K3s Backup & Recovery

Quick Start

Manual Backup

sudo /usr/local/bin/k3s-backup.sh
ls -lh /backup/k3s/

Quick Recovery

sudo /root/k3s-recovery.sh $(ls -t /backup/k3s/*.tar.gz | head -1)

Cluster Overview

• Master Node: Control plane node running K3s server
• Worker Nodes: Worker nodes running K3s agent
• Database: SQLite (not etcd)
• Backup Location: /backup/k3s/ on master node

Backup Strategy

Triple Protection System

Type	Schedule	Trigger	Downtime
Scheduled	Daily 2:00 AM	Cron job	~30 sec
Pre-Shutdown	Before reboot/shutdown	Systemd service	~30 sec
Manual	On-demand	Command	~30 sec

What Gets Backed Up

Included:

• K3s server database (/var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/db/)
• Node token and certificates
• K3s configuration files (/etc/rancher/k3s/)
• All Kubernetes manifests and resources
• Network and storage configurations

Not Included:

• Container images (re-downloaded on restore)
• Persistent Volume data (needs separate backup)
• Application-specific data in pods

Components

1. Backup Script

Location: /usr/local/bin/k3s-backup.sh

#!/bin/bash
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/k3s"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)

mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR

systemctl stop k3s

tar -czf $BACKUP_DIR/k3s-backup-$DATE.tar.gz \
    /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/ \
    /etc/rancher/k3s/

systemctl start k3s

ls -t $BACKUP_DIR/k3s-backup-*.tar.gz | tail -n +11 | xargs -r rm

echo "Backup completed: k3s-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

2. Recovery Script

Location: /root/k3s-recovery.sh

#!/bin/bash
BACKUP_FILE=$1

if [ -z "$BACKUP_FILE" ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 /backup/k3s/k3s-backup-TIMESTAMP.tar.gz"
    ls -lh /backup/k3s/
    exit 1
fi

echo "Stopping K3s..."
systemctl stop k3s

echo "Removing old data..."
rm -rf /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/
rm -rf /etc/rancher/k3s/

echo "Restoring from $BACKUP_FILE..."
tar -xzf $BACKUP_FILE -C /

echo "Starting K3s..."
systemctl start k3s

sleep 30

echo "Verifying cluster..."
kubectl get nodes
kubectl get pods -A

echo "Recovery complete!"

3. Scheduled Backup (Cron)

Location: /etc/crontab

0 2 * * * root /usr/local/bin/k3s-backup.sh >> /var/log/k3s-backup.log 2>&1

4. Pre-Shutdown Service

Location: /etc/systemd/system/k3s-pre-shutdown.service

[Unit]
Description=K3s Pre-Shutdown Backup
DefaultDependencies=no
Before=shutdown.target reboot.target halt.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/k3s-backup.sh
TimeoutStartSec=300

[Install]
WantedBy=halt.target reboot.target shutdown.target

Installation

Setup Scripts

# 1. Create backup script
sudo tee /usr/local/bin/k3s-backup.sh << 'EOF'
[script content]
EOF
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/k3s-backup.sh

# 2. Create recovery script
sudo tee /root/k3s-recovery.sh << 'EOF'
[script content]
EOF
sudo chmod +x /root/k3s-recovery.sh

# 3. Add cron job
echo "0 2 * * * root /usr/local/bin/k3s-backup.sh >> /var/log/k3s-backup.log 2>&1" | sudo tee -a /etc/crontab

# 4. Create and enable pre-shutdown service
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/k3s-pre-shutdown.service << 'EOF'
[service content]
EOF
sudo systemctl enable k3s-pre-shutdown.service

Verification

ls -l /usr/local/bin/k3s-backup.sh
ls -l /root/k3s-recovery.sh
cat /etc/crontab | grep k3s-backup
sudo systemctl status k3s-pre-shutdown.service
sudo systemctl is-enabled k3s-pre-shutdown.service

Usage

Manual Backup

sudo /usr/local/bin/k3s-backup.sh
ls -lh /backup/k3s/
tail -f /var/log/k3s-backup.log

Scheduled Backup

• Automatic daily backup at 2:00 AM
• Check logs: cat /var/log/k3s-backup.log
• Verify: ls -lt /backup/k3s/ | head -5

Pre-Shutdown Backup

• Automatically runs before graceful shutdown/reboot
• Verify after reboot: ls -lt /backup/k3s/ | head -5
• Check logs: sudo journalctl -u k3s-pre-shutdown.service -b -1

Recovery Procedures

Standard Recovery

# List backups
ls -lh /backup/k3s/

# Restore from specific backup
BACKUP_FILE="/backup/k3s/k3s-backup-TIMESTAMP.tar.gz"
sudo /root/k3s-recovery.sh $BACKUP_FILE

# Verify cluster
kubectl get nodes
kubectl get pods -A
kubectl get pv,pvc -A

Quick Recovery (Latest Backup)

sudo /root/k3s-recovery.sh $(ls -t /backup/k3s/*.tar.gz | head -1)

Partial Recovery

# List backup contents
sudo tar -tzf /backup/k3s/k3s-backup-TIMESTAMP.tar.gz | less

# Extract specific files
sudo tar -xzf /backup/k3s/k3s-backup-TIMESTAMP.tar.gz \
    var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/node-token \
    -C / --strip-components=0

Recovery After Complete Failure

# 1. Reinstall K3s on master node
curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | K3S_TOKEN=<your-token> sh -s - server --disable=traefik --tls-san <master-ip> --advertise-address <master-ip> --node-external-ip <master-ip>

# 2. Stop K3s
sudo systemctl stop k3s

# 3. Run recovery
sudo /root/k3s-recovery.sh /path/to/backup.tar.gz

# 4. Verify and rejoin workers if needed
kubectl get nodes
ssh <worker-user>@<worker-ip> "sudo systemctl restart k3s-agent"

Recovery Timeline

Step	Duration
Stop K3s	~5 seconds
Remove old data	~10 seconds
Restore backup	~20-40 seconds
Start K3s	~30 seconds
Verify cluster	~30 seconds
Total	~2 minutes

Emergency Recovery

Quick Recovery Command

sudo /root/k3s-recovery.sh $(ls -t /backup/k3s/*.tar.gz | head -1)

References

• K3s Official Documentation
• K3s Backup/Restore Guide
• Kubernetes Disaster Recovery