Hello, Power Protect Data Manager supports agent list application consistent backups of database applications that reside in Kubernetes pods. Power Protect Data Manager provides a standardized way to quiesce a supported database, back up the data from that database, and then return the database to operation. Application templates serve as a bridge between a specific database environment and the Kubernetes backup architecture for the Power Protect Data Manager. Depending on the differences between database environments, each deployment may require a different configuration file. Application templates translate the specific configuration details and required interface steps for each database application deployment to the standard Power Protect Data Manager backup functionality for Kubernetes. In this demo, we'll see how to use the Power Protect Data Manager to perform an application consistent backup of a PostgreSQL database deployed on a Kubernetes cluster.
For this demo, I've created two PostgreSQL database pods running in the namespace ""postgres-demo."" For persistent storage, we are using the storage class name ""Postgres storage,"" which is Dell PowerFlex integrated into the cluster using the PowerFlex CSI driver. We can also see the volumes created on PowerFlex using PowerFlex Manager. These are the two volumes; just to verify, currently, there are no application templates available in this namespace. We'll now apply the application template in this namespace to perform an application consistent backup for this PostgreSQL database. Application templates are typically deployed from the customizable YAML files that come with the PPDM CLI package. You can download the CLI package from Power Protect Data Manager UI and copy it to the cluster. I have already downloaded the package and have copied it to this host. From this package, I am using the sample template called ""postgres_app_template_15.json."" I have already edited the template by adding the namespace name and corresponding app label. We'll now apply this template.
We now see that the template has been applied successfully in this namespace. Let's log into the Power Protect Data Manager UI and initiate the cluster discovery, select the cluster, and click discover. The manual discovery is now in progress. Now that the manual discovery is complete, let's check the asset section. We now have our namespace discovered with Power Protect Data Manager to create a protection policy to perform the backup. We select protection, then protection policies. We then click add and enter a name for the protection policy. We then select the asset and enter the primary backup details. After reviewing the summary, we click finish. The protection policy configuration is now in progress.
Now that the protection policy configuration is successful, we can perform a manual backup. Before we perform the backup, let's create a sample database and initiate some concurrent transactions on the database. Let's create a sample database on the application pod, ""postgres-0,"" to initiate the transactions. A sample database called ""myDB"" is created. We will now initiate some concurrent transactions on this database. Now that the transactions have been initiated, let's use PowerFlex Manager to check the IOPS on the volumes. We can see that the transactions are happening because concurrent write operations are occurring in the write IOPS column.
We'll now initiate the backup from Power Protect Data Manager. We start by selecting protection, then protection policies. After selecting the protection policy, we click protect. Now we can monitor the backup job from the protection jobs page. The manual backup is now in progress, so let's wait for the backup to complete. Now that the backup has been completed successfully, to verify that the backup is application consistent in the detail section for applications, we see PostgreSQL with two volumes. From the restore asset section, select the namespace, click view copies, then select the storage target icon. The protection copy is now available, and from looking in the consistency column, we can see that the backup copy is application consistent.
For more details about this topic, see our Power Protect Data Manager for Kubernetes technical white paper and refer to the Power Protect Data Manager Kubernetes user guide. Thanks for watching this demo.
