Managing Backups in OpenStack
Having a solid backup strategy is important in the event where data is lost and you need to recover it. In this guide, you will learn how to make backups of instance data, volumes, and how to store backups outside of the OpenStack cloud.
Testing Considerations
Backups should not only be created, but should be confirmed they contain all data as well as be restored and tested as part of a polished backup strategy. Consider a disaster recovery scenario where you have known backups, however they were never tested, and are not usable due to some circumstance.
How to Create an Instance Backup
This section demonstrates how to create an instance backup using OpenStackClient.
To begin, ensure you have prepared your OpenStackClient environment before issuing commands.
Depending on how the instance was spawned will determine how to create a backup. If the instance is volume-backed, you will have to back up the volume. If the instance is image-backed, you can back up the instance itself, which creates an image backup. Each method is described below.
Volume-backed
To create a backup of a volume-backed instance using OpenStackClient,
you will need to create a backup of the volume, by first obtaining the
volume's UUID, then use openstack volume backup create VOLUME_UUID.
In addition, if the volume is in use by an instance, the --force flag
is required to create the volume backup.
Create Backup
Create a backup of a volume-backed instance by first listing volumes then issuing the command to back up that volume:
$ openstack volume list
+--------------------------------------+-------------------+-----------+------+--------------------------------------------+
| ID | Name | Status | Size | Attached to |
+--------------------------------------+-------------------+-----------+------+--------------------------------------------+
| 9887730c-e804-4353-af2d-a92b750ed6b5 | | in-use | 17 | Attached to instance-2-volume on /dev/vda |
| 9a1dfde3-9113-400c-b06e-80d67c636ef9 | | in-use | 25 | Attached to wordpress-1 on /dev/vda
This example demonstrates creating a backup of instance-2-volume by
backing up its associated volume, referenced by
9887730c-e804-4353-af2d-a92b750ed6b5.
Create backup of instance-2-volume:
$ openstack volume backup create 9887730c-e804-4353-af2d-a92b750ed6b5 \
--force
+-------+--------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+-------+--------------------------------------+
| id | bc8d29c4-be51-4675-b290-bd0bdc8c9be7 |
| name | None |
+-------+--------------------------------------+
Take note of the id of the backup as this will be used next to determine the backup status.
Confirm Backup Completion
The backup will take some time to complete. After a period of time,
check the status by using openstack volume backup show
VOLUME_BACKUP_UUID, replacing VOLUME_BACKUP_UUID with the actual
UUID of the volume backup:
$ openstack volume backup show bc8d29c4-be51-4675-b290-bd0bdc8c9be7
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| availability_zone | None |
| container | backups |
| created_at | 2021-05-24T16:04:49.000000 |
| data_timestamp | 2021-05-24T16:04:49.000000 |
| description | None |
| fail_reason | None |
| has_dependent_backups | False |
| id | bc8d29c4-be51-4675-b290-bd0bdc8c9be7 |
| is_incremental | False |
| name | None |
| object_count | 0 |
| size | 17 |
| snapshot_id | None |
| status | available |
| updated_at | 2021-05-24T16:05:35.000000 |
| volume_id | 9887730c-e804-4353-af2d-a92b750ed6b5 |
+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
Image-backed
To create a backup of an image-backed instance, use openstack server
backup create INSTANCE_UUID.
Create Instance Backup
First list instances to obtain the UUID, or you can specify the instance name to the backup command:
$ openstack server list
+--------------------------------------+-------------------+--------+-----------------------------------------+------------------------------+----------+
| ID | Name | Status | Networks | Image | Flavor |
+--------------------------------------+-------------------+--------+-----------------------------------------+------------------------------+----------+
| 226ebf42-f58d-4149-8393-dd4f241c33aa | image-backed | ACTIVE | network-1=192.168.0.199 | CentOS 8 Stream (el8-x86_64) | c1.micro |
Next, create a backup of the instance called image-backed using:
$ openstack server backup create image-backed
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| container_format | bare |
| created_at | 2021-05-24T16:45:17Z |
| disk_format | qcow2 |
| file | /v2/images/um_f3f2bf61-c699-43ce-9db5-4bb3343cbfad/file |
| id | f3f2bf61-c699-43ce-9db5-4bb3343cbfad |
| min_disk | 25 |
| min_ram | 0 |
| name | image-backed |
Note the id column from the output. This is the UUID of the backup and will be used to verify backup completion.
Confirm Instance Backup Completion
When a backup of an image-backed instance is created, it is created as an image.
To confirm the status of the backup, use openstack image show UUID:
$ openstack image show f3f2bf61-c699-43ce-9db5-4bb3343cbfad --fit-width
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| container_format | bare |
| created_at | 2021-05-24T16:45:17Z |
| disk_format | raw |
| file | /v2/images/um_f3f2bf61-c699-43ce-9db5-4bb3343cbfad/file |
| id | f3f2bf61-c699-43ce-9db5-4bb3343cbfad |
| min_disk | 25 |
| min_ram | 0 |
| name | image-backed |
| owner | b93259ca0a5b4541b30e4e16ae1d699d |
| properties | [truncated] |
| protected | False |
| schema | /v2/schemas/image |
| size | 26843545600 |
| status | active |
| tags | |
| updated_at | 2021-05-24T16:45:50Z |
| visibility | private |
+------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Look for the status column to indicate the status of the backup. If
the backup is complete, the status will show as active.
How to Recover an Instance Backup
This section explains how to recover an instance backup using OpenStackClient.
To recover an instance backup, the process involves creating a new instance based on the image or volume backup.
Volume-backed Instance
This section demonstrates how to recover an instance using a volume backup.
To restore an instance from a volume backup, the volume backup needs to first be restored into a new volume, then an instance can be booted using that new volume.
Create new volume
First create a volume of appropriate size to restore the volume backup
into, using openstack volume create --size SIZE:
$ openstack volume create wordpress-1-backup-1 --size 25
+---------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+---------------------+--------------------------------------+
| attachments | [] |
| availability_zone | nova |
| bootable | false |
| consistencygroup_id | None |
| created_at | 2021-05-24T17:57:29.000000 |
| description | None |
| encrypted | False |
| id | 1810a215-67e4-48b5-ba51-feef9d263660 |
| multiattach | False |
| name | wordpress-1-backup-1 |
Take note of the id, 1810a215-67e4-48b5-ba51-feef9d263660, as this
will be used in the next section to recover.
Restore volume backup
The volume backup can be restored now, but first you will need the UUID
of the backup created previously. This can be listed by using openstack
volume backup list:
$ openstack volume backup list
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+------+
| ID | Name | Description | Status | Size |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+------+
| f8440441-92b8-4522-9dfe-18868e089d6e | None | None | available | 25 |
| bc8d29c4-be51-4675-b290-bd0bdc8c9be7 | None | None | available | 17 |
| 1ae23283-e43f-4a67-97a1-0b7f7afaaff2 | wordpress-media-1-backup | | available | 5 |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+------+
This example will recover the volume backup under UUID
f8440441-92b8-4522-9dfe-18868e089d6e.
Restore the volume backup into the new volume using openstack volume
backup restore BACKUP_UUID VOLUME_UUID, replacing BACKUP_UUID and
VOLUME_UUID with the UUIDs of the backup and the new volume:
$ openstack volume backup restore f8440441-92b8-4522-9dfe-18868e089d6e 1810a215-67e4-48b5-ba51-feef9d263660
+-------------+--------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+-------------+--------------------------------------+
| backup_id | f8440441-92b8-4522-9dfe-18868e089d6e |
| volume_id | 1810a215-67e4-48b5-ba51-feef9d263660 |
| volume_name | wordpress-1-backup-1 |
+-------------+--------------------------------------+
Confirm volume
Confirm the volume backup restored into the new volume by listing volumes and note the Status column:
$ openstack volume list
+--------------------------------------+----------------------+-----------+------+--------------------------------------------+
| ID | Name | Status | Size | Attached to |
+--------------------------------------+----------------------+-----------+------+--------------------------------------------+
| 1810a215-67e4-48b5-ba51-feef9d263660 | wordpress-1-backup-1 | available | 25 | |
If the backup is ready to use, the Status column will show as
available.
Step 4 -- Create new instance
A new instance can now be created using this volume. For help with how to create an instance see the Create an Instance guide.
The following builds an instance booted from the previously restored volume backup:
$ openstack server create --volume 1810a215-67e4-48b5-ba51-feef9d263660 \\
--flavor c1.micro \\
--network 29aa8aec-36ec-416d-9828-4a3b6bb10f4b \\
--key-name key-1 \\
--security-group 44668612-1a18-4289-b5fb-f24de8e20c09 \\
wordpress-2-volume-restored
Step 5 -- Confirm instance restoration
Show the details of the instance to confirm it is active:
$ openstack server show wordpress-2-volume-restored | grep status
| status | ACTIVE |
Image-backed Instance
This section explains how to recover an instance using an image backup.
Step 1 -- List images
First, acquire the UUID of the image you wish to restore using
openstack image list:
$ openstack image list
+--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+--------+
| ID | Name | Status |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+--------+
| d5a101ff-0870-435f-bf76-c3309e542a53 | CentOS 8 Stream (el8-x86_64) | active |
| 8c8e0a35-61dd-4540-b9fd-ca36ca0ef181 | Debian 10 (buster-amd64) | active |
| be44af12-aa34-4b25-b4af-60a66599f442 | Fedora CoreOS (fedora-coreos-33.20210412.3.0-stable) | active |
| c005b6f3-9d34-4f91-94b6-1ff50c174750 | Ubuntu 20.04 (focal-amd64) | active |
| f3f2bf61-c699-43ce-9db5-4bb3343cbfad | image-backed | active |
| d589995e-7425-42fd-8a6a-3bf98783e0cc | wordpress-1-snap | active |
| ec4c8f61-6f44-4360-99b3-47b3022d177d | wordpress-2-snap | active |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+--------+
This example will use the image called image-backed, which is
associated with UUID f3f2bf61-c699-43ce-9db5-4bb3343cbfad.
Step 2 -- Spawn instance
With the image UUID, spawn a new instance called instance-3-image-backed:
$ openstack server create \
--image f3f2bf61-c699-43ce-9db5-4bb3343cbfad \
--flavor c1.micro \
--network 29aa8aec-36ec-416d-9828-4a3b6bb10f4b \
--key-name key-1 \
--security-group 44668612-1a18-4289-b5fb-f24de8e20c09 \
instance-3-image-backed
Step 3 -- Confirm instance creation
Confirm the instance created successfully by listing instances or showing the specific details of the instance.
List Instances:
List instances using openstack server list:
$ openstack server list
+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------+--------+-------------------------+------------------------------+----------+
| ID | Name | Status | Networks | Image | Flavor |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------+--------+-------------------------+------------------------------+----------+
| 98174d7f-53c1-4861-84a5-2517b90ba92e | instance-3-image-backed | ACTIVE | network-1=192.168.0.176 | image-backed | c1.micro |
| ff205cad-965c-4ae1-9e47-65fa4d1df82b | wordpress-2-volume-restored | ACTIVE | network-1=192.168.0.226 | N/A (booted from volume) | c1.micro |
| 226ebf42-f58d-4149-8393-dd4f241c33aa | image-backed | ACTIVE | network-1=192.168.0.199 | CentOS 8 Stream (el8-x86_64) | c1.micro |
| da6591d9-7cbd-47aa-9a46-ff3cb6d52c24 | instance-2-volume | ACTIVE | network-1=192.168.0.178 | N/A (booted from volume) | c1.micro |
| 72e1e2db-0276-4ddd-85b4-452aa7c449c0 | instance-1 | ACTIVE | network-1=192.168.0.50 | CentOS 8 Stream (el8-x86_64) | c1.micro |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------+--------+-------------------------+------------------------------+----------+
The first item in the above list is the instance previously created. The
Status column shows ACTIVE indicating the instance is ready to
use.
Volume Backups
How to Create a Volume Backup
In addition to creating instance snapshots, you can also create backups of volumes using OpenStackClient. This is important when a persistent volume is used and you want to create backup copies of it.
Step 1 -- List existing volumes
To create a volume backup, you first need to know the name or UUID of the volume being backed up.
Determine this by listing volumes, using openstack volume list:
$ openstack volume list
+--------------------------------------+----------------------+-----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+
| ID | Name | Status | Size | Attached to |
+--------------------------------------+----------------------+-----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+
| 1810a215-67e4-48b5-ba51-feef9d263660 | wordpress-1-backup-1 | available | 25 | |
| 9887730c-e804-4353-af2d-a92b750ed6b5 | | in-use | 17 | Attached to instance-2-volume on /dev/vda |
| 2a8eb736-9e7b-4ede-9a4e-9a50fc571da2 | | in-use | 25 | Attached to wordpress-2-volume-restored on /dev/vda |
| 664e09b7-e1f9-46e1-9504-794ff75e7295 | | available | 25 | |
| 0860845e-ba18-4f1f-84ed-22600ad7bbca | wordpress-media-1 | available | 5 | |
+--------------------------------------+----------------------+-----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+
Step 2 -- Create volume backup
This example will demonstrate backing up the volume from the above
called wordpress-media-1.
To create a volume backup of this volume, use openstack volume backup
create wordpress-media-1:
$ openstack volume backup create wordpress-media-1
+-------+--------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+-------+--------------------------------------+
| id | 3db892b4-809e-400b-9d85-1f3340de49a5 |
| name | None |
+-------+--------------------------------------+
Step 3 -- Confirm volume backup completion
You can either list the volume backups and look at the Status column or show the details of the specific volume backup.
List volume backups using openstack volume backup list:
$ openstack volume backup list
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+------+
| ID | Name | Description | Status | Size |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+------+
| 3db892b4-809e-400b-9d85-1f3340de49a5 | None | None | available | 5 |
| f8440441-92b8-4522-9dfe-18868e089d6e | None | None | available | 25 |
| bc8d29c4-be51-4675-b290-bd0bdc8c9be7 | None | None | available | 17 |
| 1ae23283-e43f-4a67-97a1-0b7f7afaaff2 | wordpress-media-1-backup | | available | 5 |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+------+
The Status column indicates if the volume backup is ready to use or
not and should report available when the backup is ready.
How to Recover a Volume Backup
This section explains the steps needed to recover a volume backup using OpenStackClient. The flow for recovering a volume backup is to find the volume backup UUID, create an empty volume, then recover the backup into the new volume.
Step 1 -- Find the volume backup
First, list the available volume backups using openstack volume backup
list:
$ openstack volume backup list
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+------+
| ID | Name | Description | Status | Size |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+------+
| 3db892b4-809e-400b-9d85-1f3340de49a5 | None | None | available | 5 |
| f8440441-92b8-4522-9dfe-18868e089d6e | None | None | available | 25 |
| bc8d29c4-be51-4675-b290-bd0bdc8c9be7 | None | None | available | 17 |
| 1ae23283-e43f-4a67-97a1-0b7f7afaaff2 | wordpress-media-1-backup | | available | 5 |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------+-------------+-----------+------+
This example will recover the volume backup called wordpress-media-1-backup.
Step 2 -- Create new volume
Next, create a new volume at least the size of the volume backup using
openstack volume create --size SIZE VOLUME_NAME, where SIZE is in
gigabytes and the VOLUME_NAME is the name of the volume:
$ openstack volume create --size 5 wordpress-media-1-backup-2
+---------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+---------------------+--------------------------------------+
| attachments | [] |
| availability_zone | nova |
| bootable | false |
| consistencygroup_id | None |
| created_at | 2021-05-24T22:04:02.000000 |
| description | None |
| encrypted | False |
| id | 05b1310b-35d0-497f-a150-3ca436b6a969 |
The UUID of this volume is 05b1310b-35d0-497f-a150-3ca436b6a969 and
will be used in the next section.
Step 3 -- Recover volume backup
Restore the volume backup into the new volume using openstack volume
backup restore BACKUP_UUID VOLUME_UUID, replacing BACKUP_UUID and
VOLUME_UUID with the UUIDs of the backup and the new volume:
$ openstack volume backup restore wordpress-media-1-backup 05b1310b-35d0-497f-a150-3ca436b6a969
+-------------+--------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+-------------+--------------------------------------+
| backup_id | 1ae23283-e43f-4a67-97a1-0b7f7afaaff2 |
| volume_id | 05b1310b-35d0-497f-a150-3ca436b6a969 |
| volume_name | wordpress-media-1-backup-2 |
+-------------+--------------------------------------+
Step 4 -- Confirm backup recovery
Finally, confirm the backup restored by listing volumes:
$ openstack volume list
+--------------------------------------+----------------------------+-----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+
| ID | Name | Status | Size | Attached to |
+--------------------------------------+----------------------------+-----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+
| 05b1310b-35d0-497f-a150-3ca436b6a969 | wordpress-media-1-backup-2 | available | 5 | |
| 1810a215-67e4-48b5-ba51-feef9d263660 | wordpress-1-backup-1 | available | 25 | |
| 9887730c-e804-4353-af2d-a92b750ed6b5 | | in-use | 17 | Attached to instance-2-volume on /dev/vda |
| 2a8eb736-9e7b-4ede-9a4e-9a50fc571da2 | | in-use | 25 | Attached to wordpress-2-volume-restored on /dev/vda |
| 664e09b7-e1f9-46e1-9504-794ff75e7295 | | available | 25 | |
| 0860845e-ba18-4f1f-84ed-22600ad7bbca | wordpress-media-1 | available | 5 | |
+--------------------------------------+----------------------------+-----------+------+------------------------------------------------------+
The first item in the above list is the restored backup,
wordpress-media-1-backup-2. Note the Status column reports
available indicating the backup restoration succeeded.