Kubernetes Application Resource Discovery for Backup
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing data protection solutions for Kubernetes clusters face challenges in identifying and backing up all relevant application resources, often missing critical resources due to namespace or label selector errors, leading to incomplete backups and inefficient storage usage.
Innovation Solution
The system automatically discovers and constructs a resource hierarchy of application resources in a Kubernetes cluster, using an application discovery controller to identify pods, owner objects, and mounted resources, and generates a backup specification for comprehensive and incremental backups, providing a visual representation to operators for selective backup.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If namespace or label selector methods are used to identify application resources for backup, then backup operation can be performed, but critical resources may be missed leading to incomplete backups
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically discovers and identifies all application resources including pods, owner objects, and mounted resources without requiring manual configuration of namespaces or label selectors. The discovery mechanism self-determines the complete resource hierarchy and generates backup specifications automatically, eliminating the risk of missed resources due to configuration errors.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors and tracks the relationships between pods, owner objects, and mounted resources to maintain an accurate resource hierarchy. This feedback mechanism ensures that all critical resources are identified and included in the backup specification, improving backup completeness by adapting to dynamic resource relationships.
2Reliability
If comprehensive resource identification is performed to ensure complete backup, then backup reliability improves, but system complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The resource discovery process is segmented into distinct steps: identifying pods, determining owner objects, checking mounted resources, and constructing the resource hierarchy. This segmentation makes the complex discovery process manageable and systematic, improving reliability while maintaining clear process boundaries.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically discovering and mapping resource relationships before backup execution. The resource hierarchy is constructed in advance based on pod, owner object, and mounted resource relationships, so that when backup is executed, the complete resource list is already prepared, reducing real-time processing complexity.
3Reliability
If all application resources are identified for backup, then data protection improves, but storage usage and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by identifying and backing up only the specific resources that are actually needed for each application, rather than performing uniform backups of all resources. The resource hierarchy construction enables selective backup of only the necessary pods, owner objects, and mounted resources, optimizing storage usage while maintaining data protection.
Data Source
AI summary
Computer-implemented methods, media, and systems for automatic discovery of application resources for application backup in a container orchestration platform (e.g., a Kubernetes system) are disclosed. In an example method, a pod of an application deployed in a container orchestration platform is identified. Then an owner object of the pod is determined. Resources mounted on the pod and on the owner object of the pod in the container orchestration platform are checked. Based on the pod, the owner object of the pod, and the resources mounted on the pod and on the owner object of the pod, a resource hierarchy of the application is constructed. A backup specification for backup of the application is identified. Based on the backup specification and the resource hierarchy of the application, resources of the application are backed up.