IBM Cloud Docs
Setting up snapshots for File Storage for VPC

Setting up snapshots for File Storage for VPC

Virtual Private Cloud

File Storage for VPC volume snapshots provide you with a standardized way to copy a volume's contents at a particular point in time without creating an entirely new volume. Snapshots are supported for both zonal(dp2) and regional (rfs) based storage classes. For more information about snapshots, see How snapshots work.

For more information about File Storage for VPC, see About File Storage for VPC.

Snapshots support for the File Storage for VPC add-on is currently in Beta.

If the PVC (file share) is deleted, then all the corresponding snapshots owned by the file share are deleted. In this case CSI volume snapshots remain, but the backend snapshots in VPC will not exists. Therefore, you must delete volumes by using oc delete vs <snapshot-name>.

Prerequisites

  • Make sure you have the File Storage for VPC add-on installed in your cluster.
  • Make sure you have Share Snapshot Operator permissions in IAM.

Creating an app

Create an example Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) and deploy a pod that references that claim.

  1. Log in to your account. If applicable, target the appropriate resource group. Set the context for your cluster.

  2. Verify that the add-on state is normal and the status is Ready.

    ibmcloud oc cluster addon ls --cluster CLUSTER-ID

    Name                    Version                     Health State   Health Status   
vpc-file-csi-driver     2.0                         normal         Addon Ready. For more info: http://ibm.biz/addon-state (H1500)

  3. Verify that the driver pods are deployed and the status is Running.

    oc get pods -n kube-system | grep vpc-file-csi

    Example output

    ibm-vpc-file-csi-controller-s34sw                    7/7     Running   0          77s
ibm-vpc-file-csi-controller-7hdhd                    7/7     Running   0          77s
ibm-vpc-file-csi-node-56c85                          4/4     Running   0          77s
ibm-vpc-file-csi-node-87j2t                          4/4     Running   0          77s
ibm-vpc-file-csi-node-cmh2h                          4/4     Running   0          77s

  4. Create a PVC.

    apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: csi-file-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 10Gi
  storageClassName: ibmc-vpc-file-min-iops

    oc create -f pvc.yaml

  5. Verify that the PVC is created and is in a Bound state.

    oc get pvc

    NAME           STATUS   VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS             VOLUMEATTRIBUTESCLASS   AGE
csi-file-pvc   Bound    pvc-9873bd7e-41a8-4234-a9bf-271b8ca7e4f9   10Gi       RWM          ibmc-vpc-file-min-iops   <unset>                 5

  6. Create a YAML configuration file for a deployment that mounts the PVC that you created.

    apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: my-deployment
labels:
    app: my-deployment
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
    matchLabels:
    app: my-deployment
template:
    metadata:
    labels:
        app: my-deployment
    spec:
    containers:
    - image: nginx # Your containerized app image
        name: container-name 
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /myvolumepath  # Mount path for PVC
        name: my-vol # Volume mount name
    volumes:
    - name: my-vol  # Volume resource name
        persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: csi-file-pvc  # The name of the PVC you created earlier


    oc create -f pod.yaml

  7. Verify that the pod is running in your cluster.

    oc get pods

    NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
my-deployment-58dd7c89b6-8zdcl   1/1     Running   0          4m50s

  8. Now that you have created the pod, log in to the pod and create a text file to use for the snapshot.

    oc exec -it POD_NAME -- /bin/bash

    Example commands to create a new text file.

    root@my-deployment-58dd7c89b6-8zdcl:/# cd myvolumepath/
root@my-deployment-58dd7c89b6-8zdcl:/myvolumepath# echo "hi" > new.txt
root@my-deployment-58dd7c89b6-8zdcl:/myvolumepath# exit

Creating a volume snapshot

After you create a deployment and a PVC, you can create the volume snapshots.

  1. Make sure you have Share Snapshot Operator permissions in IAM.

  2. Create a volume snapshot in your cluster by using the ibmc-vpcfile-snapshot-delete snapshot class that is deployed when you enabled the add-on. Save the following VolumeSnapshot configuration to a file called snapvol.yaml.

    apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: VolumeSnapshot
metadata:
  name: snapshot-csi-file-pvc
spec:
  volumeSnapshotClassName: ibmc-vpcfile-snapshot-delete
  source:
    persistentVolumeClaimName: csi-file-pvc

    oc create -f snapvol.yaml

  3. Verify that the snapshot is ready to use.

    oc get volumesnapshots

    Example output where READYTOUSE is true.

    NAME                            READYTOUSE   SOURCEPVC              SOURCESNAPSHOTCONTENT   RESTORESIZE   SNAPSHOTCLASS SNAPSHOTCONTENT                                    CREATIONTIME   AGE
ibmc-vpcfile-snapshot-delete   true         csi-file-pvc                           10Gi           ibmc-vpcfile-snapshot-delete   snapcontent-9c374fbf-43a6-48d6-afc5-e76e1ab7c12b   18h            18h

Restoring from a volume snapshot

After you deploy the volume snapshot, you can restore data to a new volume by using the snapshot. Creating a PVC dynamically provisions a new volume with snapshot data.

  1. Create a second PVC that references your volume snapshot.

    apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: restore-pvc
spec:
  storageClassName: ibmc-vpc-file-min-iops
  dataSource:
    name: snapshot-csi-file-pvc
    kind: VolumeSnapshot
    apiGroup: snapshot.storage.k8s.io
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 10Gi

  2. Verify that the PVC is created and is in a Bound state.

    oc get pvc

    NAME           STATUS   VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS             VOLUMEATTRIBUTESCLASS   AGE
csi-file-pvc   Bound    pvc-9873bd7e-41a8-4234-a9bf-271b8ca7e4f9   10Gi       RWM            ibmc-vpc-file-min-iops   <unset>                 9m16s
restore-pvc    Bound    pvc-04dc8d6c-ac75-48b1-989d-ed67deb35911   10Gi       RWM            ibmc-vpc-file-min-iops   <unset>                 116s

  3. Create a second YAML configuration file for a deployment that mounts the PVC that you created.

    apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: restore-pod
  labels:
    app: restore-pod
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: restore-pod
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: restore-pod
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: nginx # Your containerized app image
        name: container-name
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /myvolumepath  # Mount path for pvc from container
          name: my-vol # Volume mount name
      volumes:
      - name: my-vol  # Volume resource name
        persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: restore-pvc   # The name of the PVC that you created earlier

    oc create -f restore-pod.yaml

  4. Verify that the pod is created.

    oc get pods

    NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
restore-pod-1                      1/1     Running   0          30m
pod-2                     1/1     Running   0          46h

  5. Log in to the newly created pod and verify that the sample text file you created earlier is saved to the new pod.

    oc exec -it POD_NAME -- /bin/bash
root@POD_NAME :/# cd myvolumepath/
root@POD_NAME :/myvolumepath# ls
lost+found  new.txt
root@POD_NAME :/myvolumepath# cat new.txt

    Example output

    hi

Restoring static snapshots

Complete the following steps to restore a static snapshot.

  1. Log in to your account. If applicable, target the appropriate resource group. Set the context for your cluster.

  2. Get snapshot CRN using

    ibmcloud is share-snapshot <share-id> <share-snapshot-id> | grep CRN

    Example output

    CRN  crn:v1:staging:public:is:us-south-3:a/77f2bceddaeb577dcaddb4073fe82c1c::share-snapshot:r134-1b3af00c-7a07-4ba7-b005-f6723c5b5e98/r134-164521b1-f5c1-4968-9605-a7aaa7e6cd2f

  3. Create a VolumeSnapshotContent resource. Save the following configuration as a file called volsnapcontent.yaml.

    apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: VolumeSnapshotContent
metadata:
  name: static-file-snapshot-cnt
spec:
  volumeSnapshotClassName: ibmc-vpcfile-snapshot-retain
  deletionPolicy: Retain
  driver: vpc.file.csi.ibm.io
  source:
    snapshotHandle: crn:v1:staging:public:is:us-south-3:a/77f2bceddaeb577dcaddb4073fe82c1c::share-snapshot:r134-1b3af00c-7a07-4ba7-b005-f6723c5b5e98/r134-164521b1-f5c1-4968-9605-a7aaa7e6cd2f  # Enter the CRN of the snapshot you created earlier. For example crn:v1:public:is:us-south:a/8ee729d7f903db130b00257d91b6977f::snapshot:r134-64c3ad8e-786e-4f54-9b63-388615811ba6
  volumeSnapshotRef:
    name: static-file-snapshot
    namespace: default

    oc apply -f volsnapcontent.yaml

    Example output

    volumesnapshot.snapshot.storage.k8s.io/crossaccount-snapshot created

  4. Create a VolumeSnapshot. Save the following configuration as a file called volsnap.yaml.

    apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: VolumeSnapshot
metadata:
  name: static-file-snapshot
  namespace: default
spec:
  volumeSnapshotClassName: ibmc-vpcfile-snapshot-retain
  source:
    volumeSnapshotContentName: static-file-snapshot-cnt # Enter the name of the VolumeSnapshotContent that you created in the previous step.

    oc apply -f volsnap.yaml

  5. Create a PVC. Save the following configuration as a file called pvc2.yaml.

    apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: restore-static-pvc
spec:
  storageClassName: ibmc-vpc-file-min-iops
  dataSource:
    name: static-file-snapshot
    kind: VolumeSnapshot
    apiGroup: snapshot.storage.k8s.io
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
   resources:
    requests:
      storage: 10Gi

    oc apply -f pvc2.yaml

    Redeploy your app.

    apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-deployment
  labels:
    app: my-deployment
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: my-deployment
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: my-deployment
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: nginx # Your containerized app image
        name: container-name 
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /myvolumepath  # Mount path for PVC
          name: my-vol # Volume mount name
      volumes:
      - name: my-vol  # Volume resource name
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: restore-static-pvc  # The name of the PVC you created earlier

    oc create -f dep2.yaml

  6. Verify that the pod is running in your cluster.

    oc get pods

    NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
my-deployment-58dd7c89b6-8zdcl   1/1     Running   0          4m50s

  7. Log in to the newly created pod and verify that the sample text file you created earlier is saved to the new pod.

    root@my-deployment-static-768f64ffcf-h6qft:/# cd myvolumepath/
root@my-deployment-static-768f64ffcf-h6qft:/myvolumepath# ls
new.txt
root@my-deployment-static-768f64ffcf-h6qft:/myvolumepath# cat new.txt 
hi

Turning off snapshots

By default, snapshot functionality is enabled when using the File Storage for VPC. This functionality can be turned off in the configmap addon-vpc-file-csi-driver-configmap in the kube-system namespace by changing the IsSnapshotEnabled to false. Note that with this change in the configmap, any snapshots that are created fail with the message:CreateSnapshot functionality is disabled.

  1. Save the current configmap from your cluster to your local machine.

    oc get cm -n kube-system addon-vpc-file-csi-driver-configmap -o yaml >> snapshotconfigmap.yaml

  2. Edit the IS_SNAPSHOT_ENABLED paramter to false.

    IS_SNAPSHOT_ENABLED:false

  3. Save the file and apply your changes.

    oc apply -f snapshotconfigmap.yaml