By Trilio Content Team | November 1, 2021
How-To: Backup & Restore InfluxDB Databases with Trilio for Kubernetes
In this blog post, you will find out how to back up and restore InfluxDB time-series databases to S3-compatible or NFS targets.
InFluxDB
InfluxDB is an open-source time-series database developed by InfluxData. It is optimized for fast, high-availability storage and retrieval of time-series data for use with operations monitoring, application metrics, Internet of Things sensor data, real-time analytics, and more. InfluxDB is designed to handle high write and query loads.
Why Backup?
Data loss is a serious problem. Losing files means losing time and money while you restore or recover information essential to the business. In the case of a server failure or outage, valuable data could be lost from the database forever. Losing files and documents often has a lasting impact on the company’s financial health. Consequently, backup and recovery are essential to the overall viability of the business.
The dynamic architecture of Kubernetes puts a lot of demands on a backup and recovery solution, so finding the right one can be difficult. In Kubernetes, applications are microservices-based and dynamic in nature. Applications can be deployed using labels, Helm charts, or Operators. There are also multiple namespaces and resources that are either tied to a specific namespace or common across all namespaces. As such, metadata is vital for application-centric backup.
Considering all of the above, you need to identify software that can provide an application-centric, cloud-native data protection solution. TrilioVault for Kubernetes (TVK) offers a platform that satisfies these requirements.
The image below provides a quick overview of how backup works in TVK:
Now, take a look at how TVK performs application consistent backup and restore of InfluxDB.
Pre-requisite: Install TrilioVault for Kubernetes (TVK) and configure using the following steps:
- Install Test CSI Driver — Leverage the test hostpath driver if your environment does not support the driver with Snapshot capabilities today.
- Software Access and Installation — Access software and install it based on the specific directions for your environment.
- License — Leverage the Free Trial or Free Basic Edition by following instructions from the licensing page. If you already have an enterprise license, you can skip this step.
Create a target where backups will be stored
The Backup Target CRD specifies the backup storage media. TrilioVault supports either AWS S3-compatible object storage or NFS. All the backups created will be saved on the backup target specified in the Application CR spec. An Amazon S3 target example is provided below:
apiVersion: triliovault.triliostg.wpengine.com/v1
kind: Target
metadata:
name: demo-s3-target
spec:
type: ObjectStore
vendor: AWS
objectStoreCredentials:
url: "https://s3.amazonaws.com"
accessKey: "AaBbCcDdEeFf"
secretKey: "BogusKeyEntry"
bucketName: "S3_Bucket_US_East"
region: "us-east-1"
thresholdCapacity: 1000Gi
$ kubectl create -f tv-backup-target.yaml
InfluxDB databases can be deployed on Kubernetes using Helm charts. In the example below, a new release called my-release is created from helm chart bitnami/influxdb using the helm install command.
$ helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
$ helm repo update
$ helm install my release bitnami/influxdb
Add Test Data
Let’s add some test data to the InfluxDB database. Please follow the commands below to create a test database, table, and records.
$ Root$ ocexec -it influxdb-deployment-54c5c78664-f7z7n -- influx
Connected to https://localhost:8086 version 1.7.4
InfluxDB shell version 1.7.4
Enter an InfluxQL query
>
>auth
username: xxxx
password: xxxx
>
>CREATE DATABASE pirates
>use pirates
Using database pirates
>INSERT treasures,captain_id=dread_pirate_roberts value=801
>INSERT treasures,captain_id=flint value=29
>INSERT treasures,captain_id=sparrow value=38
>INSERT treasures,captain_id=tetra value=47
>INSERT treasures,captain_id=crunch value=109
>
>SELECT * FROM treasures
name:treasures
time captain_id value
---- ---------- -----
1613634634180857624 dread_pirate-roberts 801
1613634654035942732 flint 29
1613634666125641798 sparrow 38
1613634676936723375 tetra 47
1613634694340402128 crunch 109
>
>exit
Create Hooks
Hooks enable the ability to inject commands into pods or containers before and after a backup via pre/post commands. As a result, customers can take application consistent backups of their applications.
- InfluxDB has its own built-in backup and restore capabilities. Their scope can range from individual databases to shards, policies, etc. A backup creates a copy of the metastore and shard data at a point in time and stores the copy in the specified directory.
- A full backup creates a copy of the metastore and shard data.
- An incremental backup creates a copy of whatever metastore and shard data has changed since the last incremental backup.
- If there are no existing incremental backups, the system automatically performs a complete backup.
- Use the InfluxDB backup command inside the TVK backup hook (see below).
apiVersion: triliovault.triliostg.wpengine.com/v1
kind: Hook
metadata:
name: influx-hook
spec:
pre:
execAction:
command:
- "bash"
- "-c"
- "bkpfile=/tmp/snapdate +%Y%m%dT%H%M; influxdbackup $bkpfile"
ignoreFailure: false
maxRetryCount: 1
timeoutSeconds: 10
post:
execAction:
command:
- "bash"
- "-c"
- "echo 'post hook action completed'"
ignoreFailure: false
maxRetryCount: 1
timeoutSeconds: 10
$kubectl create -f tv-influx-hook.yaml
Create BackupPlan
The BackupPlan specifies the backup job. The specification includes the backup schedule, backup target, and the resources to backup.
apiVersion: triliovault.triliostg.wpengine.com/v1
kind: BackupPlan
metadata:
name: influx-hook-label-backup-plan
spec:
backupNamespace: default
backupConfig:
target:
name: demo-s3-target
backupPlanComponents:
custom:
- matchLabels:
app:influxdb
hookConfig:
mode: Sequential
hooks:
- hook:
name: influx-hook
podSelector:
labels:
- matchLabels:
app: influxdb
regex: influxdb*
$kubectl create -f tv-influx-backupplan.yaml
Create Backups
The backup takes either a full or incremental backup of the resources specified in the BackupPlan spec. The first backup of the application will always be a full backup, even if the user specifies their backup type as incremental.
apiVersion: triliovault.triliostg.wpengine.com/v1
kind: Backup
metadata:
name: influx-hook-label-full-backup
spec:
type: Full
scheduleType: Periodic
backupPlan:
name: influx-hook-label-backup-plan
$kubectl create -f tvk-mysql-backup.yaml
The Restore
The restore specifies which backup resources should be restored. Resources can be restored to the same namespace or to a different one. Let’s take a look at restoring to a different namespace, e.g. “restore-ns.” This needs to be created if it does not already exist.
apiVersion: triliovault.triliostg.wpengine.com/v1
kind: Restore
metadata:
name: influx-label-restore
spec:
backupPlan:
name: influx-hook-label-backup-plan
source:
type: Backup
backup:
name: influx-hook-label-full-backup
target:
name: demo-s3-target
restoreNamespace: restore-ns
skipIfAlreadyExists: true
$kubectl create -f tv-influx-restore.yaml
Conclusion
When you use this procedure, backing up a time-series database like InfluxDB with TrilioVault for Kubernetes is as easy as it gets. The backups are application-consistent, and the “hooks” allow the user to perform any pre/post-backup actions. Furthermore, TrilioVault for Kubernetes provides a wide range of helpful features, including:
- Native Kubernetes application
- Stores metadata and all application resources to a specified target
- Supports application deployment types of Helm/Label/Operators and S3 or NFS-based backup targets
- Provides application hooks to ensure data-consistent backups
Altogether, TVK provides a strong platform for enterprise database backups.
For more information on TrilioVault for Kubernetes request a demo today.
Sachin Kulkarni, Solutions Engineer for Trilio
