Restore from a backup

What you’ll accomplish

You’ll restore specific namespaces from a completed Velero backup and confirm the restored state matches expectations.

Prerequisites

UDS CLI installed
Access to a Kubernetes cluster with UDS Core deployed
A completed Velero backup to restore from (see Perform a manual backup)

Before you begin

Before restoring, identify the backup you want to restore from:

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

Only backups with a Completed phase can be used for a restore.

Steps

Restore a namespace

Velero will not overwrite existing resources. If restoring PersistentVolume data, delete the target PVC (and the PV, if the reclaim policy is Retain) before running the restore. Be cautious when deleting backups that have been used for restores — this may attempt to delete VolumeSnapshotContents that are still in use by restored volumes.

Create a restore for specific namespace(s) from a completed backup:
Terminal window
```
uds zarf tools kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: Restore
metadata:
  name: uds-restore-$(date +%s)
  namespace: velero
spec:
  backupName: <backup-name>
  includedNamespaces:
    - <namespace>
EOF
```
Alternatively, if you have the Velero CLI installed:
Terminal window
```
velero restore create uds-restore-$(date +%s) \
  --from-backup <backup-name> \
  --include-namespaces <namespace> --wait
```

Verify the restore

Check the restore status:

uds zarf tools kubectl get restore -n velero

Inspect the restored namespace to confirm resources are present:

uds zarf tools kubectl get pods -n <namespace>
uds zarf tools kubectl get pvc -n <namespace>

Verification

To run a full end-to-end disaster recovery drill:

Create a test namespace with a deployment and ConfigMap.
Trigger a manual backup (see Perform a manual backup).
Delete the test namespace.
Restore from the backup (step 1 above).
Verify the namespace, deployment, and ConfigMap are restored.

Success criteria:

Restore phase is Completed
All expected resources exist in the restored namespace
If volume snapshots were included, PVC data matches the pre-backup state

Troubleshooting

Problem: Restore completed but resources are missing

Symptoms: The restore phase shows Completed but expected resources are not present.

Solution: Verify the --include-namespaces scope matches the namespace you want to restore. Check that the backup actually captured the target namespace by inspecting the backup details:

uds zarf tools kubectl describe backup -n velero <backup-name>

Look at the Included Namespaces and Excluded Namespaces fields to confirm scope, and check Items Backed Up to verify the resource count. Also confirm the backup was taken after the resources were created.

Problem: Volume restore fails

Symptoms: PersistentVolumeClaims are recreated but contain no data.

Solution: Ensure the original PVC was deleted before running the restore. Verify that VolumeSnapshotContent resources exist for the backup:

uds zarf tools kubectl get volumesnapshotcontent

If VolumeSnapshotContents are missing, the backup may not have included volume snapshots. See Enable volume snapshots (AWS EBS) or Enable volume snapshots (vSphere CSI) to configure snapshot support.

Velero: Restore Reference — restore configuration and behavior
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:

Perform a manual backup Verify your scheduled backups are running and trigger a manual backup on demand.

Configure Velero storage backends Set up S3 or Azure Blob storage, provide credentials, and customize the backup schedule.

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