Snapshot Support

[jleavers]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

It would be useful for the driver to support volume snapshots so that volumes can be backed up, e.g. by Velero or Kasten.

Kasten primer check:

Kubernetes Version Check:
  Valid kubernetes version (v1.21.2+vmware.1)  -  OK

RBAC Check:
  Kubernetes RBAC is enabled  -  OK

Aggregated Layer Check:
  The Kubernetes Aggregated Layer is enabled  -  OK

CSI Capabilities Check:
  Using CSI GroupVersion snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1  -  OK

Validating Provisioners:
named-disk.csi.cloud-director.vmware.com:
  Is a CSI Provisioner  -  OK
  CSI Provisioner doesn't have VolumeSnapshotClass  -  Error
  Storage Classes:
    pure
      Valid Storage Class  -  OK

Velero also requires the addition of PersistentVolume.Spec.PersistentVolumeSource.CSI (https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/velero/blob/main/design/Implemented/csi-snapshots.md).

Describe the solution you'd like

Volume Snapshot support.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Use an alternate storage class
Use Velero with Restic

Additional context

No response

[arunmk]

@jleavers we are looking at this. There is some fundamental support needed from VCD cloud for this.

[balajivedagiri]

Hi,

Can we install volume snapshot CRDs manually and use velero or any other backup solutions which uses CSI driver to take snapshots ?

Is this supported method for this CSI driver?

Regards,
Balaji

[jleavers]

I have tried installing the Snapshot CRDs and Common Snapshot Controller, but Velero still does not work with the EnableCSI feature after that. My assumption is that it won't work because the CSI driver does not have snapshot support.

Instead I am currently using Velero with Restic instead.

[balajivedagiri]

Hi Jleavers,

Thanks for the response, even i am using Restic with velero, since we want to use enterprise backup solution and there is no backup solution which works with this driver.

Hope they will adding Snapshot support very soon.

Regards,
Balaji

[jleavers]

Another solution is Kasten with the addition of a sidecar container, although I have not yet tested this: https://docs.kasten.io/latest/install/generic.html#generic-kanister

[balajivedagiri]

@jleavers thanks the suggestion, i will try it.

[jleavers]

I have since successfully tested Kasten with the sidecar container used with their GVS driver - works well, although note that at this time the backup destination cannot be an immutable S3 bucket. If the backup storage is immutable, backups will succeed, but restores will fail.

[janaurka]

So, currently there is still no Snapshot Support for velero supported which does not require a sidecar like kasten?

Is this something VMware is working on? Or is the state simple: use FSB or just don’t backup your PVs?

[hbobenicio]

Any updates on this?

[arunmk]

@hbobenicio there is no update on this. The provider (VMware Cloud Director or VCD) needs to provide support for snapshots. The support is not on their roadmap. So CSI cannot do anything until VCD adds support.