Summary

Backing up clusters and workloads is a requirement for any enterprise cluster. In this chapter, we reviewed how to back up the etcd cluster database using etcdctl and the snapshot feature. We also went into detail on how to install Velero in a cluster to back up and restore workloads. We closed out the chapter by copying workloads from an existing backup by restoring an existing backup on a new cluster.

Having a backup solution allows you to recover from a disaster or human error. A typical backup solution allows you to restore any Kubernetes object, including namespaces, persistent volumes, RBAC, services, and service accounts. You can also take all of the workloads from one cluster and restore them on a completely different cluster for testing or troubleshooting.

Coming up in the next chapter, we will introduce you to Istio, a popular open source service mesh.