Volume Snapshots

Many storage systems provide the ability to create a snapshot of a persistent volume. A snapshot represents a point-in-time copy of a volume. It can be used either to provision a new volume (pre-populated with the snapshot data) or to restore the existing volume to a previous state (represented by the snapshot). For more information, see the Kubernetes documentation.

This tutorial demonstrates how to create and use a volume snapshot.

Prerequisites

  • You need to create a workspace, a project and an account (project-regular). The account must be invited to the project with the role of operator. For more information, see Create Workspaces, Projects, Accounts and Roles.

  • Kubernetes version 1.17+.

  • Your underlying storage plugin supports snapshots.

  • You have an available volume so that you can create a snapshot for it. For more information, see Volumes.

Create a Volume Snapshot

  1. Log in to the web console of KubeSphere as project-regular. On the Volumes page of your page, select a volume that you want to create a snapshot for.

    select-volume

  2. On the detail page, select Create Snapshot from the More drop-down list.

    drop-down-list-select

  3. Set a name for the snapshot which serves as a unique identifier. Click OK to finish.

    snapshot-name

  4. Newly-created snapshots will appear on the VolumeSnapshots list.

    snapshot-list

Use a Snapshot to Create a Volume

There are two ways for you to use a snapshot to create a volume.

Create a volume from the snapshot detail page

  1. Log in to the web console of KubeSphere as project-regular. On a snapshot’s detail page, click Apply to use the snapshot. Generally, the steps are the same as creating a volume directly.

    apply-volume

  2. In the dialog that appears, set a name for the volume. Click Next to continue.

    Note

    The resource you create is a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC).

  3. Select an access mode and click Next.

    pvc-create

  4. On the Advanced Settings page, add metadata for the volume such as labels and annotations. Click Create to finish.

  5. You can see the volume created appear on the Volumes page.

Create a volume from the Volumes page

  1. Log in to the web console of KubeSphere as project-regular. On the Volumes page of a project, click Create.

    volumes-page

  2. In the dialog that appears, set a name for the volume. Click Next to continue.

  3. On the Volume Settings page, select Create a volume by VolumeSnapshot under the Method section. Select a snapshot and an access mode, and click Next to continue.

    create-by-snapshot

  4. On the Advanced Settings page, add metadata for the volume such as labels and annotations. Click Create to finish.

  5. You can see the volume created appear on the Volumes page.