Documentation

Output file format

A backup is a gzip-compressed tar file whose name matches the Backup API resource’s metadata.name (what is specified during velero backup create <NAME>).

In cloud object storage, each backup file is stored in its own subdirectory in the bucket specified in the Velero server configuration. This subdirectory includes an additional file called velero-backup.json. The JSON file lists all information about your associated Backup resource, including any default values. This gives you a complete historical record of the backup configuration. The JSON file also specifies status.version, which corresponds to the output file format.

The directory structure in your cloud storage looks something like:

rootBucket/
    backup1234/
        velero-backup.json
        backup1234.tar.gz

Example backup JSON file

{
  "kind": "Backup",
  "apiVersion": "velero.io/v1",
  "metadata": {
    "name": "test-backup",
    "namespace": "velero",
    "selfLink": "/apis/velero.io/v1/namespaces/velero/backups/test-backup",
    "uid": "a12345cb-75f5-11e7-b4c2-abcdef123456",
    "resourceVersion": "337075",
    "creationTimestamp": "2017-07-31T13:39:15Z"
  },
  "spec": {
    "includedNamespaces": [
      "*"
    ],
    "excludedNamespaces": null,
    "includedResources": [
      "*"
    ],
    "excludedResources": null,
    "labelSelector": null,
    "snapshotVolumes": true,
    "ttl": "24h0m0s"
  },
  "status": {
    "version": 1,
    "expiration": "2017-08-01T13:39:15Z",
    "phase": "Completed",
    "volumeBackups": {
      "pvc-e1e2d345-7583-11e7-b4c2-abcdef123456": {
        "snapshotID": "snap-04b1a8e11dfb33ab0",
        "type": "gp2",
        "iops": 100
      }
    },
    "validationErrors": null
  }
}

Note that this file includes detailed info about your volume snapshots in the status.volumeBackups field, which can be helpful if you want to manually check them in your cloud provider GUI.

file format version: 1

When unzipped, a typical backup directory (e.g. backup1234.tar.gz) looks like the following:

resources/
    persistentvolumes/
        cluster/
            pv01.json
            ...
    configmaps/
        namespaces/
            namespace1/
                myconfigmap.json
                ...
            namespace2/
                ...
    pods/
        namespaces/
            namespace1/
                mypod.json
                ...
            namespace2/
                ...
    jobs/
        namespaces/
            namespace1/
                awesome-job.json
                ...
            namespace2/
                ...
    deployments/
        namespaces/
            namespace1/
                cool-deployment.json
                ...
            namespace2/
                ...
    ...
Getting Started

To help you get started, see the documentation.