Kubernetes disaster prevention and recovery

Kubernetes is one of the most advanced tools in the software world today for orchestration. It offers out-of-the-box automation for the management of the environment and promotes implementation and update processes. It has various implementing styles (on-site, cloud-managed, hybrid, and other), several open-source resources, and supports a number of configuration options. But it’s becoming ever more urgent to protect the Kubernetes.

Yes, Kubernetes makes sure that your work is running as required. Another of its remarkable advantages, though, is its ability to restore itself.

The dynamic task of container orchestration is taken on by Kubernetes every day. However, there is always a risk that you will encounter faults and downtime, with a complex system.

A hardware problem on the node, an error in the code, operational error, data loss on the etcd cluster, a natural disaster may cause the failure.

Thus, it is important to have plans ready for recovering Kubernetes in its working state, just in case anything goes wrong.

Tips to prevent a disaster on Kubernetes

Okay, so a backup scheme is fine. That’s obvious. But the risk of a catastrophe in the first place is much more necessary to reduce. Here are some tips to ensure the reliability of your Kubernetes deployment. All the information on the status of your cluster is stored in etcd, so it should be a priority to ensure that the etcd cluster’s reliability is stable. 

Avoid a single point of failure (SPOF): This is particularly important for key components such as the etcd or the control plane master nodes. You can reproduce the method in odd numbers using best practices. The minimum configuration of your control plane through three nodes for high availability is considered. You should isolate and position your replicas on dedicated nodes. At least a 5-node etcd development cluster is suggested.

What should I back up on Kubernetes?

After you’ve done everything you can to ensure that you have a highly dependable app, it’s time for you to prepare for the worst now. Let us begin by safeguarding all the required elements to run again without losing anything if required. Here is a list of everything in order to create backups in the event of a mistake.

• Etcd
• Storage and data
• Worker nodes

How to back up etcd on Kubernetes

Cluster setup and state of data live in a key-value store database known as etcd. Your controls of aircraft are stored in storage as well. A total failure of etcd is super rare, but backup is always a good idea. You do not have direct access to, and/or even backing disk, etc. if you are running. Moreover, for you, these programs take care of everything, etc. You can backup these with only a snapshot of your node etc. storage space. If you are on-prem, the backup of etcd in your Kubernetes environment depends on how you set up etcd. Essentially, two different ways can be established: as an internal etcd cluster running in your environment as containers and pods or as a cluster external.

How to back up Kubernetes storage and data

Persistent volumes

If the permanent data associated with these Pods are lost, it would do no good retrieving Pods. The backup of this information depends on the context in which Kubernetes is worked. It can be as easy as reconnecting persisting volumes to their respective pods when you are using a cloud providing service.

Local data

This would definitely be a more common phenomenon for bare-metal implementations in which sensitive information has been persisted on the local node disk. Without your awareness, this can also happen. Avoid local storage for something that needs to be preserved in your cluster. Using a separate storage unit often as a real source.

How to back up Kubernetes worker nodes

Worker nodes in Kubernetes can be replaced, but you should have a mechanism to build functioning nodes in the event of disaster recovery. You should be able to just spin a new instance into a control system if you are using a cloud-based service provider, with the parameters you need. It will be a little more challenging for bare metal environments to build a deeply thoughtful approach in advance.

Kubernetes disaster recovery

We recommend using an infrastructure configuration tool like Terraform, CloudWatch, Chef, Puppet, etc. We suggest that you at least regularly test your disaster recovery plan. It’s awesome that you have theoretical backups, positions of files and objects, but if never want to run dry, you risk failure when it comes to real-time.

Another choice to consider is a “hot” replica read, although it is costly. It requires either the running of a skeleton (running off a check plane, confidentiality, everything other than pods) or all things like pods working in another area or a disaster availability zone. For mission-critical clusters, we suggest this only, which allows you to quickly swap clusters because there is no storage locally and no continuing volume.

Conclusion

It’s not an easy task to secure a Kubernetes cluster. Due to the variety of attack vectors, the normal technical advancement, and continuous acceptance, attackers feel tempted to penetrate clusters and either collect data or use their own tools. We hope this at least helps you start on the right path to planning your disaster recovery plan for your Kubernetes environment