How to Perform Backup Ceph Based on Snapshot

Ceph is a powerful open-source software storage solution that meets the block, file and object storage needs of the modern enterprise and is a popular choice for organizations seeking to manage large-scale data environments. Backup policies provide an important role for data management, which is key to ensuring data security and integrity, and snapshots provide an efficient and reliable mechanism for backing up data in a Ceph cluster. In this article, we will provide you with Ceph snapshot and the steps to backup Ceph based on snapshots.

What is Ceph Snapshot

Ceph snapshots are point-in-time read-only copies of an entire pool or specific objects in the pool, and they support two levels of snapshot functionality, Pool and RBD. Ceph snapshots are commonly used to create backups, clones for testing or debugging, and to recover from data corruption or accidental deletion.

Using snapshots for backups does not require copying the entire dataset and can significantly improve efficiency while saving space and creating them at a very fast rate.

Steps to Backup Ceph Based on Snapshot

The following are the detailed steps for backup Ceph based on snapshot.

Step 1. Create Snapshots

Creating Snapshots in Ceph You can use radosgw-admin or ceph CLI tool to create snapshots. The commands to create a snapshot of a specified pool are listed below for you:

Step 2. Validate Snapshots

After creating the snapshots, you need to verify that the snapshots are consistent and available for recovery. You can use the following command to list the snapshots in the pool and verify:

Step 3. Back up Snapshots

You need to copy or move the snapshot to another location and then take a backup snapshot. For example, you can use radosgw to copy the snapshot to another Ceph cluster or external storage location. In the case of object storage, you can use radosgw-admin to copy the snapshot object to an external backup target:

For block storage (RBD), you can use the rbd export tool to export snapshots to an external file or storage.

Step 4. Automated Backup Processes

To ensure data protection, you can automate the backup process using cron or Ceph's built-in scheduling capabilities. Setting up periodic snapshots and copying or exporting them to a remote storage system ensures that data is backed up regularly to keep it safe.

The following cron job will create the snapshot at 2:00 AM every day.

Step 5. Restore from Snapshot

Restoring from a snapshot in Ceph involves rolling back changes to the state captured when the snapshot was created. You can use the following command to restore the pool to a previous snapshot.

Alternative Solution: AOMEI Cyber Backup for Data Security

VM backup and snapshots can both be used to secure virtual machine data. In addition to backup Ceph based on snapshot, you can also choose to use AOMEI Cyber Backup, a professional and powerful backup software, which provides you with a variety of options for data protection. It supports VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V, making it an ideal tool for virtualized environments.

User-Friendly Interface: Intuitive and user-friendly interfaces make it easier for users to utilize the tools.
Comprehensive Backup Options: It supports flexible backup options, allowing users to choose the most appropriate backup strategy for their specific needs.
Centralized Management: You can easily back up and monitor your backups from a centralized console without having to manually install agents one by one, ensuring that your backed-up VM data is secure.
Automated and Scheduled Backups: Automatic and scheduled backups enable users to set regular backup intervals, ensuring continuous data protection without manual intervention

Simple Steps for Backup VMware ESXi

The following parts take VMware ESXi VMs backup as an example.

Step 1. Navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device, and enter Device Information and User Information, then click Confirm.

Step 2. Go to Backup Task, click + Create New Task, and select VMware ESXi Backup as the Backup Type. Then set the Task Name, Device, Target, and Schedule according to your needs.

• Device: You can overwrite multiple virtual machines on a host in a single backup task.
• Target: You can select back up to a local path, or network path.

• Archive: You can add an Amazon Object storage, and save backup files to it.

• Schedule: You can choose to perform full, differential, or incremental backup and automated execution.

Step 3. Click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.

Conclusion

Ceph snapshot-based backups provide a fast, space-efficient way to protect data. With Ceph snapshots you can create consistent point-in-time backups with minimal performance impact. Whether you are backing up object storage, block storage, or an entire Ceph cluster, snapshots provide a powerful solution for data protection.