kubernetes Backup Strategies Before Release | Overview.

An Overview of kubernetes Backup Strategyies Before Release.

Focus:

• Tailored for SRE, DevOps, Cloud, and DevSecOps Engineers

Breakdown:

• Intro,
• Key Backup Strategies and Best Practices,
• Rollback Strategy & Disaster Recovery,
• Data Integrity & Consistency,
• Security & Compliance,
• Protection Against Configuration Drift,
• Minimize Downtime & Business Impact,
• Version Control & Auditability,
• Cloud-Native Considerations (Immutable Deployments),
• Best Practices for Backup Before Release,
• Recommended backup strategies for Cloud Environment (AWS, kubernetes),
• AWS Backup Strategies,
• Kubernetes Backup Strategies (EKS, Self-Managed K8s),
•  Best Practices for AWS & Kubernetes Backups,
• Automate backups with AWS Backup, Lambda, or Kubernetes CronJobs.

Intro:

• A robust Kubernetes backup strategy before a release integrates GitHub, operation, application-aware snapshots, and rigorous testing.
• Backup before a release is crucial for multiple reasons, especially in twtech roles as an SRE, DevOps, Cloud, and DevSecOps engineers. 

Key Backup Strategies and Best Practices

Embrace GitOps for Configuration Management:

•  twtech Treats all Kubernetes resources (Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, Secrets) as code and version control them in a Git repository. 
• In a disaster, twtech doesn't back up the cluster configuration itself; it rebuilds the cluster and resync the manifests from Git. 
• This is twtech primary configuration "backup" and disaster recovery mechanism for stateless components.

Focus on Application-Aware Backups: 

• Backup strategies consider the application as a whole, including its data and all related Kubernetes objects (like Persistent Volumes/PVCs, Secrets, ConfigMaps, and StatefulSets). 
• twtech uses tools designed for cloud-native data protection, such as  Kasten K10,  that can handle application consistency, especially for databases.

Implement the 3-2-1 Rule: 

• twtech maintains at least three copies of its data, stored on two different types of media, with one copy stored offsite or in another cloud region. 
• This protects against single points of failure and region-specific outages.

Automate and Schedule Backups:

•  twtech automate backup processes to minimize manual intervention and ensure consistency. 
• it establishes clear retention policies to manage storage costs and compliance requirements.

Regularly Test Your Restores:

•  A backup is not a backup until twtecg has successfully restored from it. 
• twtech conducts periodic, automated restore tests in a separate, isolated environment to validate data integrity, authenticity, and its recovery procedures.

Secure and Encrypt Backups:

•  Backups contain sensitive information. 
• twtech ensures backups are encrypted both in-transit and at-rest. 
• twtech utilizes features like object lock or versioning in its object storage to protect backups from accidental deletion , corruption or ransomware attacks.

Leverage Cloud Provider Snapshots: 

• For stateful applications, twtech uses native cloud provider solutions (e.g., AWS EBS snapshots) for efficient and consistent volume backups

By combining these strategies, twtech ensures that both its application code (via GitHub) and  data (via robust, tested backups) are protected before a new release is deployed to production.

1. Rollback Strategy & Disaster Recovery

• If the new release introduces critical bugs, misconfigurations, or security vulnerabilities, a backup ensures you can revert to a stable state.
• Helps minimize downtime and ensures business continuity.

2. Data Integrity & Consistency

• Application releases may involve database schema changes, data migrations, or configurations that could corrupt or alter critical data.
• A backup ensures that if something goes wrong, data can be restored without permanent loss.

3. Security & Compliance

• Security policies and compliance frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and HIPAA often mandate regular backups.
• In case of a failed release, a backup ensures data integrity and adherence to security standards.

4. Protection Against Configuration Drift

• Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and CI/CD pipelines can introduce unintended changes.
• Having a backup allows teams to revert configurations to a known good state if necessary.

5. Minimize Downtime & Business Impact

• Without a backup, a failed deployment could lead to extended outages, affecting revenue, SLAs, and user experience.
• A quick rollback via backup helps in rapid service restoration.

6. Version Control & Auditability

• Backups serve as a reference for change history and help in troubleshooting unexpected issues after deployment.
• Useful for forensics in case of security breaches.

7. Cloud-Native Considerations (Immutable Deployments)

• Even in containerized or serverless environments, certain stateful services (e.g., databases, persistent storage) require point-in-time recovery.
• Backups ensure resilience in multi-cloud or hybrid architectures.

Best Practices for Backup Before Release

• Automate backups as part of the CI/CD pipeline
• Store backups in highly available and secure locations (e.g., AWS S3 with versioning)
• Use incremental and full backups for efficiency
• Perform test restores to ensure backup integrity
• Implement backup retention policies to optimize storage

Recommended backup strategies for Cloud Environment (AWS, kubernetes)

• For AWS and Kubernetes, backup strategies should be tailored to the workload, data retention requirements, and recovery objectives (RTO/RPO).
• Below are the best and recommended backup strategies for each environment.

1. AWS Backup Strategies

AWS provides multiple native backup solutions and best practices:

a. Amazon EBS Snapshots (For EC2 & Persistent Storage)

• Automate EBS volume snapshots using AWS Backup or Lambda functions.
• Use Lifecycle Policies to manage retention and cost.
• Store snapshots in multiple AWS Regions for disaster recovery.

b. Amazon RDS & DynamoDB Backups (For Databases)

• Enable automated backups (RDS allows point-in-time recovery up to 35 days).
• Use manual snapshots before major schema changes.
• Use AWS Backup for centralized database backup management.

c. S3 Backup & Versioning (For Object Storage)

• Enable S3 Versioning to protect against accidental deletions.
• Use S3 Replication (Cross-Region Replication - CRR) for DR.
• Leverage S3 Lifecycle Policies to move backups to Glacier for cost efficiency.

d. AWS Backup Service (Centralized & Policy-Based)

• Automates backups for EBS, RDS, DynamoDB, EFS, FSx, EC2, and S3.
• Enables cross-account and cross-region backup replication.
• Provides compliance monitoring and backup auditing.

e. AWS Lambda & AWS Step Functions for Automation

• Use AWS Lambda with CloudWatch Events to schedule backup tasks.
• AWS Step Functions can automate complex backup workflows across services.

f. Disaster Recovery & Multi-Region Strategy

• Utilize AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS) for EC2 failover.
• Implement AWS Route 53 health checks and failover policies.
• Deploy multi-region architectures (Active-Active or Active-Passive).

2. Kubernetes Backup Strategies (EKS, Self-Managed K8s)

Kubernetes backup strategies focus on persistent volumes, cluster configurations, and application state.

a. Backup Persistent Volumes (PV)

• Kasten k10 (tool for Kubernetes backups)
• Backs up PersistentVolumes, ConfigMaps, Secrets, Deployments, Services.
• Supports AWS S3, Azure Blob, GCP Storage.
• Enables disaster recovery across clusters.
• EBS Snapshots for Persistent Volumes
• Use EBS-backed PVs and take EBS snapshots regularly.
• Automate with AWS Backup or Kasten k10.

b. etcd Backup (Kubernetes Cluster State)

• For self-managed Kubernetes, back up etcd regularly:

# sh

ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl snapshot save snapshot.db

• For AWS EKS, use:

# sh

aws eks update-cluster-config --name twtech-eks-cluster \

--resources-vpc-config endpointPublicAccess=false

• Store snapshots in S3, EFS, or a secured storage location.

c. Application Configuration & Stateful Data Backup

• Store Helm charts and Kubernetes manifests in Git (GitHub).
• Use Git/GitHub for application state version control.
• Ensure database and persistent data backups (e.g., MySQL/MongoDB inside Kubernetes).

d. Disaster Recovery for Kubernetes

• Use multi-region Kubernetes clusters.
• Implement cross-cluster replication (Velero or Kasten K10).
• Use Route 53 failover and AWS Global Accelerator for traffic routing.

3. Best Practices for AWS & Kubernetes Backups,

Automate backups with AWS Backup, Lambda, or Kubernetes CronJobs.

• Implement retention policies to optimize storage costs
• Use cross-region and cross-account replication for DR
• Regularly test backup restoration for reliability
• Encrypt backups using KMS (AWS) or Secrets Management (Kubernetes)
• Ensure IAM least privilege access to backup resources
• Monitor backups with CloudWatch, Prometheus, or Grafana or Datadog.