Perform a manual backup

What you’ll accomplish

You’ll verify your scheduled backups are running and trigger a manual backup on demand.

Prerequisites

• UDS CLI installed
• Access to a Kubernetes cluster with UDS Core deployed
• Velero storage backend configured (see Configure Velero storage backends)

Before you begin

UDS Core runs a daily backup at 03:00 UTC by default (schedule name: velero-udsbackup). Backups exclude the kube-system and velero namespaces and include cluster-scoped resources.

Steps

1. Verify scheduled backups are running

   List recent backups:

   uds zarf tools kubectl get backup -n velero --sort-by=.status.startTimestamp

   Check the status of the most recent backup:

   uds zarf tools kubectl get backup -n velero <backup-name> -o jsonpath='{.status.phase}'

   The expected status is Completed. If no backups exist yet, the schedule may not have triggered — proceed to step 2 to create a manual backup.

2. Trigger a manual backup

   Create a backup that mirrors the default schedule configuration:

   uds zarf tools kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
   apiVersion: velero.io/v1
   kind: Backup
   metadata:
     name: manual-backup-$(date +%s)
     namespace: velero
   spec:
     csiSnapshotTimeout: 0s
     excludedNamespaces:
       - kube-system
       - velero
     includeClusterResources: true
     snapshotVolumes: false
     ttl: 240h0m0s
   EOF

   Tip

   If you have volume snapshots enabled (AWS EBS or vSphere CSI), set snapshotVolumes: true to include persistent volume data in the backup.

   Alternatively, if you have the Velero CLI installed:

   velero backup create --from-schedule velero-udsbackup -n velero

3. Wait for the backup to complete

   Monitor the backup status:

   uds zarf tools kubectl get backup -n velero <backup-name> -w

   Once the phase shows Completed, the backup is ready for use.

   If volume snapshots are enabled, verify the snapshot count matches your PVC count. The check differs by provider:

   CSI-based snapshots (vSphere):

   uds zarf tools kubectl get volumesnapshot -A

   Native AWS EBS plugin:

   uds zarf tools kubectl get backup -n velero <backup-name> -o jsonpath='{.status.volumeSnapshotsCompleted}'

Verification

Success criteria:

• Backup phase is Completed with no errors
• If using the native AWS EBS plugin, volumeSnapshotsCompleted matches the number of PVCs in backed-up namespaces
• If using CSI-based snapshots (vSphere), VolumeSnapshot resources exist for each PVC in backed-up namespaces

To restore from a completed backup, see Restore from a backup.

Troubleshooting

Problem: Backup stuck in “InProgress”

Symptoms: The backup phase remains InProgress indefinitely.

Solution: Check Velero logs for errors:

uds zarf tools kubectl logs -n velero deploy/velero --tail=50

Common causes include storage connectivity issues and volume snapshot timeouts. If volume snapshots are timing out, check the CSI driver logs and snapshot limit configuration.

Problem: Hitting snapshot limits after many backups

Symptoms: Backups begin failing after running for several days, with errors about reaching the configured snapshot maximum.

Solution: Velero’s garbage collection runs hourly and removes expired backups based on TTL. Ensure your snapshot limit is high enough to accommodate the number of retained backups. For the default 10-day retention with daily backups, a minimum of 10 snapshots per volume is required (12 recommended). For vSphere environments, see Enable volume snapshots (vSphere CSI) for snapshot limit configuration.

Related documentation

• Velero: Backup Reference — backup configuration options and API
• Velero: How Velero Works — backup lifecycle and garbage collection
• Backup & restore concepts — how Velero fits into UDS Core

Next steps

These guides and concepts may be useful to explore next:

Restore from a backup Restore specific namespaces from a completed backup and verify data integrity.

Enable volume snapshots (AWS EBS) Capture persistent volume data using AWS EBS snapshots on EKS clusters.

Enable volume snapshots (vSphere CSI) Capture persistent volume data using vSphere CSI snapshots on RKE2 clusters.