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. More details about secrets can be found in System Users. The name of the required Secrets object can be found out from the spec.secretsName key in the deploy/cr.yaml (cluster1-secrets by default).

To restore a backup, you will use the special restore configuration file. The example of such file is deploy/backup/restore.yaml . The list of options that can be used in it can be found in the restore options reference.

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 pxc-backup

And the following command will list available clusters:

$ kubectl get pxc

Note

If you have configured storing binlogs for point-in-time recovery, you will have possibility to roll back the cluster to a specific transaction, time (or even skip a transaction in some cases). 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.

Restore the cluster without point-in-time recovery

1. Set appropriate keys in the deploy/backup/restore.yaml file.

   • set spec.pxcCluster key to the name of the target cluster to restore the backup on,

   • set spec.backupSource subsection to point on the appropriate PVC, or cloud storage:

     PVC volumeS3-compatible storageAzure Blob storage

     The storageName key should contain the storage name (which should be configured in the main CR), and the destination key should be equal to the PVC Name:

     ...
     backupSource:
       destination: pvc/PVC_VOLUME_NAME
       storageName: pvc
       ...
     

     Note

     If you need a headless Service for the restore Pod (i.e. restoring from a Persistent Volume in a tenant network), mention this in the metadata.annotations as follows:

     annotations:
       percona.com/headless-service: "true"
     ...
     

     The destination key should have value composed of three parts: the s3:// prefix, the S3 bucket , and the backup name, which you have already found out using the kubectl get pxc-backup command. Also you should add necessary S3 configuration keys, same as those used to configure S3-compatible storage for backups in the deploy/cr.yaml file:

     ...
     backupSource:
       destination: s3://S3-BUCKET-NAME/BACKUP-NAME
       s3:
         bucket: S3-BUCKET-NAME
         credentialsSecret: my-cluster-name-backup-s3
         region: us-west-2
         endpointUrl: https://URL-OF-THE-S3-COMPATIBLE-STORAGE
         ...
     

     The destination key should have value composed of three parts: the azure:// prefix, the Azure Blob container , and the backup name, which you have already found out using the kubectl get pxc-backup command. Also you should add necessary Azure configuration keys, same as those used to configure Azure Blob storage for backups in the deploy/cr.yaml file:

     ...
     backupSource:
       destination: azure://AZURE-CONTAINER-NAME/BACKUP-NAME
       azure:
         container: AZURE-CONTAINER-NAME
         credentialsSecret: my-cluster-azure-secret
         ...
     

2. After that, the actual restoration process can be started as follows:

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

Restore the cluster with point-in-time recovery

Note

Disable the point-in-time functionality on the existing cluster before restoring a backup on it, regardless of whether the backup was made with point-in-time recovery or without it.

1. Set appropriate keys in the deploy/backup/restore.yaml file.

   • set spec.pxcCluster 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,
       • transaction - roll back to a specific transaction (available since Operator 1.8.0),
       • latest - recover to the latest possible transaction,
       • skip - skip a specific transaction (available since Operator 1.7.0).

     • date key is used with type=date option and contains value in datetime format,

     • gtid key (available since the Operator 1.8.0) is used with type=transaction option and contains exact GTID of a transaction which follows the last transaction included into the recovery,

   • set spec.backupSource subsection to point on the appropriate S3-compatible storage. This 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.

   The resulting restore.yaml file may look as follows:

   apiVersion: pxc.percona.com/v1
   kind: PerconaXtraDBClusterRestore
   metadata:
     name: restore1
   spec:
     pxcCluster: cluster1
     backupName: backup1
     pitr:
       type: date
       date: "2020-12-31 09:37:13"
       backupSource:
             destination: s3://S3-BUCKET-NAME/BACKUP-NAME
             s3:
               bucket: S3-BUCKET-NAME
               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
     

2. Run the actual restoration process:

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

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Last update: 2025-06-13