Disaster-Recovery

Disaster-Recovery

Kubernetes 10-Command Emergency Backup Checklist
1. Create backup folder
mkdir -p ~/k8s-emergency-backup
cd ~/k8s-emergency-backup
2. Backup etcd snapshot (MOST IMPORTANT)
sudo ETCDCTL_API=3 etcdctl snapshot save etcd-snapshot.db \
--endpoints=https://127.0.0.1:2379 \
--cacert=/etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/ca.crt \
--cert=/etc/kubernetes/pki/etcd/server.crt \
--key=/etc/kubernetes/pki/server.key
3. Backup Kubernetes control plane configs
sudo tar -czvf kubernetes-configs.tar.gz /etc/kubernetes
4. Backup etcd data directory
sudo tar -czvf etcd-data.tar.gz /var/lib/etcd
5. Backup all Kubernetes resources
kubectl get all -A -o yaml > all-resources.yaml
6. Backup ConfigMaps and Secrets
kubectl get configmaps,secrets -A -o yaml > configs-secrets.yaml
7. Backup RBAC permissions
kubectl get clusterroles,clusterrolebindings,roles,rolebindings -A -o yaml > rbac.yaml
8. Backup storage resources
kubectl get pv,pvc,storageclass -A -o yaml > storage.yaml
9. Backup networking resources
kubectl get svc,ingress,networkpolicy -A -o yaml > networking.yaml
10. Compress everything
cd ~
tar -czvf k8s-emergency-backup.tar.gz k8s-emergency-backup
Verify backup
ls -lh ~/k8s-emergency-backup.tar.gz
Restore example
tar -xzvf k8s-emergency-backup.tar.gz
kubectl apply -f all-resources.yaml

When SRE teams run this

Before:

Kubernetes upgrade

Node replacement

Control plane restart

Network plugin changes

Storage migration

etcd maintenance

✅ Pro Tip (Production clusters):

Always run backup before kubeadm upgrade

kubeadm upgrade plan