Backup and Recovery
You can back up and recover Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition - Virtual Machine using KOTS snapshots.
KOTS has documented snapshots extensively in Snapshots.
This topic provides a summary of the backup and recovery steps involved, and provides details on storage and Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition - Virtual Machine version requirements.
Overview
You can back up and recover Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition - Virtual Machine using KOTS snapshots.
There are two types of snapshots:
- Full snapshots: a snapshot of all objects including setup data and applications.
- Full snapshots are useful in disaster recovery and rolling back to previous versions of Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition - Virtual Machine.
- Full snapshots can restore fully or partially.
- Partial snapshots: a snapshot of application data only.
- Partial snapshots are useful for rolling back to previously installed versions of Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition - Virtual Machine.
You can automate both types of snapshots.
Requirements
Ensure you meet the Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition - Virtual Machine version and other requirements below.
Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition - Virtual Machine Version Required
Automated backup and recovery is supported in the following Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition versions:
- 670XX and later. See Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition Release Notes.
Storage Required
Snapshots are stored in an AWS S3 bucket or AWS S3-compatible storage (Harness recommends either), or in Internal Storage.
You will select and set up the storage option before creating a snapshot. This setup is described below.
Velero is Already Installed
Velero is installed and configured automatically in Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition - Virtual Machine installations. You do not have to install it.
Step 1: Choose Storage Destination
You have the following options for snapshot storage:
- AWS S3 bucket
- AWS S3-compatible storage
- Internal Storage
Harness recommends using an S3 bucket or S3-compatible storage to accommodate large files.
A Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition - Virtual Machine Production installation has a minimum disk space requirement of 400G, so there should be enough space for Internal Storage. Still, Harness recommends an S3 bucket or S3-compatible storage to avoid any issues.
Storage destinations are described in the KOTS documentation.
- Log into the Harness Self-Managed Enterprise Edition - Virtual Machine KOTS admin tool.
- Click Snapshots.
- Click Settings & Schedule.
- In Storage, select the storage method to use.
- For Amazon S3 and Other S3-Compatible Storage, enter in the location and credentials.
For details on these settings, see Compatible Backend Stores from KOTS. - Click Update storage settings. The settings are updated.
Now that you have storage for your snapshots, you can create the snapshots.
Step 2: Create Full or Partial Snapshots
- In the KOTS admin tool, click Full Snapshots (Instance) or Partial Snapshots (Application).
- Click Start a snapshot. The snapshot begins. You can see its progress:
- Click the more options (︙) button. The details of the snapshot appear.
That's it! You now have a snapshot you can use for recovery.
Option: Automating Snapshots
Scheduling snapshots is covered in the KOTS Schedules documentation. Here is a summary of the steps:
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To automate snapshots, click Settings & Schedule.
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Select Full snapshots or Partial snapshots.
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Select Enable automatic scheduled snapshots.
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In Schedule, select the schedule for the snapshot.
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In Retention policy, define how long to keep snapshots.
The retention policy is described by KOTS:
The default retention period for snapshots is 1 month. Setting the retention only affects snapshots created after the time of the change. For example, if an existing snapshot had a retention of 1 year and is already 6 months old, and a user then uses the UI to change the retention to 1 month, the existing snapshot will still be around for another 6 months.
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Click Update schedule. The schedule is updated. To disable it, deselect Enable automatic scheduled snapshots.
Option: Restore from a Full Snapshot
You can perform a full or partial restore from a Full Snapshot. This is why KOTS recommends Full Snapshots.
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Click Full Snapshots (Instance).
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Click the restore button.
Restore from backup appears.
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Select Full restore or Partial restore.
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For Full restore, do the following:
- Copy the provided command and run it on any master node. You might need to log into the admin tool again after the restore.
- Click Ok, got it.
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For Partial restore, do the following:
- Enter the slug harness.
- Click Confirm and restore. You might need to log into the admin tool again after the restore.
Option: Restore from a Partial Snapshot
You can perform a partial restore using a Full or Partial Snapshot. The Full Snapshot steps are described above.
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Click Partial snapshots.
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Click the restore button.
Restore from Partial backup (Application) appears.
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Enter the slug harness.
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Click Confirm and restore. You might need to log into the admin tool again after the restore.
Notes
See the KOTS documentation for more details on backup and recovery settings.