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You can use the instructions on this page to create pre and post backup rules with PX-Backup, which take application-consistent backups for Elasticsearch on Kubernetes in production.

The Elasticsearch data directory is used prevent permanent data loss and is typically located at /user/share/elasticsearch/data inside the Kubernetes pod. This will also enable PX-Backup to backup and restore the data stored in this location.

Before using this guide, make sure and configure PVCs for elasticsearch-data. Use the below file as an example.

apiVersion: elasticsearch.k8s.elastic.co/v1
kind: Elasticsearch
metadata:
  name: elasticsearch
spec:
  version: 7.8.0
  nodeSets:
  - name: default
    count: 3
    podTemplate:
      metadata:
        labels:
          appname: "elastisearch-app"
      spec:
        containers:
          - name: elasticsearch
            volumeMounts:
            - name: elasticsearch-backups
              mountPath: /usr/share/elasticsearch/backups
        volumes:
        - name: elasticsearch-backups
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: elasticsearch-backups
    volumeClaimTemplates:
    - metadata:
        name: elasticsearch-data
      spec:
        accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 5Gi
        storageClassName: elastic-pwx-storage-class
    config:
      node.master: true
      node.data: true
      node.ingest: true
      node.store.allow_mmap: false
      path.repo: ["/usr/share/elasticsearch/backups"]

Elasticsearch can also create a snapshot repository to store index snapshots produced by the internal snapshot and restore API. For this, the above template uses a Portworx shared volume and named elasticsearch-backups to create a shared file-system across all Elasticsearch nodes to be used to store the index snapshots.

Installation

Prerequisites

If you have not used Portworx, PX-Backup, or run Data services on Kubernetes it is a good idea to review the following information:

• Install Portworx on Kubernetes
• Application installation
• Install PX-backup
• Add cluster to PX-Backup
• Creating backup rules

Create rules for Elasticsearch

Create rules for Elasticsearch that will run both before and after the backup operation runs:

Create a pre-exec backup rule for Elasticsearch

For the pre-backup rule you will create a rule that performs multiple actions.

• Freeze the index
• Flush all indexes in Elasticsearch
• Create an Elasticsearch index snapshot of all indexes

Create the rule.

1. Navigate to Settings → Rules → Add New.
2. Add a name for your Rule.

3. Add the following app label:

   appname=elasticsearch-app

4. Add the following action:

   curl -X POST -u "elastic:<password>" -k "https://elasticsearch-es-http:9200/customer/_freeze&pretty"

5. Add the following additional action:

   curl -X PUT -u "elastic:<password>" -k "https://elasticsearch-es-http:9200/all/_flush&pretty"

6. Add the following additional action:

   curl -X PUT -u "elastic:<password>" -k "https://elasticsearch-es-http:9200/_snapshot/es_backups/%3Csnapshot-$(uuidgen)-%7Bnow%2Fd%7D%3E?wait_for_completion=true&pretty"

   

Create a post-exec backup rule for Elasticsearch

Performing the _freeze and _flush operations on your index before calling the snapshot API ensures flexible and accurate restores by making sure the database isn’t currently being written into.

Since you performed a _freezeoperation when you created a backup, you must create a post exec rule to perform an _unfreeze operation. The steps below create a post-exec rule which runs _unfreeze on the customer index:

1. Navigate to Settings → Rules → Add New.
2. Add a name for your Rule.

3. Add the following app label:

   appname=elasticsearch-app

4. Add the following action:

   curl -X POST -u "elastic:<password>" -k "https://elasticsearch-es-http:9200/customer/_unfreeze&pretty"

   

Associate the pre and post-exec rules with the Elasticsearch backup

Create a backup for your Elasticsearch application. Select the rules you created in the steps above from the pre-exec and post-exec drop downs:

Once you’ve filled out the backup form, click Create

Demo

Watch this short demo of the above information.

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