Backup and restore
PVC Backups
PVC-backed backups are useful for labs, isolated clusters, and short-retention local copies. They are not a disaster-recovery substitute for off-cluster storage.
When to use PVC backups
Use PVC backups when:
- You are testing backup and restore behavior locally.
- Your cluster has a durable shared storage system.
- You need a short-lived staging copy before exporting elsewhere.
Avoid PVC backups when:
- Cluster loss must not lose backups.
- The StorageClass is node-local.
- The PVC cannot be mounted by backup, restore, and cleanup Jobs.
Operator-managed PVC
backup:
profiles:
- name: pvc-local
storage:
type: PVC
pvc:
storageClassName: fast-ssd
size: 500Gi
subPath: orders
retentionPolicy:
count: 7
minKeep: 2
schedules:
- name: nightly
profileName: pvc-local
schedule: "0 6 * * *"
timeZone: Etc/UTC
concurrencyPolicy: Forbid
User-managed PVC
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
name: orders-backup-store
namespace: orders
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
storageClassName: fast-ssd
resources:
requests:
storage: 500Gi
---
apiVersion: shipstream.io/v1alpha1
kind: MysqlFailoverGroup
metadata:
name: orders
namespace: orders
spec:
backup:
profiles:
- name: pvc-local
storage:
type: PVC
pvc:
claimName: orders-backup-store
subPath: orders
On-demand backup
apiVersion: shipstream.io/v1alpha1
kind: MysqlBackup
metadata:
name: orders-pvc-manual-20260427
namespace: orders
spec:
failoverGroupRef:
name: orders
profileName: pvc-local
triggeredBy: manual
kubectl apply -f orders-pvc-backup.yaml
kubectl get mysqlbackup orders-pvc-manual-20260427 -n orders -o wide
Restore from PVC
apiVersion: shipstream.io/v1alpha1
kind: MysqlFailoverGroup
metadata:
name: orders-restore
namespace: orders
spec:
initFromBackup:
source:
pvc:
claimName: orders-backup-store
subPath: orders/orders-pvc-manual-20260427
Include normal sites, credentials, and dns fields in the recovery failover group.
Sizing and retention
- Size the PVC for peak dump size, compression ratio uncertainty, and retention overlap.
- Keep at least two successful backups with
retentionPolicy.minKeep. - Watch PVC usage; a full PVC usually causes backup Jobs to fail after doing expensive work.
Common failures
| Failure | Check |
|---|---|
| PVC full | kubectl describe pvc orders-backup-store -n orders, Job logs |
| Wrong access mode | Whether the backup Job can mount the claim on its scheduled node |
| Node-local storage | Restore Job scheduled to a different node cannot see data |
| Reclaim policy | Deleting a claim might delete the only backup copy |