Kasten K10

Kubernetes environments require robust backups and disaster recovery tools to protect against failures, misconfigurations, and outages. Kasten K10 provides an enterprise-grade solution for backing up, restoring, and migrating Kubernetes applications, ensuring that both stateful and stateless workloads are safeguarded.

In this post, we’ll explore the features, installation process, and best practices for Kasten K10, making it easy for you to adopt it as part of your Kubernetes backup strategy.

Why Use Kasten K10?

Kasten K10 is designed to address the backup and recovery needs of modern stateful applications in Kubernetes. It offers:

  • Application-aware backups: Automatically detects applications and backs up their data.
  • Disaster recovery: Restore workloads and state across clusters.
  • Mobility: Easily migrate applications between clusters or cloud providers.
  • Policy-based management: Automate backup schedules with policies.
  • Ransomware protection: Detect and mitigate data breaches with built-in security features.

Installing Kasten K10

The K10 platform is deployed via Helm and integrates with multiple storage solutions, including S3-compatible storage, Azure Blob, and GCP storage.

1. Add the K10 Helm Repository

helm repo add kasten https://charts.kasten.io
helm repo update

2. Install K10 in Your Cluster

helm install k10 kasten/k10 --namespace k10 --create-namespace

This command deploys the K10 UI, policy engine, and backup controllers. Once deployed, you can access the K10 dashboard via a Kubernetes service.

Configuring Backup Policies

K10 allows you to define policies that automate backups and restores. Policies can be scheduled to run at specific intervals to ensure consistent backups.

apiVersion: config.kio.kasten.io/v1alpha1
kind: Policy
metadata:
  name: daily-backup
spec:
  frequency: "@daily"
  actions:
    - type: Backup
      target: s3://my-kasten-backups

With Kasten K10, you can also specify backup retention policies, ensuring old backups are cleaned up automatically.

Performing Backups with K10

Once installed, you can initiate a backup via the K10 UI or kubectl:

kubectl k10 create backup --namespace my-app --target s3://my-backups

This will back up the application state, PVCs, and configurations and store them in the specified S3 bucket.

Restoring Applications with K10

Restoring an application is as simple as selecting the backup from the K10 UI or using the CLI:

kubectl k10 restore backup --backup-name my-app-backup --namespace restored-app

Kasten K10 will automatically recreate the workloads and persistent volumes based on the backup.

K10 Multi-Cloud Mobility

One of the standout features of Kasten K10 is application mobility. You can use K10 to migrate applications between clusters or move workloads between cloud providers.

kubectl k10 migrate backup --backup-name my-app-backup --target-cluster my-new-cluster

This makes K10 an excellent solution for disaster recovery and cloud portability.

Monitoring Backups and Compliance

Kasten K10 integrates with Prometheus to monitor backup health and trigger alerts if something goes wrong. Use AlertManager to receive Slack or email notifications for failed backups or policy violations.

Security and Ransomware Protection

K10 offers built-in encryption and immutability to protect backups from tampering or ransomware attacks. You can configure role-based access control (RBAC) policies to ensure only authorized users have access to critical backups.

Best Practices for K10 Backups

  1. Automate Backup Policies: Define and schedule regular backups to avoid manual intervention.
  2. Test Restores Regularly: Ensure that your restore process works as expected to avoid surprises in production.
  3. Offload Backups to Cloud Storage: Store backups offsite in S3, Azure, or GCP to protect against on-prem failures.
  4. Monitor Backup Health: Use Prometheus and AlertManager to detect failed backups or policy breaches.
  5. Use Encryption and Immutability: Secure your backups with encryption and prevent tampering with immutability settings.

Conclusion

Kasten K10 provides a powerful, easy-to-use solution for backing up, restoring, and migrating Kubernetes applications. With its application-aware policies, disaster recovery features, and multi-cloud support, K10 ensures that your workloads are always protected. Whether you are managing a single cluster or multiple environments, K10 offers the scalability and flexibility you need for modern Kubernetes operations.

For more on Kubernetes backups, check out:

Make Kasten K10 part of your backup strategy to ensure your data is always safe and recoverable.