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Velero plugins for Microsoft Azure

Overview

This repository contains these plugins to support running Velero on Microsoft Azure:

An object store plugin for persisting and retrieving backups on Azure Blob Storage. Content of backup is kubernetes resources and metadata files for CSI objects, progress of async operations. It is also used to store the result data of backups and restores include log files, warning/error files, etc.
A volume snapshotter plugin for creating snapshots from volumes (during a backup) and volumes from snapshots (during a restore) on Azure Managed Disks.
- Since v1.4.0 the snapshotter plugin can handle the volumes provisioned by CSI driver disk.csi.azure.com.
- Since v1.5.0 the snapshotter plugin can handle the zone-redundant storage(ZRS) managed disks which can be used to support backup/restore across different available zones.

Compatibility

Below is a listing of plugin versions and respective Velero versions that are compatible.

Plugin Version	Velero Version
v1.11.x	v1.15.x
v1.10.x	v1.14.x
v1.9.x	v1.13.x
v1.8.x	v1.12.x
v1.7.x	v1.11.x

Filing issues

If you would like to file a GitHub issue for the plugin, please open the issue on the core Velero repo

Kubernetes cluster prerequisites

Ensure that the VMs for your agent pool allow Managed Disks. If I/O performance is critical, consider using Premium Managed Disks, which are SSD backed.

Setup

To set up Velero on Azure, you:

Create an Azure storage account and blob container
Get the resource group containing your VMs and disks
Set permissions for Velero
Install and start Velero

You can also use this plugin to create an additional Backup Storage Location.

If you do not have the az Azure CLI 2.0 installed locally, follow the install guide to set it up.

Run:

az login

Setup Azure storage account and blob container

(Optional) Change to the Azure subscription you want to create your backups in

By default, Velero will store backups in the same Subscription as your VMs and disks and will not allow you to restore backups to a Resource Group in a different Subscription. To enable backups/restore across Subscriptions you will need to specify the Subscription ID to backup to.

Use az to switch to the Subscription the backups should be created in.

First, find the Subscription ID by name.

AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_NAME=<NAME_OF_TARGET_SUBSCRIPTION>
AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=$(az account list --query="[?name=='$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_NAME'].id | [0]" -o tsv)

Second, change the Subscription.

az account set -s $AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID

Execute the next step – creating an storage account and blob container – using the active Subscription.

Create Azure storage account and blob container

Velero requires a storage account and blob container in which to store backups.

The storage account can be created in the same Resource Group as your Kubernetes cluster or separated into its own Resource Group. The example below shows the storage account created in a separate Velero_Backups Resource Group.

The storage account needs to be created with a globally unique id since this is used for dns. In the sample script below, we're generating a random name using uuidgen, but you can come up with this name however you'd like, following the Azure naming rules for storage accounts. The storage account is created with encryption at rest capabilities (Microsoft managed keys) and is configured to only allow access via https.

Create a resource group for the backups storage account. Change the location as needed.

AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP=Velero_Backups
az group create -n $AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP --location WestUS

Create the storage account.

AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID="velero$(uuidgen | cut -d '-' -f5 | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]')"
az storage account create \
    --name $AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID \
    --resource-group $AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP \
    --sku Standard_GRS \
    --encryption-services blob \
    --https-only true \
    --min-tls-version TLS1_2 \
    --kind BlobStorage \
    --access-tier Hot

Create the blob container named velero. Feel free to use a different name, preferably unique to a single Kubernetes cluster. See the FAQ for more details.

BLOB_CONTAINER=velero
az storage container create -n $BLOB_CONTAINER --public-access off --account-name $AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID

Get resource group containing your VMs and disks

(Optional) If you decided to backup to a different Subscription, make sure you change back to the Subscription of your cluster's resources before continuing.

Set the name of the Resource Group that contains your Kubernetes cluster's virtual machines/disks.

WARNING: If you're using AKS, AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP must be set to the name of the auto-generated resource group that is created when you provision your cluster in Azure, since this is the resource group that contains your cluster's virtual machines/disks.
```
AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP=<NAME_OF_RESOURCE_GROUP>
```
If you are unsure of the Resource Group name, run the following command to get a list that you can select from. Then set the AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP environment variable to the appropriate value.
```
az group list --query '[].{ ResourceGroup: name, Location:location }'
```
Get your cluster's Resource Group name from the ResourceGroup value in the response, and use it to set $AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP.

Set permissions for Velero

There are several ways Velero can authenticate to Azure: (1) by using a Velero-specific service principal with secret-based authentication; (2) by using a Velero-specific service principal with certificate-based authentication; (3) by using Azure AD Workload Identity; or (4) by using a storage account access key.

If you plan to use Velero to take Azure snapshots of your persistent volume managed disks, you must use the service principal or Azure AD Workload Identity method.

If you don't plan to take Azure disk snapshots, any method is valid.

Specify Role

Note: This is only required for (1) by using a Velero-specific service principal with secret-based authentication, (2) by using a Velero-specific service principal with certificate-based authentication and (3) by using Azure AD Workload Identity.

Obtain your Azure Account Subscription ID:

AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=`az account list --query '[?isDefault].id' -o tsv`

Specify the role There are two ways to specify the role: use the built-in role or create a custom one. You can use the Azure built-in role Contributor:
```
AZURE_ROLE=Contributor
```
This will have subscription-wide access, so protect the credential generated with this role.

It is always best practice to assign the minimum required permissions necessary for an application to do its work.

Note: With useAAD flag you will need to provide extra permissions Storage Blob Data Contributor covered in point 3 of section: Create service principal

Here are the minimum required permissions needed by Velero to perform backups, restores, and deletions:
- Storage Account
  
  Back Compatability and Restic
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/read
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/listkeys/action
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/regeneratekey/action
  AAD Based Auth
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/read
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/delete
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/read
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/write
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/generateUserDelegationKey/action
  Data Actions for AAD auth
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/delete
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/read
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/write
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/move/action
  - Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/add/action
- Disk Management
  - Microsoft.Compute/disks/read
  - Microsoft.Compute/disks/write
  - Microsoft.Compute/disks/endGetAccess/action
  - Microsoft.Compute/disks/beginGetAccess/action
- Snapshot Management
  - Microsoft.Compute/snapshots/read
  - Microsoft.Compute/snapshots/write
  - Microsoft.Compute/snapshots/delete
  - Microsoft.Compute/disks/beginGetAccess/action
  - Microsoft.Compute/disks/endGetAccess/action
Use the following commands to create a custom role which has the minimum required permissions:
```
AZURE_ROLE=Velero
az role definition create --role-definition '{
   "Name": "'$AZURE_ROLE'",
   "Description": "Velero related permissions to perform backups, restores and deletions",
   "Actions": [
       "Microsoft.Compute/disks/read",
       "Microsoft.Compute/disks/write",
       "Microsoft.Compute/disks/endGetAccess/action",
       "Microsoft.Compute/disks/beginGetAccess/action",
       "Microsoft.Compute/snapshots/read",
       "Microsoft.Compute/snapshots/write",
       "Microsoft.Compute/snapshots/delete",
       "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/listkeys/action",
       "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/regeneratekey/action",
       "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/read",
       "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/delete",
       "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/read",
       "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/write",
       "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/generateUserDelegationKey/action"
   ],
   "DataActions" :[
     "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/delete",
     "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/read",
     "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/write",
     "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/move/action",
     "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/blobServices/containers/blobs/add/action"
   ],
   "AssignableScopes": ["/subscriptions/'$AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID'"]
   }'
```
(Optional) If you are using a different Subscription for backups and cluster resources, make sure to specify both subscriptions inside AssignableScopes.

Option 1: Create service principal with secret-based authentication

Obtain your Azure Account Tenant ID:

AZURE_TENANT_ID=`az account list --query '[?isDefault].tenantId' -o tsv`

Create a service principal with secet-based authentication.

If you'll be using Velero to backup multiple clusters with multiple blob containers, it may be desirable to create a unique username per cluster rather than the default velero.

Create service principal and let the CLI generate a password for you. Make sure to capture the password.

(Optional) If you are using a different Subscription for backups and cluster resources, make sure to specify both subscriptions in the az command using --scopes.
```
AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET=`az ad sp create-for-rbac --name "velero" --role $AZURE_ROLE --query 'password' -o tsv \
  --scopes  /subscriptions/$AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID[ /subscriptions/$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID]`
```
NOTE: Ensure that value for --name does not conflict with other service principals/app registrations.

After creating the service principal, obtain the client id.
```
AZURE_CLIENT_ID=`az ad sp list --display-name "velero" --query '[0].appId' -o tsv`
```
(Optional)Assign additional permissions to the service principal (For useAAD=true with built-in role)

If you use the custom role which has the blob data permissions, skip this step.

If you chose the AAD route, this is an additional permissions required for the service principal to be able to access the storage account.
```
az role assignment create --assignee $AZURE_CLIENT_ID --role "Storage Blob Data Contributor" --scope /subscriptions/$AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID
```
Refer: useAAD parameter in BackupStorageLocation.md

Now you need to create a file that contains all the relevant environment variables. The command looks like the following:

cat << EOF  > ./credentials-velero
AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=${AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID}
AZURE_TENANT_ID=${AZURE_TENANT_ID}
AZURE_CLIENT_ID=${AZURE_CLIENT_ID}
AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET=${AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET}
AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP=${AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP}
AZURE_CLOUD_NAME=AzurePublicCloud
EOF

Available values for AZURE_CLOUD_NAME: AzurePublicCloud, AzureUSGovernmentCloud, AzureChinaCloud

Option 2: Create service principal with certificate-based authentication

Obtain your Azure Account Tenant ID:

AZURE_TENANT_ID=`az account list --query '[?isDefault].tenantId' -o tsv`

Create a service principal with certificate-based authentication.

If you'll be using Velero to backup multiple clusters with multiple blob containers, it may be desirable to create a unique username per cluster rather than the default velero.

Create service principal and let the CLI creates a self-signed certificate for you. Make sure to capture the certificate.

(Optional) If you are using a different Subscription for backups and cluster resources, make sure to specify both subscriptions in the az command using --scopes.
```
AZURE_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE_PATH=`az ad sp create-for-rbac --name "velero" --role $AZURE_ROLE --query 'fileWithCertAndPrivateKey' -o tsv \
  --scopes  /subscriptions/$AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID[ /subscriptions/$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID] --create-cert`
```
NOTE: Ensure that value for --name does not conflict with other service principals/app registrations.

After creating the service principal, obtain the client id.
```
AZURE_CLIENT_ID=`az ad sp list --display-name "velero" --query '[0].appId' -o tsv`
```
(Optional)Assign additional permissions to the service principal (For useAAD=true with built-in role)

If you use the custom role which has the blob data permissions, skip this step.

If you chose the AAD route, this is an additional permissions required for the service principal to be able to access the storage account.
```
az role assignment create --assignee $AZURE_CLIENT_ID --role "Storage Blob Data Contributor" --scope /subscriptions/$AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID
```
Refer: useAAD parameter in BackupStorageLocation.md

Now you need to create a file that contains all the relevant environment variables. The command looks like the following:

cat << EOF  > ./credentials-velero
AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=${AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID}
AZURE_TENANT_ID=${AZURE_TENANT_ID}
AZURE_CLIENT_ID=${AZURE_CLIENT_ID}
AZURE_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE=$(awk 'BEGIN {printf "\""} {sub(/\r/, ""); printf "%s\\n",$0;} END {printf "\""}' $AZURE_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE_PATH)
AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP=${AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP}
AZURE_CLOUD_NAME=AzurePublicCloud
EOF

Available values for AZURE_CLOUD_NAME: AzurePublicCloud, AzureUSGovernmentCloud, AzureChinaCloud

Option 3: Use Azure AD Workload Identity

These instructions have been adapted from the Azure AD Workload Identity Quick Start documentation.

Before proceeding, ensure that you have installed workload identity mutating admission webhook and enabled the OIDC Issuer for your cluster.

Create an identity for Velero:

IDENTITY_NAME=velero

az identity create \
    --subscription $AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID \
    --resource-group $AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP \
    --name $IDENTITY_NAME

IDENTITY_CLIENT_ID="$(az identity show -g $AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP -n $IDENTITY_NAME --subscription $AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID --query clientId -otsv)"

If you'll be using Velero to backup multiple clusters with multiple blob containers, it may be desirable to create a unique identity name per cluster rather than the default velero.

Assign the identity roles:
```
az role assignment create --role $AZURE_ROLE --assignee $IDENTITY_CLIENT_ID --scope /subscriptions/$AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID
```
(Optional)Assign additional permissions to the service principal (For useAAD=true with built-in role)

If you use the custom role which has the blob data permissions, skip this step.

If you chose the AAD route, this is an additional permissions required for the identity to be able to access the storage account.
```
az role assignment create --assignee $IDENTITY_CLIENT_ID --role "Storage Blob Data Contributor" --scope /subscriptions/$AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID
```
Refer: useAAD parameter in BackupStorageLocation.md

Create a service account for Velero

# create namespace
kubectl create namespace velero

# create service account
cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  annotations:
    azure.workload.identity/client-id: $IDENTITY_CLIENT_ID
  name: velero
  namespace: velero
EOF

# create clusterrolebinding
cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: velero
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: velero
  namespace: velero
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: cluster-admin
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
EOF

Get the cluster OIDC issuer URL
```
CLUSTER_RESOURCE_GROUP=<NAME_OF_CLUSTER_RESOURCE_GROUP>
```
WARNING: If you're using AKS, CLUSTER_RESOURCE_GROUP must be set to the name of the resource group where the cluster is created, not the auto-generated resource group that is created when you provision your cluster in Azure.
```
CLUSTER_NAME=your_cluster_name

SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ISSUER=$(az aks show --resource-group $CLUSTER_RESOURCE_GROUP --name $CLUSTER_NAME --query "oidcIssuerProfile.issuerUrl" -o tsv)
```

Establish federated identity credential between the identity and the service account issuer & subject

az identity federated-credential create \
  --name "kubernetes-federated-credential" \
  --identity-name "${IDENTITY_NAME}" \
  --resource-group "${AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP}" \
  --issuer "${SERVICE_ACCOUNT_ISSUER}" \
  --subject "system:serviceaccount:velero:velero"

Create a file that contains all the relevant environment variables:

cat << EOF  > ./credentials-velero
AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID=${AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID}
AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP=${AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP}
AZURE_CLOUD_NAME=AzurePublicCloud
EOF

Available values for AZURE_CLOUD_NAME: AzurePublicCloud, AzureUSGovernmentCloud, AzureChinaCloud

Option 4: Use storage account access key

Note: this option is not valid if you are planning to take Azure snapshots of your managed disks with Velero.

Obtain your Azure Storage account access key:

AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY=`az storage account keys list --account-name $AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID --query "[?keyName == 'key1'].value" -o tsv`

Now you need to create a file that contains all the relevant environment variables. The command looks like the following:
```
cat << EOF  > ./credentials-velero
AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY=${AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY}
AZURE_CLOUD_NAME=AzurePublicCloud
EOF
```
Available values for AZURE_CLOUD_NAME: AzurePublicCloud, AzureUSGovernmentCloud, AzureChinaCloud

Install and start Velero

Download Velero

Install Velero, including all prerequisites, into the cluster and start the deployment. This will create a namespace called velero, and place a deployment named velero in it.

If using service principal:

velero install \
    --provider azure \
    --plugins velero/velero-plugin-for-microsoft-azure:v1.11.0 \
    --bucket $BLOB_CONTAINER \
    --secret-file ./credentials-velero \
    --backup-location-config useAAD="true",resourceGroup=$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP,storageAccount=$AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID[,subscriptionId=$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID] \
    --snapshot-location-config apiTimeout=<YOUR_TIMEOUT>[,resourceGroup=$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP,subscriptionId=$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID]

If using Azure AD Workload Identity:

velero install \
    --provider azure \
    --service-account-name velero \
    --pod-labels azure.workload.identity/use=true \
    --plugins velero/velero-plugin-for-microsoft-azure:v1.11.0 \
    --bucket $BLOB_CONTAINER \
    --secret-file ./credentials-velero \
    --backup-location-config useAAD="true",resourceGroup=$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP,storageAccount=$AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID[,subscriptionId=$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID] \
    --snapshot-location-config apiTimeout=<YOUR_TIMEOUT>[,resourceGroup=$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP,subscriptionId=$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID]

In plugin v1.8.0+, users can chose to use AAD route for velero to access storage account when using service principal or Azure AD Workload Identity. Earlier this was done using ListKeys on the storage account which is not a recommended practice.

Limitation: The velero identity needs Reader permission alongside the "storage blob data contributor" role on the storage account. This is because the identity needs to be able to read the storage account properties to fetch the storage account's blob endpoint (azure storage accounts are no longer expected to follow the format of blob.core.windows.net with introduction of DNS zone storage accounts.). To circumvent this issue follow the steps below:

For users facing Storage Account Throttling issues You can chose to provide the Storage Account's blob endpoint directly to Velero. This will help Velero to bypass the need to fetch the storage account properties and hence the need for Reader permission on the storage account. This can be done by providing the blob endpoint in the backup-location-config as shown below:

velero install \
    --provider azure \
    --plugins velero/velero-plugin-for-microsoft-azure:v1.11.0 \
    --bucket $BLOB_CONTAINER \
    --secret-file ./credentials-velero \
    --backup-location-config storageAccountURI="https://xxxxxx.blob.core.windows.net",useAAD="true",resourceGroup=$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP,storageAccount=$AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID[,subscriptionId=$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID] \
    --snapshot-location-config apiTimeout=<YOUR_TIMEOUT>[,resourceGroup=$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP,subscriptionId=$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID]

Note:

If you have provided the storageAccountUri, providing the resourceGroup and storageAccount fields are optional.

Migrating from ListKeys to AAD route: If you already had a velero setup using azure plugin < 1.8.0 it must be using the ListKeys approach which is not recommended. To migrate to the AAD route follow the steps below:

You need to assign your velero identity the following permissions:

az role assignment create --role "Storage Blob Data Contributor" --assignee $IDENTITY_CLIENT_ID --scope /subscriptions/$AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID/resourceGroups/$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/$AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID

After that update your velero BackupStorageLocation with the useAAD flag as shown below:

velero backup-location set default --provider azure --bucket $BLOB_CONTAINER --config useAAD="true",resourceGroup=$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP,storageAccount=$AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID[,subscriptionId=$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID]

Limitation: Listing storage account access key is still needed for Restic to work as expected on Azure. The useAAD route won't accrue to it and users using Restic should not remove the ListKeys permission from the velero identity.

If using storage account access key and no Azure snapshots:

velero install \
    --provider azure \
    --plugins velero/velero-plugin-for-microsoft-azure:v1.11.0 \
    --bucket $BLOB_CONTAINER \
    --secret-file ./credentials-velero \
    --backup-location-config resourceGroup=$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP,storageAccount=$AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID,storageAccountKeyEnvVar=AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY[,subscriptionId=$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID] \
    --use-volume-snapshots=false

Additionally, you can specify --use-node-agent to enable node agent support, and --wait to wait for the deployment to be ready.

Optional installation steps

Specify additional configurable parameters for the --backup-location-config flag.
Specify additional configurable parameters for the --snapshot-location-config flag.
Customize the Velero installation further to meet your needs.
Velero does not officially support for Windows containers. If your cluster has both Windows and Linux agent pool, add a node selector to the velero deployment to run Velero only on the Linux nodes. This can be done using the below command.
```
kubectl patch deploy velero --namespace velero --type merge --patch '{ \"spec\": { \"template\": { \"spec\": { \"nodeSelector\": { \"beta.kubernetes.io/os\": \"linux\"} } } } }'
```

For more complex installation needs, use either the Helm chart, or add --dry-run -o yaml options for generating the YAML representation for the installation.

Create an additional Backup Storage Location

If you are using Velero v1.6.0 or later, you can create additional Azure Backup Storage Locations that use their own credentials. These can also be created alongside Backup Storage Locations that use other providers.

Limitations

It is not possible to use different credentials for additional Backup Storage Locations if you are pod based authentication such as Azure AD Workload Identity.

Prerequisites

Velero 1.6.0 or later
Azure plugin must be installed, either at install time, or by running velero plugin add velero/velero-plugin-for-microsoft-azure:plugin-version, replace the plugin-version with the corresponding value

Configure the blob container and credentials

To configure a new Backup Storage Location with its own credentials, it is necessary to follow the steps above to create the storage account and blob container to use, and generate the credentials file to interact with that blob container. You can either create a service principal or use a storage account access key to create the credentials file. Once you have created the credentials file, create a Kubernetes Secret in the Velero namespace that contains these credentials:

kubectl create secret generic -n velero bsl-credentials --from-file=azure=</path/to/credentialsfile>

This will create a secret named bsl-credentials with a single key (azure) which contains the contents of your credentials file. The name and key of this secret will be given to Velero when creating the Backup Storage Location, so it knows which secret data to use.

Create Backup Storage Location

Once the bucket and credentials have been configured, these can be used to create the new Backup Storage Location.

If you are using a service principal, create the Backup Storage Location as follows:

velero backup-location create <bsl-name> \
  --provider azure \
  --bucket $BLOB_CONTAINER \
  --config resourceGroup=$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP,storageAccount=$AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID[,subscriptionId=$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID] \
  --credential=bsl-credentials=azure

Otherwise, use the following command if you are using a storage account access key:

velero backup-location create <bsl-name> \
  --provider azure \
  --bucket $BLOB_CONTAINER \
  --config resourceGroup=$AZURE_BACKUP_RESOURCE_GROUP,storageAccount=$AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ID,storageAccountKeyEnvVar=AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY[,subscriptionId=$AZURE_BACKUP_SUBSCRIPTION_ID] \
  --credential=bsl-credentials=azure

If you would like to customize the Storage Location and or the AAD URI associated with the backup location add the following to the --config argument:

--config storageAccountURI='https://my-sa.blob.core.windows.net',activeDirectoryAuthorityURI='https://login.microsoftonline.us/'

The Backup Storage Location is ready to use when it has the phase Available. You can check this with the following command:

velero backup-location get

To use this new Backup Storage Location when performing a backup, use the flag --storage-location <bsl-name> when running velero backup create.

Extra security measures

To improve security within Azure, it's good practice to disable public traffic to your Azure Storage Account. If your AKS cluster is in the same Azure Region as your storage account, access to your Azure Storage Account should be easily enabled by a Virtual Network endpoint on your VNet.

Tips

We recommend taking incremental snapshots of Azure Disks since they are more cost efficient and come with the following benefits (Read more: Azure Docs):

Incremental snapshots are point-in-time backups for managed disks that, when taken, consist only of the changes since the last snapshot. The first incremental snapshot is a full copy of the disk. The subsequent incremental snapshots occupy only delta changes to disks since the last snapshot. When you restore a disk from an incremental snapshot, the system reconstructs the full disk that represents the point in time backup of the disk when the incremental snapshot was taken.

If ZRS is available in the selected region, an incremental snapshot will use ZRS automatically. If ZRS isn't available in the region, then the snapshot will default to locally-redundant storage (LRS)

To enable Incremental snapshots, set incremental to true as part of --snapshot-location-config. Refer additional configurable parameters for the --snapshot-location-config flag.