# Recover a Kubernetes environment after a disaster

Recover a Kubernetes environment after a failure by choosing a recovery approach based on whether you need to restore the original cluster or restore only applications on a new cluster.

Important

Restoring virtual machines alone does not restore a functional Kubernetes cluster because etcd state and control plane consistency are not recovered.

## Recovery Options

Select one of the following recovery approaches:

- Restore the same cluster using etcd (cluster disaster recovery): Recovers the exact cluster state, including identity, control plane configuration, and cluster-scoped resources.

- Restore workloads on a new cluster: Resumes application operations without restoring cluster identity.

## Restore the Same Cluster Using etcd (Cluster Disaster Recovery)

Restore the original cluster using an etcd snapshot to recover cluster identity, control plane configuration, and cluster-scoped resources. This approach is helpful only when cluster state recovery is required.

Important

This operation restores the cluster to a previous point in time. Existing changes after the snapshot are not preserved.

To restore the same cluster, follow these steps:

1. Rebuild the cluster infrastructure and install a new cluster with the same topology and architecture, including nodes, networking, load balancers, DNS, and storage.

2. Restore the etcd snapshot. For more information see, Restoring a Kubernetes etcd Snapshot to a File System.

3. After the restore completes, copy etcd snapshot to the cluster to recover the cluster state.

   Kubernetes cluster restore resources

   - For information about Kubernetes etcd cluster restore, see Restoring an etcd cluster in the Kubernetes documentation.

   - For information about the etcd restores for the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (RHOCP) cluster, see Restoring to a previous cluster state on the Red Hat OpenShift website.

4. Validate system namespaces.

5. Restore application data and workloads such as PVCs, virtual machine disks, and application-level resources. For more information, see Restoring/Migrating Kubernetes Workloads Out of Place.

## Restoring Workloads on a New Cluster

Restore applications and data on a new cluster when cluster identity is not required.

Prerequisites

The application backup, including Kubernetes objects and persistent data must be available.

To restore workloads on a new cluster, follow these steps:

1. Install a new cluster, which initializes a new etcd instance.

2. Restore application data and workloads, including PVCs, virtual machine disks, and application-level resources. For more information, see Restoring/Migrating Kubernetes Workloads Out of Place.

3. Validate workloads.

×

Loading...