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Configuring the OpenShift API for Data Protection with Microsoft Azure

You install the OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP) with Microsoft Azure by installing the OADP Operator. The Operator installs Velero 1.12.

Starting from OADP 1.0.4, all OADP 1.0.z versions can only be used as a dependency of the MTC Operator and are not available as a standalone Operator.

You configure Azure for Velero, create a default Secret, and then install the Data Protection Application. For more details, see Installing the OADP Operator.

To install the OADP Operator in a restricted network environment, you must first disable the default OperatorHub sources and mirror the Operator catalog. See Using Operator Lifecycle Manager on restricted networks for details.

Configuring Microsoft Azure

You configure Microsoft Azure for OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP).

Prerequisites

Tools that use Azure services should always have restricted permissions to make sure that Azure resources are safe. Therefore, instead of having applications sign in as a fully privileged user, Azure offers service principals. An Azure service principal is a name that can be used with applications, hosted services, or automated tools.

This identity is used for access to resources.

  • Create a service principal

  • Sign in using a service principal and password

  • Sign in using a service principal and certificate

  • Manage service principal roles

  • Create an Azure resource using a service principal

  • Reset service principal credentials

For more details, see Create an Azure service principal with Azure CLI.

About backup and snapshot locations and their secrets

You specify backup and snapshot locations and their secrets in the DataProtectionApplication custom resource (CR).

Backup locations

You specify AWS S3-compatible object storage as a backup location, such as Multicloud Object Gateway; Ceph RADOS Gateway, also known as Ceph Object Gateway; or MinIO.

Velero backs up OKD resources, Kubernetes objects, and internal images as an archive file on object storage.

Snapshot locations

If you use your cloud provider’s native snapshot API to back up persistent volumes, you must specify the cloud provider as the snapshot location.

If you use Container Storage Interface (CSI) snapshots, you do not need to specify a snapshot location because you will create a VolumeSnapshotClass CR to register the CSI driver.

If you use Restic, you do not need to specify a snapshot location because Restic backs up the file system on object storage.

Secrets

If the backup and snapshot locations use the same credentials or if you do not require a snapshot location, you create a default Secret.

If the backup and snapshot locations use different credentials, you create two secret objects:

  • Custom Secret for the backup location, which you specify in the DataProtectionApplication CR.

  • Default Secret for the snapshot location, which is not referenced in the DataProtectionApplication CR.

The Data Protection Application requires a default Secret. Otherwise, the installation will fail.

If you do not want to specify backup or snapshot locations during the installation, you can create a default Secret with an empty credentials-velero file.

Creating a default Secret

You create a default Secret if your backup and snapshot locations use the same credentials or if you do not require a snapshot location.

The default name of the Secret is cloud-credentials-azure.

The DataProtectionApplication custom resource (CR) requires a default Secret. Otherwise, the installation will fail. If the name of the backup location Secret is not specified, the default name is used.

If you do not want to use the backup location credentials during the installation, you can create a Secret with the default name by using an empty credentials-velero file.
Prerequisites

  • Your object storage and cloud storage, if any, must use the same credentials.

  • You must configure object storage for Velero.

  • You must create a credentials-velero file for the object storage in the appropriate format.

Procedure

  • Create a Secret with the default name:

    $ oc create secret generic cloud-credentials-azure -n openshift-adp --from-file cloud=credentials-velero

The Secret is referenced in the spec.backupLocations.credential block of the DataProtectionApplication CR when you install the Data Protection Application.

Creating secrets for different credentials

If your backup and snapshot locations use different credentials, you must create two Secret objects:

  • Backup location Secret with a custom name. The custom name is specified in the spec.backupLocations block of the DataProtectionApplication custom resource (CR).

  • Snapshot location Secret with the default name, cloud-credentials-azure. This Secret is not specified in the DataProtectionApplication CR.

Procedure

  1. Create a credentials-velero file for the snapshot location in the appropriate format for your cloud provider.

  2. Create a Secret for the snapshot location with the default name:

    $ oc create secret generic cloud-credentials-azure -n openshift-adp --from-file cloud=credentials-velero

  3. Create a credentials-velero file for the backup location in the appropriate format for your object storage.

  4. Create a Secret for the backup location with a custom name:

    $ oc create secret generic <custom_secret> -n openshift-adp --from-file cloud=credentials-velero

  5. Add the Secret with the custom name to the DataProtectionApplication CR, as in the following example:

    apiVersion: oadp.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: DataProtectionApplication
metadata:
  name: <dpa_sample>
  namespace: openshift-adp
spec:
...
  backupLocations:
    - velero:
        config:
          resourceGroup: <azure_resource_group>
          storageAccount: <azure_storage_account_id>
          subscriptionId: <azure_subscription_id>
          storageAccountKeyEnvVar: AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY
        credential:
          key: cloud
          name: <custom_secret> (1)
        provider: azure
        default: true
        objectStorage:
          bucket: <bucket_name>
          prefix: <prefix>
  snapshotLocations:
    - velero:
        config:
          resourceGroup: <azure_resource_group>
          subscriptionId: <azure_subscription_id>
          incremental: "true"
        provider: azure
    1 Backup location Secret with custom name.

Configuring the Data Protection Application

You can configure the Data Protection Application by setting Velero resource allocations or enabling self-signed CA certificates.

Setting Velero CPU and memory resource allocations

You set the CPU and memory resource allocations for the Velero pod by editing the DataProtectionApplication custom resource (CR) manifest.

Prerequisites

  • You must have the OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP) Operator installed.

Procedure

  • Edit the values in the spec.configuration.velero.podConfig.ResourceAllocations block of the DataProtectionApplication CR manifest, as in the following example:

    apiVersion: oadp.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: DataProtectionApplication
metadata:
  name: <dpa_sample>
spec:
...
  configuration:
    velero:
      podConfig:
        nodeSelector: <node_selector> (1)
        resourceAllocations: (2)
          limits:
            cpu: "1"
            memory: 1024Mi
          requests:
            cpu: 200m
            memory: 256Mi
    1 Specify the node selector to be supplied to Velero podSpec.
    2 The resourceAllocations listed are for average usage.

Use the nodeSelector field to select which nodes can run the node agent. The nodeSelector field is the simplest recommended form of node selection constraint. Any label specified must match the labels on each node.

For more details, see Configuring node agents and node labels.

Enabling self-signed CA certificates

You must enable a self-signed CA certificate for object storage by editing the DataProtectionApplication custom resource (CR) manifest to prevent a certificate signed by unknown authority error.

Prerequisites

  • You must have the OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP) Operator installed.

Procedure

  • Edit the spec.backupLocations.velero.objectStorage.caCert parameter and spec.backupLocations.velero.config parameters of the DataProtectionApplication CR manifest:

    apiVersion: oadp.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: DataProtectionApplication
metadata:
  name: <dpa_sample>
spec:
...
  backupLocations:
    - name: default
      velero:
        provider: aws
        default: true
        objectStorage:
          bucket: <bucket>
          prefix: <prefix>
          caCert: <base64_encoded_cert_string> (1)
        config:
          insecureSkipTLSVerify: "false" (2)
...
    1 Specify the Base64-encoded CA certificate string.
    2 The insecureSkipTLSVerify configuration can be set to either "true" or "false". If set to "true", SSL/TLS security is disabled. If set to "false", SSL/TLS security is enabled.

Installing the Data Protection Application

You install the Data Protection Application (DPA) by creating an instance of the DataProtectionApplication API.

Prerequisites

  • You must install the OADP Operator.

  • You must configure object storage as a backup location.

  • If you use snapshots to back up PVs, your cloud provider must support either a native snapshot API or Container Storage Interface (CSI) snapshots.

  • If the backup and snapshot locations use the same credentials, you must create a Secret with the default name, cloud-credentials-azure.

  • If the backup and snapshot locations use different credentials, you must create two Secrets:

    • Secret with a custom name for the backup location. You add this Secret to the DataProtectionApplication CR.

    • Secret with the default name, cloud-credentials-azure, for the snapshot location. This Secret is not referenced in the DataProtectionApplication CR.

      If you do not want to specify backup or snapshot locations during the installation, you can create a default Secret with an empty credentials-velero file. If there is no default Secret, the installation will fail.

      Velero creates a secret named velero-repo-credentials in the OADP namespace, which contains a default backup repository password. You can update the secret with your own password encoded as base64 before you run your first backup targeted to the backup repository. The value of the key to update is Data[repository-password].

      After you create your DPA, the first time that you run a backup targeted to the backup repository, Velero creates a backup repository whose secret is velero-repo-credentials, which contains either the default password or the one you replaced it with. If you update the secret password after the first backup, the new password will not match the password in velero-repo-credentials, and therefore, Velero will not be able to connect with the older backups.
Procedure

  1. Click Operators → Installed Operators and select the OADP Operator.

  2. Under Provided APIs, click Create instance in the DataProtectionApplication box.

  3. Click YAML View and update the parameters of the DataProtectionApplication manifest:

    apiVersion: oadp.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: DataProtectionApplication
metadata:
  name: <dpa_sample>
  namespace: openshift-adp
spec:
  configuration:
    velero:
      defaultPlugins:
        - azure
        - openshift (1)
      resourceTimeout: 10m (2)
    restic:
      enable: true (3)
      podConfig:
        nodeSelector: <node_selector> (4)
  backupLocations:
    - velero:
        config:
          resourceGroup: <azure_resource_group> (5)
          storageAccount: <azure_storage_account_id> (6)
          subscriptionId: <azure_subscription_id> (7)
          storageAccountKeyEnvVar: AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY
        credential:
          key: cloud
          name: cloud-credentials-azure  (8)
        provider: azure
        default: true
        objectStorage:
          bucket: <bucket_name> (9)
          prefix: <prefix> (10)
  snapshotLocations: (11)
    - velero:
        config:
          resourceGroup: <azure_resource_group>
          subscriptionId: <azure_subscription_id>
          incremental: "true"
        name: default
        provider: azure
    1 The openshift plugin is mandatory.
    2 Specify how many minutes to wait for several Velero resources before timeout occurs, such as Velero CRD availability, volumeSnapshot deletion, and backup repository availability. The default is 10m.
    3 Set this value to false if you want to disable the Restic installation. Restic deploys a daemon set, which means that Restic pods run on each working node. In OADP version 1.2 and later, you can configure Restic for backups by adding spec.defaultVolumesToFsBackup: true to the Backup CR. In OADP version 1.1, add spec.defaultVolumesToRestic: true to the Backup CR.
    4 Specify on which nodes Restic is available. By default, Restic runs on all nodes.
    5 Specify the Azure resource group.
    6 Specify the Azure storage account ID.
    7 Specify the Azure subscription ID.
    8 If you do not specify this value, the default name, cloud-credentials-azure, is used. If you specify a custom name, the custom name is used for the backup location.
    9 Specify a bucket as the backup storage location. If the bucket is not a dedicated bucket for Velero backups, you must specify a prefix.
    10 Specify a prefix for Velero backups, for example, velero, if the bucket is used for multiple purposes.
    11 You do not need to specify a snapshot location if you use CSI snapshots or Restic to back up PVs.

  4. Click Create.

  5. Verify the installation by viewing the OADP resources:

    $ oc get all -n openshift-adp
    Example output
    NAME                                                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/oadp-operator-controller-manager-67d9494d47-6l8z8    2/2     Running   0          2m8s
pod/restic-9cq4q                                         1/1     Running   0          94s
pod/restic-m4lts                                         1/1     Running   0          94s
pod/restic-pv4kr                                         1/1     Running   0          95s
pod/velero-588db7f655-n842v                              1/1     Running   0          95s

NAME                                                       TYPE        CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)    AGE
service/oadp-operator-controller-manager-metrics-service   ClusterIP   172.30.70.140    <none>        8443/TCP   2m8s

NAME                    DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   NODE SELECTOR   AGE
daemonset.apps/restic   3         3         3       3            3           <none>          96s

NAME                                                READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
deployment.apps/oadp-operator-controller-manager    1/1     1            1           2m9s
deployment.apps/velero                              1/1     1            1           96s

NAME                                                           DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AGE
replicaset.apps/oadp-operator-controller-manager-67d9494d47    1         1         1       2m9s
replicaset.apps/velero-588db7f655                              1         1         1       96s

Configuring node agents and node labels

The DPA of OADP uses the nodeSelector field to select which nodes can run the node agent. The nodeSelector field is the simplest recommended form of node selection constraint.

Any label specified must match the labels on each node.

The correct way to run the node agent on any node you choose is for you to label the nodes with a custom label:

$ oc label node/<node_name> node-role.kubernetes.io/nodeAgent=""

Use the same custom label in the DPA.spec.configuration.nodeAgent.podConfig.nodeSelector, which you used for labeling nodes. For example:

configuration:
  nodeAgent:
    enable: true
    podConfig:
      nodeSelector:
        node-role.kubernetes.io/nodeAgent: ""

The following example is an anti-pattern of nodeSelector and does not work unless both labels, 'node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""' and 'node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ""', are on the node:

    configuration:
      nodeAgent:
        enable: true
        podConfig:
          nodeSelector:
            node-role.kubernetes.io/infra: ""
            node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ""

Enabling CSI in the DataProtectionApplication CR

You enable the Container Storage Interface (CSI) in the DataProtectionApplication custom resource (CR) in order to back up persistent volumes with CSI snapshots.

Prerequisites

  • The cloud provider must support CSI snapshots.

Procedure

  • Edit the DataProtectionApplication CR, as in the following example:

    apiVersion: oadp.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: DataProtectionApplication
...
spec:
  configuration:
    velero:
      defaultPlugins:
      - openshift
      - csi (1)
    1 Add the csi default plugin.