s3:
      credentialsSecret: my-cluster-name-backup-s3
      region: us-west-2
      endpointUrl: https://URL-OF-THE-S3-COMPATIBLE-STORAGE
```
- you can also use a storageName key to specify the exact name of the storage (the actual storage should be already defined in the backup.storages subsection of the deploy/cr.yaml file):
```
...
storageName: s3-us-west
backupSource:
  destination: s3://S3-BUCKET-NAME/BACKUP-NAME
```

Run the actual restoration process:

$ kubectl apply -f deploy/backup/restore.yaml

Last update: 2025-06-17