VM Backup, Snapshot & Restore

VM Backup & Restore

VM backups are created from the Virtual Machines page. The VM backup volumes will be stored in the Backup Target (an NFS or S3 server), and they can be used to either restore a new VM or replace an existing VM.

A backup target must be set up. For more information, see Configure Backup Target. If the backup target has not been set, you’ll be prompted with a message to do so.

Configure Backup Target

A backup target is an endpoint used to access a backup store in Harvester. A backup store is an NFS server or S3 compatible server that stores the backups of VM volumes. The backup target can be set at Settings > backup-target.

Parameter Type Description

Parameter	Type	Description
Type	string	Choose S3 or NFS
Endpoint	string	A hostname or an IP address. It can be left empty for AWS S3.
BucketName	string	Name of the bucket
BucketRegion	string	Region of the bucket
AccessKeyID	string	A user-id that uniquely identifies your account
SecretAccessKey	string	The password to your account
Certificate	string	Paste to use a self-signed SSL certificate of your S3 server
VirtualHostedStyle	bool	Use `VirtualHostedStyle` access only; e.g., Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun) OSS

Type

string

Choose S3 or NFS

Endpoint

string

A hostname or an IP address. It can be left empty for AWS S3.

BucketName

string

Name of the bucket

BucketRegion

string

Region of the bucket

AccessKeyID

string

A user-id that uniquely identifies your account

SecretAccessKey

string

The password to your account

Certificate

string

Paste to use a self-signed SSL certificate of your S3 server

VirtualHostedStyle

bool

Use VirtualHostedStyle access only; e.g., Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun) OSS

Create a VM backup

Once the backup target is set, go to the Virtual Machines page.
Click Take Backup of the VM actions to create a new VM backup.
Set a custom backup name and click Create to create a new VM backup.

Result: The backup is created. You will receive a notification message, and you can also go to the Backup & Snapshot > VM Backups page to view all VM backups.

The State will be set to Ready once the backup is complete.

Users can either restore a new VM or replace an existing VM using this backup.

Restore a new VM using a backup

To restore a new VM from a backup, follow these steps:

Go to the VM Backups page.
Click the Restore Backup button at the top right.
Specify the new VM name and click Create.
A new VM will be restored using the backup volumes and metadata, and you can access it from the Virtual Machines page.

Replace an existing VM using a backup

You can replace an existing VM using the backup with the same VM backup target.

You can choose to either delete or retain the previous volumes. By default, all previous volumes are deleted.

Requirements: The VM must exist and is required to be in the powered-off status.

Go to the VM Backups page.
Click the Restore Backup button at the top right.
Click Replace Existing.
You can view the restore process from the Virtual Machines page.

Restore a new VM on another Harvester cluster

Users can now restore a new VM on another cluster by leveraging the VM metadata & content backup feature.

Prerequisites

v1.4.0 and later: The controller automatically syncs the virtual machine images with the new cluster, except when a virtual machine image with the same name or display name already exists on the new cluster.
Earlier than v1.4.0: You must upload and configure the virtual machine images on the new cluster. Ensure that the image names and configuration are identical so that the virtual machines can be restored.

Upload the same VM images to a new cluster

Check the existing image name (normally starts with image-) and create the same one on the new cluster.

$ kubectl get vmimages -A
NAMESPACE   NAME                               DISPLAY-NAME                              SIZE         AGE
default     image-79hdq                        focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img           566886400    5h36m
default     image-l7924                        harvester-v1.0.0-rc2-amd64.iso            3964551168   137m
default     image-lvqxn                        opensuse-leap-15.3.x86_64-nocloud.qcow2   568524800    5h35m

Apply a VM image YAML with the same name and content in the new cluster.

$ cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: harvesterhci.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualMachineImage
metadata:
  name: image-lvqxn
  namespace: default
spec:
  displayName: opensuse-leap-15.3.x86_64-nocloud.qcow2
  pvcName: ""
  pvcNamespace: ""
  sourceType: download
  url: http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Cloud:/Images:/Leap_15.3/images/openSUSE-Leap-15.3.x86_64-NoCloud.qcow2
 EOF

Restore a new VM in a new cluster

Setup the same backup target in a new cluster. And the backup controller will automatically sync the backup metadata to the new cluster.
Go to the VM Backups page.
Select the synced VM backup metadata and choose to restore a new VM with a specified VM name.
A new VM will be restored using the backup volumes and metadata. You can access it from the Virtual Machines page.

VM Snapshot & Restore

VM snapshots are created from the Virtual Machines page. The VM snapshot volumes will be stored in the cluster, and they can be used to either restore a new VM or replace an existing VM.

Create a VM snapshot

Go to the Virtual Machines page.
Click Take VM Snapshot of the VM actions to create a new VM snapshot.
Set a custom snapshot name and click Create to create a new VM snapshot.

Result: The snapshot is created. You can also go to the Backup & Snapshot > VM Snapshots page to view all VM snapshots.

The State will be set to Ready once the snapshot is complete.

Users can either restore a new VM or replace an existing VM using this snapshot.

Restore a new VM using a snapshot

To restore a new VM from a snapshot, follow these steps:

Go to the VM Snapshots page.
Click the Restore Snapshot button at the top right.
Specify the new VM name and click Create.
A new VM will be restored using the snapshot volumes and metadata, and you can access it from the Virtual Machines page.

Replace an existing VM using a snapshot

You can replace an existing VM using the snapshot.

You can only choose to retain the previous volumes.

Go to the VM Snapshots page.
Click the Restore Snapshot button at the top right.
Click Replace Existing.
You can view the restore process from the Virtual Machines page.

Virtual Machine Snapshot Space Management

Volumes consume extra disk space in the cluster whenever you create a new virtual machine backup or snapshot. To manage this, you can configure space usage limits at the namespace and virtual machine levels. The configured values represent the maximum amount of disk space that can be used by all backups and snapshots. No limits are set by default.

Configure the Snapshot Space Usage Limit at the Namespace Level

Go to the Namespaces screen.
Locate the target namespace, and then select ⋮ → Edit Quota.
Specify the maximum amount of disk space that can be consumed by all snapshots in the namespace, and then and click Save.
Verify that the configured value is displayed on the Namespaces screen.

Configure the Snapshot Space Usage Limit at the Virtual Machine Level

Go to the Virtual Machines screen.
Locate the target virtual machine, and then select ⋮ → Edit VM Quota.
Specify the maximum total amount of disk space that can be consumed by all snapshots for the virtual machine, and then and click Save.
Verify that the configured value is displayed on the Quotas tab of the virtual machine details screen.

Scheduled Virtual Machine Backups and Snapshots

Harvester supports the creation of virtual machine backups and snapshots on a scheduled basis, with the option to retain a specific number of backups and snapshots. You can suspend, resume, and update the schedule at runtime.

Create the Virtual Machine Schedule

Go to the Virtual Machine Schedules screen, and then click Create Schedule.

Configure the following settings:

Type: Select either Backup or Snapshot.
Namespace and Virtual Machine Name: Specify the namespace and name of the source virtual machine.

Cron Schedule: Specify the cron expression (a string consisting of fields separated by whitespace characters) that defines the schedule properties.

The backup or snapshot creation interval must be at least one hour. Frequent backup or snapshot deletion results in heavy I/O load.

If two schedules have the same granularity level, each iteration’s timing offset must be at least 10 minutes.

Retain: Specify the number of up-to-date backups or snapshots to be retained.

When this value is exceeded, the Harvester controller deletes the oldest backups or snapshots, and Longhorn starts the snapshot purge.
Max Failure: Specify the maximum number of consecutive failed backup or snapshot creation attempts to be allowed.

When this value is exceeded, the Harvester controller suspends the schedule.

Click Create.

Check the Status of a Virtual Machine Schedule

Go to the Virtual Machine Schedules screen.
Locate the target schedule, and then click the name to open the details screen.
On the Basics tab, verify that the settings are correct.
On the Backups tab, check the status of the backups or snapshots that were created according to the schedule.

Backups and snapshots that are marked Ready can be used to restore the source virtual machine. For more information, see VM Backup & Restore and VM Snapshot & Restore.

Edit a Virtual Machine Schedule

Go to the Virtual Machine Schedules screen.
Locate the target schedule, and then select ⋮ → Edit Config.
Edit the Cron Schedule, Retain, or Max Failure values.
Click Save to apply the changes.

Suspend or Resume a Virtual Machine Schedule

You can suspend active schedules and resume suspended schedules.

Go to the Virtual Machine Schedules screen.
Locate the target schedule, and then select ⋮ → Suspend or Resume.

The schedule is automatically suspended when the number of consecutive failed backup or snapshot creation attempts exceeds the Max Failure value.

Harvester does not allow you to resume a suspended schedule for backup creation if the backup target is not reachable.

Virtual Machine Operations and Harvester Upgrades

Before you upgrade Harvester, ensure that no virtual machine backups or snapshots are in use, and that all virtual machine schedules are suspended. The Harvester UI displays the following error messages when upgrade attempts are rejected:

Virtual machine backups or snapshots are being created, deleted, or used during the upgrade attempt
Virtual machine schedules are active during the upgrade attempt

To avoid such issues, the Harvester team plans to implement automatic suspension of all virtual machine schedules before the upgrade process is started. The suspended schedules will also be automatically resumed after the upgrade is completed. For more information, see Issue #6759.