Protecting Microsoft SQL on Kubernetes with Kasten K10 Blueprints

Data backup and recovery is essential to securing your Kubernetes environment, and Kasten by Veeam takes a unique approach. Our leading backup and recovery solution, Kasten K10, enables storage-level snapshots and operates at the logical layer for application protection capabilities that are consistent and repeatable. How? By consuming Kanister Blueprints to capture data services specific workflows.

Our latest release of Kasten K10, V5.0, delivers additional data service blueprints, including sample blueprints for Microsoft SQL Server and the leading PostgreSQL Operator, PGO. You can even leverage Kanister Blueprints and edit them to meet the specific needs of your environment through the Kasten K10 interface. In this demo, we’ll walk you through the process of installing Microsoft SQL 2019 into a new Azure Kubernetes service three-node cluster.

To follow along with the blog, check out this demo video:

 

Install Microsoft SQL into a cluster

First, use a few simple commands and some YAML files to create a brand-new installation of Microsoft SQL into this cluster:

These YAML files can be used to deploy a new database and put it on a public IP address to provide access within Microsoft SQL Studio.

See https://github.com/kanisterio/kanister/tree/master/examples/mssql for access to the YAML files used in the demo.

Validate the pods are running

After deploying the database, validate that the pods are up and running. Using the IP address of this new database, connect to the database using Microsoft's SQL Server Management Studio:

Enter the IP address, login name and password. The database should be online and connected:

Add a database to the new SQL server

Next, simply restore a database onto the server using a database backup file to run the database on top of the server. Then, run some simple SQL queries on the database to validate that there's data in the tables:

Once the database is running on top of your Azure Kubernetes servers, open the Kasten K10 UI. You’ll find the new SQL server running on your cluster. By clicking on Details, you can review persistent volume claim data, the pods and the networking, and the metadata configurations of the application: 

Choose a Blueprint

From there, go to settings to see the new Blueprints UI in Kasten K10:

Blueprints allow Kasten K10 to integrate with specific databases such as Microsoft SQL, to create application-consistent backups. You can write your own Blueprint or use sample Blueprints found at the Kanister GitHub repository. Sample Blueprints help to get you started quickly, and you can modify them for your specific database or application. 

To use a sample Blueprint, simply highlight and copy the code, and paste it into the Blueprints UI:

Now you can review, validate and save the Blueprint. Next, go back to the application and enable the Blueprint on the workload:

Click “Add Blueprint,” select the new Microsoft SQL Blueprint, and add it to the application. An icon will indicate that a blueprint has been added to the backup: 

Create a backup policy

Now create a new backup policy for Microsoft SQL:

Select the snapshot frequency, the export frequency and export location. Select the application by name and click “Create Policy.” The new backup policy will be created, with the settings displayed on the card. You can choose “Run Now” to run the backup immediately: 

In the Kasten K10 UI, you can watch the progress of your snapshot and backup:

Validate the app is compliant

Now that our backup is completed, you can validate that the application is now compliant with policies:

To test the restore, try deleting the database to simulate an accidental dropping of the database or some other malicious activity:

Within the Kasten K10 UI, select a restore point, either from the snapshot or from the exported backup out to the object storage, and choose “Restore.” You can watch the progress of the restore within the Kasten K10 UI.

Now that the restore is complete, you can validate that the database is back, then run queries against the tables in the database. As you can see, Kasten K10 has restored Microsoft SQL back to full functionality:

Validate the app is compliant

Kubernetes poses unique challenges when it comes to backing up, restoring and migrating data and applications, and Kasten strives to help enterprises to navigate those challenges effectively with our purpose-built backup and recovery solution. Download the datasheet to learn how Kasten K10 v5:

• Uses cloud native architectural principles and APIs 
• Provides a state-of-the-art multi-cluster management interface, a cloud native API, easy install, and extensibility
• Supports Kubernetes-native RBAC, Auth N/Z, encryption with KMS, and data immutability to defeat ransomware attacks 
• Delivers extensive support across the entire application stack

You can also browse our recorded demos here, or get started today with a free trial today.

Try the full-featured and FREE edition of Kasten K10 today with this super-quick install in less than 10 minutes.

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