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RestoreSession

What is RestoreSession

A RestoreSession is a Kubernetes CustomResourceDefinition(CRD) which specifies a target to restore and the source of data that will be restored in a Kubernetes native way.

You have to create a RestoreSession object whenever you want to restore. When a RestoreSession object is created, Stash injects an init-container into the target workload and restarts it. The init-container restores the desired data. If the target is a database or a stand-alone PVC, Stash launches a job to perform the restore process.

RestoreSession CRD Specification

Like any official Kubernetes resource, a RestoreSession has TypeMeta, ObjectMeta, Spec and Status sections.

A sample RestoreSession object to restore backed up data of a StatefulSet is shown below:

apiVersion: stash.appscode.com/v1beta1
kind: RestoreSession
metadata:
  name: statefulset-restore
  namespace: demo
spec:
  driver: Restic
  repository:
    name: minio-repo
  # task:
  #   name: workload-restore # task field is not required for workload data backup but it is necessary for database backup.
  target:
    alias: my-sts
    ref:
      apiVersion: apps/v1
      kind: StatefulSet
      name: recovered-statefulset
    volumeMounts:
    - mountPath: /source/data
      name: source-data
    rules:
    - targetHosts: ["my-sts-3","my-sts-4"] # "pod-3" and "pod-4" will have restored data of backed up host "pod-1"
      sourceHost: "my-sts-1" # source host
      paths:
      - /source/data
      include:
      - /source/data/*.json
    - targetHosts: [] # empty host match all hosts
      sourceHost: "" # no source host indicates that the host is pod itself
      paths:
      - /source/data
      exclude:
      - /source/data/tmp.json
      - /source/data/*.txt
  hooks:
    preRestore:
      exec:
        command:
          - /bin/sh
          - -c
          - echo "Sample PreRestore hook demo"
      containerName: stash-init
    postRestore:
      exec:
        command:
          - /bin/sh
          - -c
          - echo "Sample PostRestore hook demo"
      containerName: stash-init
  runtimeSettings:
    container:
      resources:
        limits:
          memory: 256M
        requests:
          memory: 256M
      securityContext:
        runAsGroup: 2000
        runAsUser: 2000
      ionice:
        class: 2
        classData: 4
      nice:
        adjustment: 5
    pod:
      imagePullSecrets:
      - name: my-private-registry-secret
      serviceAccountName: my-backup-sa
  tempDir:
    disableCache: false
    medium: Memory
    sizeLimit: 2Gi
status:
  totalHosts: 5
  phase: Succeeded
  sessionDuration: 2m40.595857548s
  conditions:
  - lastTransitionTime: "2020-07-25T17:55:56Z"
    message: Repository demo/minio-repo exist.
    reason: RepositoryAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: RepositoryFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2020-07-25T17:55:56Z"
    message: Backend Secret demo/minio-secret exist.
    reason: BackendSecretAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: BackendSecretFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2020-07-25T17:55:56Z"
    message: Restore target apps/v1 statefulset/recovered-statefulset found.
    reason: TargetAvailable
    status: "True"
    type: RestoreTargetFound
  - lastTransitionTime: "2020-07-25T17:55:56Z"
    message: Successfully injected stash init-container.
    reason: InitContainerInjectionSucceeded
    status: "True"
    type: StashInitContainerInjected
  stats:
  - duration: 884.431745ms
    hostname: host-1
    phase: Succeeded
  - duration: 769.924342ms
    hostname: host-2
    phase: Succeeded
  - duration: 868.694738ms
    hostname: host-3
    phase: Succeeded
  - duration: 792.097784ms
    hostname: host-4
    phase: Succeeded
  - duration: 833.139795ms
    hostname: host-0
    phase: Succeeded

Here, we are going to describe the various sections of a RestoreSession object.

RestoreSession Spec

A RestoreSession object has the following fields in the spec section.

spec.driver

spec.driver indicates the mechanism used to restore a target. Currently, Stash supports Restic and VolumeSnapshotter as drivers. The default value of this field is Restic.

spec.target

spec.target field indicates the target where data will be restored. This section consists of the following fields:

• spec.target.alias : spec.target.alias field specifies the alias that was used as the identifier of the backed up data. It must match with the alias used during backup.

• spec.target.ref : spec.target.ref refers to the restore target. You have to specify apiVersion, kind, and name of the target. Stash will use this information to inject an init-container or to create a restore job.

• spec.target.volumeMounts : spec.target.volumeMounts specifies a list of volumes and their mountPath where the data will be restored. Stash will mount these volumes inside the init-container or restore job.

Note: Stash stores the absolute path of the backed up files. Hence, your restored volume must be mounted on the same mountPath as the original volume. Otherwise, the backed up files will not be restored into your desired volume.

• spec.target.volumeClaimTemplates : You can specify a list of PVC template using spec.target.volumeClaimTemplates field. Stash will create those PVCs then it will restore the desired data into them. Then, you can use those PVCs to deploy your desired workload.

• spec.target.replicas : If you want to restore the volumes of a StatefulSet through spec.target.volumeClaimTemplate field, you can specify the number of replicas of the StatefulSet using spec.target.replicas. In this case, you have to use ${POD_ORDINAL} variable suffix in the claim name. Stash will replace that variable with respective ordinal and it will create the volumes for each replica. For more details, please visit here.

• spec.target.rules : spec.target.rules is an array of restore rules that specify how Stash should restore data for each host. For example, Stash runs the restore process in all pods of a StatefulSet. You can configure this spec.target.rules section to control what data will be restored into which pod. Each restore rule has the following fields:

  • targetHosts : targetHosts field contains a list of host names that are subject to this rule. If targetHosts field is empty, this rule applies to all hosts for which there is no specific rule. In the sample RestoreSession given above, the first rule applies to only pod-3 and pod-4 and the second rule is applicable to all hosts.
  • sourceHost : sourceHost specifies the name of host whose backed up data will be restored by this rule. In the sample RestoreSession, the first rule specifies that backed up data of pod-0 will be restored into pod-3 and pod-4. If you keep sourceHost field empty as the second rule of the above example, data from a similar backup host will be restored on the respective restore host. That means, backed up data of pod-0 will be restored into pod-0, backed up data of pod-1 will be restored into pod-1 and so on.
  • paths : paths specifies a list of file paths that will be restored into the hosts who are subject to this rule.
  • snapshots : snapshots specifies the list of snapshots that will be restored into the hosts who are subject to this rule. If you don’t specify the snapshot field, the latest snapshot of the file paths specified in the paths section will be restored.
  • include : include field specifies a list of patterns for the files that should be restored. Stash only restore the files that match these patterns.
  • exclude : exclude field specifies a list of patterns for the files that should be ignored during. Stash will not restore the files that match these patterns.

  Restore rules comply with the following conditions:

  • There could be at most one rule with an empty targetHosts field.
  • No two rules with non-empty targetHosts can’t be matched for a single host.
  • Stash restore only one file path in a single snapshot. So, if you specify snapshots field in a rule, you can’t specify paths field as it may cause restore failure if a file path wasn’t backed up in the snapshot specified in the snapshots field.
  • If no rule matches for a host, no data will be restored on that host.
  • The order of the rules does not have any effect on the restoration process.

spec.repository

spec.repository.name indicates the Repository crd name that holds necessary backend information from where data will be restored.

spec.task

spec.task specifies the name and parameters of the Task crd to use to restore the target data.

• spec.task.name: spec.task.name indicates the name of the Task template to use for this restore process.
• spec.task.params: spec.task.params is an array of custom parameters to use to configure the task.

spec.task section is not necessary for restoring workload data (i.e. Deployment, DaemonSet, StatefulSet, etc.). However, it is necessary for restoring the database and stand-alone PVC.

spec.hooks

spec.hooks allows performing some actions before and after the restoration process. You can send HTTP requests to a remote server via httpGet or httpPost hooks. You can check whether a TCP socket is open using tcpSocket hook. You can also execute some commands into your application pod using exec hook.

• spec.hooks.preRestore: spec.hooks.preRestore hooks are executed before the restore process.
• spec.hooks.postRestore: spec.hooks.postRestore hooks are executed after the restore process.

For more details on how hooks work in Stash and how to configure different types of hook, please visit here.

spec.runtimeSettings

spec.runtimeSettings allows to configure runtime environment for restore init-container or job. You can specify runtime settings in both the pod level and container level.

• spec.runtimeSettings.container

  spec.runtimeSettings.container is used to configure restore init-container/job in container level. You can configure the following container level parameters,

• spec.runtimeSettings.pod

  spec.runtimeSettings.pod is used to configure restore job in pod level. You can configure following pod level parameters,

spec.tempDir

Stash mounts an emptyDir for holding temporary files. It is also used for caching for faster restore performance. You can configure the emptyDir using spec.tempDir section. You can also disable caching using this field. The following fields are configurable in spec.tempDir section:

• spec.tempDir.medium : Specifies the type of storage medium should back this file path.
• spec.tempDir.sizeLimit : Maximum limit of storage for this volume.
• spec.tempDir.disableCaching : Disable caching while restoring. This may negatively impact restore performance. This field is set to false by default.

spec.interimVolumeTemplate

For some targets (i.e. some databases), Stash can’t directly pipe the restored data into the target. In this case, it has to store the restored data temporarily before injecting into the target. spec.interimVolumeTemplate specifies a PVC template for holding those data temporarily. Stash will create a PVC according to the template and use it to store the data temporarily. This PVC will be deleted automatically if you delete the RestoreSession.

Note that the usage of this field is different from spec.tempDir which is used for caching purpose. Stash has introduced this field because the emptyDir volume that is used for spec.tempDir does not play nice with large databases( i.e. 100Gi database). Also, it provides debugging capability as Stash keeps it until you delete the RestoreSession.

RestoreSession Status

.status section of RestoreSession shows progress, stats, and overall phase of the restore process. The restore init-container or job adds its respective stats in .status section after it completes its task. .status section consists of the following fields:

status.totalHosts

Not every pod or replica of the target will run the restore process. Thus, we refer those entities that run the restore process as a host. status.totalHosts specifies the total number of hosts that will run the restore process for this RestoreSession. For more details on how many hosts will run restore process for which types of workload, please visit here.

status.phase

status.phase indicates the overall phase of the restore process for this RestoreSession. status.phase will be Succeeded only if the phase of all hosts are Succeeded. If any of the hosts fail to complete restore, status.phase will be Failed.

status.sessionDuration

status.sessionDuration indicates the total time taken to complete the restoration of all hosts.

status.conditions

status.conditions shows the conditions of various steps of the restore process. Stash sets the following conditions for a RestoreSession:

status.stats

status.stats section is an array of restore statistics of individual hosts. Each host adds their statistics in this array after completing their restore process. This field is only available for the Restic driver but not available for the VolumeSnapshotter driver. The default value of the driver is Restic.

Individual host stats entry consists of the following fields:

• hostname : hostname indicates the name of the host. Usually, it is the alias or alias-<workload-specific-suffix>. For more details, please visit here.
• phase : phase indicates the restore phase of this host.
• duration : duration indicates the total time taken to complete the restore process for this host.
• error : error shows the reason for failure if the restore process fails for this host.

Next Steps

• Learn how restore of workloads data works from here.
• Learn how restore of databases works from here.
• Learn how restore stand-alone PVC works from here.