Create a manual backup

This document describes how to manually create a backup for virtual machine (VM) workloads in Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped.

By default, your backup plan automatically initiates scheduled backups. You can also manually create VM backups at any time, even outside of the schedule that you define. Manual VM backups let you capture a VM's state instantly and provide a recovery point independent of your scheduled backup plan.

This document is for developers in platform administrator or application operator groups that manage VM backup operations. For more information, see Audiences for GDC air-gapped documentation.

Before you begin

To create manual VM backups, you must have a single VM backup repository for backup data.

Request IAM roles

To complete the tasks in this document, request the required organization and project roles.

Organization-level roles

Ask your IAM Org Admin to grant you the Organization Backup Admin (organization-backup-admin) role. This role lets you create, get, list, watch, update, patch, and delete VM backup repositories, VM backup plan templates, VM backup requests, and VM restore requests.

Project-level roles

Ask your IAM Project Admin to grant you the following roles:

• Virtual Machine Project Admin (project-vm-admin): creates, gets, lists, watches, updates, patches, and deletes virtual machines and VM disks in project namespaces.
• Backup Creator (backup-creator): creates, gets, lists, watches, updates, patches, and deletes manual backup requests and manual restore requests.
• Project Viewer (project-viewer): gets, lists, and watches all resources within project namespaces.

Follow the steps to verify your access.

Create a backup plan template for VMs

You must create a backup plan template before you can trigger a manual backup. You only need to perform this step once for each backup repository. Don't create another template if you've already created one.

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: virtualmachine.gdc.goog/v1
kind: VirtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate
metadata:
  name: BACKUP_TEMPLATE_NAME
  namespace: PROJECT_NAME
spec:
  backupRepository: "BACKUP_REPOSITORY_NAME"
EOF

Create manual backups

Create a manual VM backup

To create a manual VM backup, create and apply a VirtualMachineBackupRequest custom resource and specify the target of the backup using one of two methods:

• Reference an existing backup plan: Use the namespace field in the metadata to specify the project where the plan exists, and the virtualMachineBackupPlan field to target the specific backup plan:

  kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
  apiVersion: virtualmachine.gdc.goog/v1
  kind: VirtualMachineBackupRequest
  metadata:
    name: BACKUP_REQUEST_NAME
    namespace: PROJECT # Use this field if the backup plan was created using the API.
  spec:
    virtualMachineBackupPlan: VM_BACKUP_PLAN
    virtualMachineBackupName: VM_BACKUP_NAME
    deleteLockDays: DELETE_LOCK_DAYS
    retainDays: RETAIN_DAYS
  EOF
  

• Use a template and target a specific VM: Use the virtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate and virtualMachine fields when you define a new, immediate backup based on a template. With this method, you must specify the target VM directly in the spec section:

  kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
  apiVersion: virtualmachine.gdc.goog/v1
  kind: VirtualMachineBackupRequest
  metadata:
    name: BACKUP_REQUEST_NAME
  spec:
    virtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate: VM_BACKUP_PLAN_TEMPLATE
    virtualMachine: VM_NAME
    virtualMachineBackupName: VM_BACKUP_NAME
    deleteLockDays: DELETE_LOCK_DAYS
    retainDays: RETAIN_DAYS
  EOF
  

Replace the following:

• BACKUP_REQUEST_NAME: the name for the backup request that you're initiating.
• PROJECT: the name of the project where the backup plan resides.
• VM_BACKUP_PLAN: the name of the VirtualMachineBackupPlan custom resource to target for the backup.
• VM_BACKUP_PLAN_TEMPLATE: the name of the VirtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate custom resource that configures the backup.
• VM_NAME: the name of the VM to back up.
• VM_BACKUP_NAME: the name of the backup to create.
• DELETE_LOCK_DAYS (optional): the number of days from the creation of this backup that the system blocks backup deletion. The value must not exceed 90 days and must be less than or equal to RETAIN_DAYS. If you set this value to 0, the system doesn't block deletion. If you omit this value, it defaults to the associated backup plan's configuration.
• RETAIN_DAYS (optional): the number of days to keep this backup before the system automatically deletes it. The value must not exceed 90 days. If you set this value to 0, the system doesn't automatically delete the backup. If you omit this value, it defaults to the associated backup plan's configuration.

Create a snapshot

A snapshot captures a point-in-time image of a VM disk for restores, unlike a VM backup, which creates an independent copy of VM data in a backup repository.

Create a snapshot using either the GDC console or the API.

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: virtualmachine.gdc.goog/v1
kind: VirtualMachineBackupRequest
metadata:
  name: BACKUP_REQUEST_NAME
  namespace: PROJECT_NAME
spec:
  virtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate: VM_BACKUP_PLAN
  virtualMachineDisk: VM_DISK
  virtualMachineBackupName: VM_BACKUP_NAME
  deleteLockDays: DELETE_LOCK_DAYS
  retainDays: RETAIN_DAYS
EOF

What's next

• Manage backups
• Create a restore