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 if it is outside of the schedule you define. Manual VM backups offer the flexibility to capture a VM's state instantly, providing 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 the following:

Request IAM permissions

To manage the lifecycle of VM backup resources, including creating, viewing, and deleting backup and restore plans within user clusters, ask your Organization IAM Admin to grant you the Organization Backup Admin (organization-backup-admin) role. This role lets you configure and execute VM data protection strategies.

Create a backup plan template for VMs

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

Console

  1. Sign into the GDC console.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Backup for Virtual Machines > Backup plans.
  3. Click Create a backup plan.
  4. In the Project field, select a project for which this backup plan is available.
  5. Enter the backup plan name and description.
  6. In the Backup repo field, select a backup repository. Backup repositories are a set of object storage implementations.
  7. Click Create.

API

To plan your backups, create a VirtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate custom resource. Here's an example of a VirtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate:

apiVersion: virtualmachine.gdc.goog/v1
kind: VirtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate
metadata:
  name: BACKUP_TEMPLATE_NAME
  namespace: PROJECT_NAME
spec:
  backupRepository: "BACKUP_REPOSITORY_NAME"

Replace the following:

  • BACKUP_TEMPLATE_NAME: the name of the backup plan template.

  • PROJECT_NAME: the name of the project to create the template within.

  • BACKUP_REPOSITORY_NAME: the name of the repository created in the previous section.

Create manual backups

Request IAM permissions for backup tasks

To back up VMs and create VM disk snapshots, ask your Project IAM Admin to grant you the following roles:

  • Project VirtualMachine Admin (project-vm-admin): Manages VMs in the project namespace.
  • Backup Creator (backup-creator): Creates manual backups and restores.
  • Project Viewer (project-viewer): Has read-only access to all resources within project namespaces.

Follow the steps to verify your access.

Create a manual VM backup

When submitting a VirtualMachineBackupRequest, you must 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:

   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

Use a template and target a specific VM: Use the virtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate and virtualMachine fields when defining a new, immediate backup based on a template. This method requires specifying the target Virtual Machine directly in the spec:

   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

Replace the following:

  • BACKUP_REQUEST_NAME: name to give the backup request that is being initiated.
  • PROJECT: the name of the project where the backup plan resides.
  • VM_BACKUP_PLAN_TEMPLATE: the name of the VirtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate resource to use for configuration of the backup.
  • VM_NAME: the name of the VM to back up.
  • VM_BACKUP_NAME: the name of the backup to create.

Create a snapshot

A snapshot captures a point-in-time image of a VM disk for quick 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.

Console

  1. Sign in to the GDC console.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Virtual Machines > Snapshots.
  3. Select a project.
  4. Click Create snapshot.
  5. In the Source disk field, select the disk that you want to create the snapshot from.
  6. Enter the Snapshot name.
  7. Click Create.

API

Issue a VirtualMachineBackupRequest to initiate a snapshot:

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

Replace the following:

  • BACKUP_REQUEST_NAME: the name to give the backup request that is being initiated.
  • PROJECT_NAME: the name of the GDC project.
  • VM_BACKUP_PLAN: the name of the VirtualMachineBackupPlanTemplate to use for configuration of the snapshot.
  • VM_DISK: the name of the disk to snapshot.
  • VM_BACKUP_NAME: the name of the snapshot to create.

What's next