Recover Kubernetes Cluster

9 January 2023

You can restore the PVCs and the metadata of the namespaces that are backed up onto the Cohesity cluster. You can restore the namespaces to the same location or to an alternate location.

Cohesity does not support the granular-level recovery of the namespaces.

Recovering Namespaces to the Same Location

When you are recovering the namespaces to the same or original location, then only the resources, PVCs, or the metadata of the Kubernetes namespaces that are missing or deleted from the original location are restored from the namespace snapshot you selected for recovery. Cohesity does not overwrite or restore the resources, PVCs, or the metadata of the Kubernetes namespace that already exist in the original location.

For example, a Kubernetes namespace you want to restore to the same location contains a deployment resource and a service account. When Cohesity initiates the restore to the original location and if the service account is missing from the original location, then Cohesity will restore only the service account. The restore of the deployment resource is skipped.

To restore the namespaces of a Kubernetes cluster to the same location:

In the Cohesity cluster UI, navigate to Data Protection > Recoveries.
Click Recoveries on the top-right of the page and then select Kubernetes Cluster as the recovery source.

The Kubernetes Namespaces page appears.
Search for a namespace or Protection Group that contains the snapshots to recover from by entering characters of the namespace name, Protection Group name, or by specifying the wildcard character *.

You can optionally filter the search results by source, Protection Group, Storage Domain, or date.
From the list of search results, select one or more objects (namespaces) or Protection Groups that contain the snapshots to recover.
- If you have selected a Protection Group, then all the namespaces backed up in the latest protection run of this Protection Group will be selected for recovery. The option to select these namespaces individually will be greyed out in the search result list.
- You can only select Protection Groups and namespaces with snapshots stored in the same Storage Domain and belonging to the same source. Once you select a namespace or Protection Group, the Storage Domain and Source filters will automatically get locked.
By default, the latest snapshot is selected for recovery.

To recover from a different snapshot, perform the following steps depending on the object selected:

In this workflow, deleted snapshots may be displayed as valid recover points for a brief period until they are removed from the search index by a background process.

To choose a different snapshot for a..

Then..

Protection Group

From the selected lists, mouse over the snapshot, and then click the edit icon.
From the Protection Run drop-down menu, select the snapshot from which you want to recover the namespaces. By default the snapshot is recovered from the local cluster.
Optionally, you can also select the snapshot archived to the cloud by clicking the cloud () icon if available in the Location option.
Click Select Recovery Point and then go to step 6.

Namespace

From the selected lists, mouse over the snapshot, and then click the edit icon.

The Edit recovery point for <namespace_name> page appears. By default, the page displays the snapshots available in the last one month.
Optionally, you can also select a snapshot from a different date range or by selecting the date range from the Date drop-down list. Once you select the date range and then click Apply, the Edit recovery point page displays the available snapshots in the specified range.
Select the snapshots to be recovered.

By default, the snapshot is recovered from the local cluster.
Optionally, you can also select snapshots archived to the cloud by clicking the cloud () icon if available in the Location option.
Click Select Recovery Point and then go to step 6.

Click Next: Recover Options.
From the Recover To options, select Original Location to recover the namespace to the original location.
Optional. Edit the default settings of the following Recovery Options:
- Rename: Add Prefix and/or Suffix strings to the names of the new namespaces created by this task. For example you could specify Prefix Test_ and Suffix _QA to the namespace’s name WinOS and when the namespace is recovered, the new namespace that is created is called Test_WinOS_QA.
- Task Name: Change the default name of the recovery task.
Click Recovery.

The recovery task is initiated. You can monitor the recovery task from the Recoveries page.

Recovering Namespaces to an Alternate Location

You can recover the namespaces of the Kubernetes to an alternate Kubernetes cluster that is registered with the Cohesity cluster. If you are recovering the Kubernetes namespace to an alternate location, then the entire namespace is restored. However, if you are restoring to this location again, then Cohesity will not restore the resources, PVCs, or the metadata of the Kubernetes namespace that already exist in the location.

To restore the namespaces of a Kuberneters cluster to the same location:

In the Cohesity cluster, navigate to Data Protection > Recoveries.
Click Recoveries on the top-right of the page and then select Kubernetes Cluster as the recovery source.

The Kubernetes Namespaces page appears.
Search for a namespace or Protection Group that contains the snapshots to recover from by entering characters of the namespace name, Protection Group name, or by specifying the wildcard character *.

You can optionally filter the search results by source, Protection Group, Storage Domain, or date.
From the list of search results, select one or more namespaces or Protection Groups that contain the snapshots to recover.
- If you have selected a Protection Group, then all the namespaces backed up in the latest protection run of this Protection Group will be selected for recovery. The option to select these namespaces individually will be greyed out in the search result list.
- You can only select Protection Groups and namespaces with snapshots stored in the same Storage Domain and belonging to the same source. Once you select a namespace or Protection Group, the Storage Domain and Source filters will automatically get locked.
By default, the latest snapshot is selected for recovery