Kubernetes backup and recovery – Backup as a Service (SaaS)
The CloudCasa elves have been busy in their workshop for the past few months, and in December we delivered a stocking full of brand-new Kubernetes backup and recovery backup as a Service(BaaS) features just in time for the holidays!
Kubernetes Backup Starter Plan
Our low capacity-based pricing has been well received as fair, transparent, and simple, but one bit of feedback we received from smaller customers was that the $699 monthly price with 5 TB of included backup storage for the Starter plan could be too big of an initial step up from the Free service plan for those just getting started.
We heard you, and now we’ve done something about it! In December, we introduced a new CloudCasa Starter plan with 1 TB of backup storage at the aggressive price of $199 per month (with a yearly commitment), or $249 per month when paid monthly.
The existing CloudCasa pricing plans have stayed the same, although the names have changed. The plan that was formerly known as Starter is now named Pro. And of course, our Enterprise plan continues to offer custom services for large customers.
Existing customers will, of course, keep their same plan, at the same price, with the same amount of included backup storage. The only change they will see is a different plan name on their bill. If existing customers would like to change their plan, they can do so either in the CloudCasa UI (under Preferences/Service Plans) or by contacting Catalogic sales.
Bring Your Own Backup Storage
Another request we’ve received frequently from users is for CloudCasa to provide an option to support their own object storage for a Kubernetes backup repository. With this release, you can now define your own S3 compliant Object Storage buckets as a backup destination.
To configure your own backup repositories, click “Add storage” under Configuration/My Storage. Once a storage destination has been defined, you can select it anywhere as an alternative to CloudCasa’s managed backup storage provider and region.
The following object storage services have been tested and are supported: Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and Google Cloud Storage. Support for Azure Blob Storage and others is coming soon. Send us a message in the Support Chat if another storage provider is of interest to you.
Limitations: User-provided object storage must have an S3-compatible API, and the endpoint must be reachable from the public Internet. We do not currently support the SafeLock protection feature on backups written to user-provided storage.
Cluster Creation on Restore – “Bare metal” Recovery for Amazon EKS
Previously, when performing a Kubernetes restore you needed a pre-existing cluster to restore to.
Now CloudCasa will automatically back up your Amazon EKS cluster parameters whenever it does an EKS cluster backup. When you do a restore, it will give you the option to automatically create a new EKS cluster using those parameters as part of the restore process. Just select “Create EKS cluster” rather than “Use existing cluster” when prompted for a destination cluster. You will then be prompted for additional information such as cluster name, etc. Any fields left set to “Default” (or any not prompted for) will use the original parameters from the backup.
This functionality requires granting CloudCasa limited access to your AWS account using the Add Account feature under Protection/Accounts, as you need to do in order to use EKS auto-discovery and RDS backups. Equivalent functionality will be coming soon for other popular managed Kubernetes offerings!
Storage Class Remapping During Restore
Sometimes when you do a restore of Kubernetes PVs, especially if you are restoring from one cluster to another, the destination cluster won’t have the same storage classes available as the original source cluster. We’ve now solved this problem by giving you the option to remap storage classes at restore time. Just check the “Change Storage Classes” option in the Restore backup page. The UI will display the storage classes used by PVs/PVCs in the backup, and allow you to enter new storage classes to substitute for each during the restore. By default, the same storage classes will be used.
Note that this feature is only available for restores of copy backups, not snapshots.
Backup Application Hook Templates
When we added user-defined application hooks in the last major feature update, we promised that we would soon make your life easier by adding system-defined application hook templates for common applications. We’ve begun delivering on that promise with application hook templates for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB. These are now available under Configuration/AppHooks/Templates. They can be used directly in your backup definitions, or copied and modified by clicking the “Clone” icon. Stay tuned for more application hook templates coming in the near future!
Enhanced Logic for Label Selectors in Backup Definitions
Before, if you entered multiple label selectors in the “Select Labels” field in a backup definition, the relationship between them was always assumed to be logical AND. So if you entered “a:b c:d”, it meant that a must equal b AND c must equal d in order for the selector to match. Entering “a:b a:c” thus makes no sense and is not allowed.
Now CloudCasa will also allow you to enter a single key with multiple comma-separated values, and the relationship between these is assumed to be logical OR. So entering “a:b,c” means that a must equal b OR c. Entering “a:b,c x:y” means that a must equal b OR c AND x must equal y. That’s (a == b || a == c) && x == y for you C lovers out there. Note that OR is still not possible between different keys.
Note: This change was actually rolled out earlier, but is now fully supported with our new agent release.
UI Changes
For those of you who prefer the dark, we’ve added Dark Mode support to the CloudCasa UI. The option to toggle it on and off is at the very bottom of the user “hamburger” menu accessible at the upper right corner of the page. The darkest nights produce the brightest stars!
We’ve also moved User Settings to the hamburger menu.
Kubernetes Agent Update
In this release we’ve again made several changes to our Kubernetes agent to add features, improve performance, and fix bugs. You should update any existing CloudCasa agents.
Agent and Helm chart updates for partner marketplaces such as Rancher and DigitalOcean, and Operator updates for OpenShift are also available. See the FAQ for update instructions.
CloudFormation Stack Update
Our AWS CloudFormation stack was also updated in order to add the permissions necessary to allow for EKS cluster creation. You can re-launch the stack under the Protection/Accounts tab to apply the update to existing accounts.
Notes
With some browsers you may need to restart, hit Control-F5, and/or clear the cache to make sure you have the latest version of the CloudCasa web app when first logging in after the update.
As always, we want to hear your feedback on new features! You can contact us using the support chat feature in the CloudCasa UI or by sending email to support@cloudcasa.io.
Vedant Khairnar
Komal Nerurkar