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Restore a VM from a backup

Contributors kevin-hoke banum-netapp
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This section describes how to restore virtual machine(s) from a backup.

Prerequisites

To restore from a backup, let us assume that the namespace where the virtual machine existed got accidentally deleted.

Restore to the same namespace

To restore from the backup that we just created, we need to create a Restore Custom Resource (CR). We need to provide it a name, provide the name of the backup that we want to restore from and set the restorePVs to true. Additional parameters can be set as shown in the documentation. Click on Create button.

Create Restore CR

apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: Restore
metadata:
  name: restore1
  namespace: openshift-adp
spec:
  backupName: backup1
  restorePVs: true

When the phase shows completed, you can see that the virtual machines have been restored to the state when the snapshot was taken. (If the backup was created when the VM was running, restoring the VM from the backup will start the restored VM and bring it to a running state). The VM is restored to the same namespace.

Restore completed

Restore to a different namespace

To restore the VM to a different namespace, you can provide a namespaceMapping in the yaml definition of the Restore CR.

The following sample yaml file creates a Restore CR to restore a VM and its disks in the virtual-machines-demo namespace when the backup was taken to the virtual-machines namespace.

apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: Restore
metadata:
  name: restore-to-different-ns
  namespace: openshift-adp
spec:
  backupName: backup
  restorePVs: true
  includedNamespaces:
  - virtual-machines-demo
  namespaceMapping:
    virtual-machines-demo: virtual-machines

When the phase shows completed, you can see that the virtual machines have been restored to the state when the snapshot was taken. (If the backup was created when the VM was running, restoring the VM from the backup will start the restored VM and bring it to a running state). The VM is restored to a different namespace as specified in the yaml.

Restore completed to a new namespace

Restore to a different storage class

Velero provides a generic ability to modify the resources during restore by specifying json patches. The json patches are applied to the resources before they are restored. The json patches are specified in a configmap and the configmap is referenced in the restore command. This feature enables you to restore using different storage class.

In the example below, the virtual machine, during creation uses ontap-nas as the storage class for its disks. A backup of the virtual machine named backup1 is created.

VM using ontap-nas

VM backup ontap-nas

Simulate a loss of the VM by deleting the VM.

To restore the VM using a different storage class, for example, ontap-nas-eco storage class, you need to do the following two steps:

Step 1

Create a config map (console) in the openshift-adp namespace as follows:
Fill in the details as shown in the screenshot:
Select namespace : openshift-adp
Name: change-storage-class-config (can be any name)
Key: change-storage-class-config.yaml:
Value:

version: v1
    resourceModifierRules:
    - conditions:
         groupResource: persistentvolumeclaims
         resourceNameRegex: "^rhel*"
         namespaces:
         - virtual-machines-demo
      patches:
      - operation: replace
        path: "/spec/storageClassName"
        value: "ontap-nas-eco"

config map ui

The resulting config map object should look like this (CLI):

config map CLI

This config map will apply the resource modifier rule when the restore is created. A patch will be applied to replace the storage class name to ontap-nas-eco for all persistent volume claims starting with rhel.

Step 2

To restore the VM use the following command from the Velero CLI:

#velero restore create restore1 --from-backup backup1 --resource-modifier-configmap change-storage-class-config -n openshift-adp

The VM is restored in the same namespace with the disks created using the storage class ontap-nas-eco.

VM restore ontap-nas-eco