Make on-demand backup¶

Before you begin¶

Export the namespace as an environment variable. Replace the <namespace> placeholder with your value:
```
export NAMESPACE=<namespace>
```
Check the configuration of the PerconaXtraDBCluster Custom Resource. Verify that you have configured backup storage and specified its configuration in the backup.storages subsection of the Custom Resource.

Backup steps¶

To make an on-demand backup, use a special backup configuration YAML file. The example of such file is deploy/backup/backup.yaml

Specify the following keys
- Set the metadata.name key to assign a name to the backup. You will use it to make a restore
- Set the spec.pxcCluster key to the name of your cluster
- Set the spec.storageName key to a storage configuration defined in your deploy/cr.yaml file.
- Optionally, add the percona.com/delete-backup entry under metadata.finalizers to enable deletion of backup files from a backup storage when the backup object is removed (manually or by schedule).
Here’s the example configuration:
```
apiVersion: pxc.percona.com/v1
kind: PerconaXtraDBClusterBackup
metadata:
  finalizers:
    - percona.com/delete-backup
  name: backup1
spec:
  pxcCluster: cluster1
  storageName: fs-pvc
```

Start the backup process:

kubectl apply -f deploy/backup/backup.yaml -n $NAMESPACE

Verify the backup¶

Track the backup process by checking the status of the Backup object:

kubectl get pxc-backup -n $NAMESPACE -w

The -w flag instructs the Operator to provide real-time updates about the backup progress. The Succeeded status indicates that a backup is completed.

Expected output

NAME      CLUSTER    STORAGE   DESTINATION                              STATUS     COMPLETED   AGE
backup1   cluster1   fs-pvc    pvc/xb-backup1-20251201102237-8f7b3390   Succeeded   3s          76s

View detailed information about the backup using the kubectl describe command:

kubectl describe pxc-backup -n $NAMESPACE

The Status section of the output provides useful details about the backup state, the error message in case of issues with the backup, and the storage details.

Sample output

Name:         backup1
Namespace:    <my-namespace>
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  <none>
API Version:  pxc.percona.com/v1
Kind:         PerconaXtraDBClusterBackup
Metadata:
  Creation Timestamp:  2025-12-01T10:22:37Z
  Generation:          1
  Resource Version:    1764584633525183013
  UID:                 8f7b3390-fa7a-4c37-85f2-9037c093589f
Spec:
  Pxc Cluster:   cluster1
  Storage Name:  fs-pvc
Status:
  Completed:    2025-12-01T10:23:50Z
  Destination:  pvc/xb-backup1-20251201102237-8f7b3390
  Image:        perconalab/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator:main-pxc8.0-backup
  Pvc:
    Access Modes:
      ReadWriteOnce
    Resources:
      Requests:
        Storage:             6G
    Storage Class Name:      standard-rwo
    Volume Mode:             Filesystem
    Volume Name:             pvc-5238d6db-f40a-4608-8f8e-d0d74f328de9

If the cluster has point-in-time recovery enabled, also confirm the backup doesn’t have binlog gaps before relying on it for a PITR restore. Check the Backup object’s status.conditions for a PITRReady condition set to False — see Binlog gaps for what this means and how to proceed anyway if needed.

Last update: October 21, 2026
Created: July 4, 2023