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You can back up and restore etcd on a hosted cluster in an on-premise environment to fix failures.

Backing up and restoring etcd on a hosted cluster in an on-premise environment

By backing up and restoring etcd on a hosted cluster, you can fix failures, such as corrupted or missing data in an etcd member of a three node cluster. If multiple members of the etcd cluster encounter data loss or have a CrashLoopBackOff status, this approach helps prevent an etcd quorum loss.

This procedure requires API downtime.

Prerequisites
  • The oc and jq binaries have been installed.

Procedure
  1. First, set up your environment variables:

    1. Set up environment variables for your hosted cluster by entering the following commands, replacing values as necessary:

      $ CLUSTER_NAME=my-cluster

      $ HOSTED_CLUSTER_NAMESPACE=clusters

      $ CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE="${HOSTED_CLUSTER_NAMESPACE}-${CLUSTER_NAME}"
    2. Pause reconciliation of the hosted cluster by entering the following command, replacing values as necessary:

      $ oc patch -n ${HOSTED_CLUSTER_NAMESPACE} hostedclusters/${CLUSTER_NAME} \
        -p '{"spec":{"pausedUntil":"true"}}' --type=merge
  2. Next, take a snapshot of etcd by using one of the following methods:

    1. Use a previously backed-up snapshot of etcd.

    2. If you have an available etcd pod, take a snapshot from the active etcd pod by completing the following steps:

      1. List etcd pods by entering the following command:

        $ oc get -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} pods -l app=etcd
      2. Take a snapshot of the pod database and save it locally to your machine by entering the following commands:

        $ ETCD_POD=etcd-0

        $ oc exec -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} -c etcd -t ${ETCD_POD} -- \
          env ETCDCTL_API=3 /usr/bin/etcdctl \
          --cacert /etc/etcd/tls/etcd-ca/ca.crt \
          --cert /etc/etcd/tls/client/etcd-client.crt \
          --key /etc/etcd/tls/client/etcd-client.key \
          --endpoints=https://localhost:2379 \
          snapshot save /var/lib/snapshot.db
      3. Verify that the snapshot is successful by entering the following command:

        $ oc exec -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} -c etcd -t ${ETCD_POD} -- \
          env ETCDCTL_API=3 /usr/bin/etcdctl -w table snapshot status \
          /var/lib/snapshot.db
    3. Make a local copy of the snapshot by entering the following command:

      $ oc cp -c etcd ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE}/${ETCD_POD}:/var/lib/snapshot.db \
        /tmp/etcd.snapshot.db
      1. Make a copy of the snapshot database from etcd persistent storage:

        1. List etcd pods by entering the following command:

          $ oc get -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} pods -l app=etcd
        2. Find a pod that is running and set its name as the value of ETCD_POD: ETCD_POD=etcd-0, and then copy its snapshot database by entering the following command:

          $ oc cp -c etcd \
            ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE}/${ETCD_POD}:/var/lib/data/member/snap/db \
            /tmp/etcd.snapshot.db
  3. Next, scale down the etcd statefulset by entering the following command:

    $ oc scale -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} statefulset/etcd --replicas=0
    1. Delete volumes for second and third members by entering the following command:

      $ oc delete -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} pvc/data-etcd-1 pvc/data-etcd-2
    2. Create a pod to access the first etcd member’s data:

      1. Get the etcd image by entering the following command:

        $ ETCD_IMAGE=$(oc get -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} statefulset/etcd \
          -o jsonpath='{ .spec.template.spec.containers[0].image }')
      2. Create a pod that allows access to etcd data:

        $ cat << EOF | oc apply -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} -f -
        apiVersion: apps/v1
        kind: Deployment
        metadata:
          name: etcd-data
        spec:
          replicas: 1
          selector:
            matchLabels:
              app: etcd-data
          template:
            metadata:
              labels:
                app: etcd-data
            spec:
              containers:
              - name: access
                image: $ETCD_IMAGE
                volumeMounts:
                - name: data
                  mountPath: /var/lib
                command:
                - /usr/bin/bash
                args:
                - -c
                - |-
                  while true; do
                    sleep 1000
                  done
              volumes:
              - name: data
                persistentVolumeClaim:
                  claimName: data-etcd-0
        EOF
      3. Check the status of the etcd-data pod and wait for it to be running by entering the following command:

        $ oc get -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} pods -l app=etcd-data
      4. Get the name of the etcd-data pod by entering the following command:

        $ DATA_POD=$(oc get -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} pods --no-headers \
          -l app=etcd-data -o name | cut -d/ -f2)
    3. Copy an etcd snapshot into the pod by entering the following command:

      $ oc cp /tmp/etcd.snapshot.db \
        ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE}/${DATA_POD}:/var/lib/restored.snap.db
    4. Remove old data from the etcd-data pod by entering the following commands:

      $ oc exec -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} ${DATA_POD} -- rm -rf /var/lib/data

      $ oc exec -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} ${DATA_POD} -- mkdir -p /var/lib/data
    5. Restore the etcd snapshot by entering the following command:

      $ oc exec -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} ${DATA_POD} -- \
           etcdutl snapshot restore /var/lib/restored.snap.db \
           --data-dir=/var/lib/data --skip-hash-check \
           --name etcd-0 \
           --initial-cluster-token=etcd-cluster \
           --initial-cluster etcd-0=https://etcd-0.etcd-discovery.${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE}.svc:2380,etcd-1=https://etcd-1.etcd-discovery.${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE}.svc:2380,etcd-2=https://etcd-2.etcd-discovery.${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE}.svc:2380 \
           --initial-advertise-peer-urls https://etcd-0.etcd-discovery.${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE}.svc:2380
    6. Remove the temporary etcd snapshot from the pod by entering the following command:

      $ oc exec -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} ${DATA_POD} -- \
        rm /var/lib/restored.snap.db
    7. Delete data access deployment by entering the following command:

      $ oc delete -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} deployment/etcd-data
    8. Scale up the etcd cluster by entering the following command:

      $ oc scale -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} statefulset/etcd --replicas=3
    9. Wait for the etcd member pods to return and report as available by entering the following command:

      $ oc get -n ${CONTROL_PLANE_NAMESPACE} pods -l app=etcd -w
  4. Restore reconciliation of the hosted cluster by entering the following command:

    $ oc patch -n ${HOSTED_CLUSTER_NAMESPACE} hostedclusters/${CLUSTER_NAME} \
      -p '{"spec":{"pausedUntil":"null"}}' --type=merge