Percona Kubernetes Operators and Azure Blob Storage

Percona Kubernetes Operators allow users to simplify deployment and management of MongoDB and MySQL databases on Kubernetes. Both operators allow users to store backups on S3-compatible storage and leverage Percona XtraBackup and Percona Backup for MongoDB to deliver backup and restore functionality. Both backup tools do not work with Azure Blob Storage, which is not compatible with the S3 protocol.

This blog post explains how to run Percona Kubernetes Operators along with MinIO Gateway on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and store backups on Azure Blob Storage:

Setup

Prerequisites:

• Azure account
• Azure Blob Storage account and container (the Bucket in AWS terms)
• Cluster deployed with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Deploy MinIO Gateway

I have prepared the manifest to deploy the MinIO gateway to Kubernetes, you can find them in the Github repo here.

First, create a separate namespace:

kubectl create namespace minio-gw

Create the secret which contains credentials for Azure Blob Storage:

$ cat minio-secret.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: minio-secret
stringData:
  AZURE_ACCOUNT_NAME: Azure_account_name
  AZURE_ACCOUNT_KEY: Azure_account_key

$ kubectl -n minio-gw apply -f minio-secret.yaml

Apply

minio-gateway.yaml

1. Creates MinIO Pod backed by Deployment object
2. Exposes this Pod on port 9000 as a ClusterIP through a Service object

$ kubectl -n minio-gw apply -f blog-data/operators-azure-blob/minio-gateway.yaml

It is also possible to use Helm Charts and deploy the Gateway with MinIO Operator. You can read more about it here. Running a MinIO Operator might be a good choice, but it is an overkill for this blog post.

Deploy PXC

Get the code from Github:

git clone -b v1.7.0 https://github.com/percona/percona-xtradb-cluster-operator

Deploy the bundle with Custom Resource Definitions:

cd percona-xtradb-cluster-operator 
kubectl apply -f deploy/bundle.yaml

Create the Secret object for backup. You should use the same Azure Account Name and Key that you used to setup MinIO:

$ cat deploy/backup-s3.yam
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: azure-backup
type: Opaque
data:
  AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: BASE64_ENCODED_AZURE_ACCOUNT_NAME
  AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: BASE64_ENCODED_AZURE_ACCOUNT_KEY

Add storage configuration into

cr.yaml

spec.backup.storages

storages:
  azure-minio:
    type: s3
    s3:
      bucket: test-azure-container
      credentialsSecret: azure-backup
      endpointUrl: http://minio-gateway-svc.minio-gw:9000

• bucket

  is the container created on Azure Blob Storage.

• endpointUrl

  must point to the MinIO Gateway service that was created in the previous section.

Deploy the database cluster:

$ kubectl apply -f deploy/cr.yaml

Read more about the installation of the Percona XtraDB Cluster Operator in our documentation.

Take Backups and Restore

To take the backup or restore, follow the regular approach by creating corresponding

pxc-backup

pxc-restore

$ cat deploy/backup/backup.yaml
apiVersion: pxc.percona.com/v1
kind: PerconaXtraDBClusterBackup
metadata:
  name: backup1
spec:
  pxcCluster: cluster1
  storageName: azure-minio

This creates the Custom Resource object

pxc-backup

Read more about backup and restore functionality in the Percona Kubernetes Operator for Percona XtraDB Cluster documentation.

Conclusion

Even though Azure Blob Storage is not S3-compatible, Cloud Native landscape provides production-ready tools for seamless integration. MinIO Gateway will work for both Percona Kubernetes Operators for MySQL and MongoDB, enabling S3-like backup and restore functionality.

The Percona team is committed to delivering smooth integration for its software products for all major clouds. Adding support for Azure Blob Storage is on the roadmap of Percona XtraBackup and Percona Backup for MongoDB, so as the certification on Azure Kubernetes Service for both operators.