ADR-006: Backup Strategy for RH OVE Ecosystem¶

Status¶

Accepted

Date¶

2024-12-01

Context¶

Ensuring data protection and recovery is crucial for the RH OVE multi-cluster environment. The solution must support frequent, secure, and efficient backups across clusters, aligning with business continuity and compliance requirements.

Decision¶

Adopt a centralized backup strategy using Rubrik for VM and containerized workloads, providing consistency, compliance, and ease of management.

Rationale¶

Advantages¶

Unified Management: Single pane of glass for managing backups across clusters
Policy-Driven: Flexibility in configuring backup policies per application/business need
Deduplication and Compression: Reduce storage costs by minimizing redundant data
Cloud Integration: Support for hybrid cloud scenarios and long-term data retention
Application Consistency: Automated application-aware snapshot management

Alternatives Considered¶

Velero: Open-source alternative
Pros: Strong integration with Kubernetes ecosystems
Cons: Complexity in VM integration and limited cloud support
Rejected: Difficulties in ensuring VM workload consistency and enterprise support
DIY Scripting Solutions: Custom in-house scripts
Pros: Potentially customizable
Cons: Highly error-prone, difficult to manage at scale
Rejected: Lack of enterprise features, consistency guarantees, and support

Implementation Details¶

Backup Policy Design¶

Daily Backups: RPO of 24 hours for critical workloads
Weekly Full Backup with Daily Incrementals: Optimizes storage usage
Data Encryption: Both in transit and at rest using AES-256

Backup Architecture¶

Backup Architecture
├── Management Cluster
│   ├── Rubrik Management Node
│   └── Centralized Backup Policy Management
├── Application Clusters
│   ├── Rubrik Edge Devices
│   ├── Local Snapshot Agents
│   └── Data Replica Agents
└── Cloud Archive
    ├── Long Term Retention Storage
    └── Cross-Region DR Copies

Configuration Example¶

apiVersion: backup.rubrik.com/v1alpha1
kind: BackupPolicy
metadata:
  name: application-backup-policy
  namespace: backup
spec:
  frequency: "24h"
  retention:
    local: "30d"
    cloud: "365d"
  snapshotConsistency: "crash-consistent"
  includeVolumes: "all"
  excludeVolumes:
  - "scratch"
  encryption: enabled
  replication:
    target: cloud-archive
    frequency: "12h"

Security and Compliance Considerations¶

Data Encryption: All backup data encrypted with AES-256
Access Control: Role-based access for backup management and retrieval
Audit Trails: Detailed logging of backup and restore operations
Compliance Alignment: Meets GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2 requirements

Consequences¶

Positive¶

Reduced Risk: Comprehensive DR strategy minimizes impact of data loss events
Operational Visibility: Centralized monitoring and alerting of backup status
Strategic Flexibility: Support for hybrid cloud and multi-region deployments

Negative¶

Cost Considerations: Could incur higher upfront Costa than open-source alternatives
Training Requirement: Backup administrators require training in Rubrik solutions

Migration Strategy¶

Phase 1: Planning¶

Define business-critical systems and RPO/RTO requirements
Design initial backup policy and architecture
Identify data sovereignty and compliance requirements

Phase 2: Non-Production Deployment¶

Pilot Rubrik deployment in development environment
Test backup and restore operations thoroughly
Validate compliance alignment with internal and external audits

Phase 3: Production Rollout¶

Deploy Rubrik management in the production environment
Migrate to production backup policies with minimal downtime
Enable monitoring and alerting on backup status

Phase 4: Continuous Improvement¶

Regular policy reviews to adapt to changing business needs
Leverage Rubrik analytics for optimizations and reporting
Update DR plans based on lessons learned and testing

Monitoring and Metrics¶

Key Monitoring Metrics¶

Backup success/failure rates
Storage consumption over time
Deduplication and compression efficiency
RPO and RTO performance

Alerting Setup¶

groups:
- name: backup-alerts
  rules:
  - alert: BackupFailure
    expr: rubrik_backup_failed{job="rubrik-agent"}  0
    for: 10m
    labels:
      severity: critical
  - alert: RPOViolation
    expr: rubrik_backup_rpo{target="24h"} =r 24 * 60 * 60
    labels:
      severity: warning

This comprehensive backup strategy ensures that RH OVE can achieve high data availability, integrity, and compliance, aligning with enterprise best practices for data protection and disaster recovery.