Restore Data from GCS Using BR

This document describes how to restore the backup data stored in Google Cloud Storage (GCS) to a TiDB cluster on Kubernetes, including two restoration methods:

Full restoration. This method takes the backup data of snapshot backup and restores a TiDB cluster to the time point of the snapshot backup.
Point-in-time recovery (PITR). This method takes the backup data of both snapshot backup and log backup and restores a TiDB cluster to any point in time.

The restore method described in this document is implemented based on CustomResourceDefinition (CRD) in TiDB Operator. For the underlying implementation, BR is used to restore the data. BR stands for Backup & Restore, which is a command-line tool for distributed backup and recovery of the TiDB cluster data.

PITR allows you to restore a new TiDB cluster to any point in time of the backup cluster. To use PITR, you need the backup data of snapshot backup and log backup. During the restoration, the snapshot backup data is first restored to the TiDB cluster, and then the log backup data between the snapshot backup time point and the specified point in time is restored to the TiDB cluster.

Note

BR is only applicable to TiDB v3.1 or later releases.
PITR is only applicable to TiDB v6.3 or later releases.
Data restored by BR cannot be replicated to a downstream cluster, because BR directly imports SST and LOG files to TiDB and the downstream cluster currently cannot access the upstream SST and LOG files.

This document provides an example about how to restore the backup data from the spec.gcs.prefix folder of the spec.gcs.bucket bucket on GCS to the demo2 TiDB cluster in the test2 namespace. The following are the detailed steps.

Full restoration

This section provides an example about how to restore the backup data from the spec.gcs.prefix folder of the spec.gcs.bucket bucket on GCS to the demo2 TiDB cluster in the test2 namespace. The following are the detailed steps.

Prerequisites: Complete the snapshot backup

In this example, the my-full-backup-folder folder in the my-bucket bucket of GCS stores the snapshot backup data. For steps of performing snapshot backup, refer to Back up Data to GCS Using BR.

Step 1: Prepare the restore environment

Before restoring backup data on GCS to TiDB using BR, take the following steps to prepare the restore environment:

Create a namespace for managing restoration. The following example creates a restore-test namespace:
```
kubectl create namespace restore-test
```
Download backup-rbac.yaml, and execute the following command to create the role-based access control (RBAC) resources in the restore-test namespace:
```
kubectl apply -f backup-rbac.yaml -n restore-test
```
Grant permissions to the remote storage for the restore-test namespace.
Refer to GCS account permissions.
For a TiDB version earlier than v4.0.8, you also need to complete the following preparation steps. For TiDB v4.0.8 or a later version, skip these preparation steps.
1. Make sure that you have the SELECT and UPDATE privileges on the mysql.tidb table of the target database so that the Restore CR can adjust the GC time before and after the restore.
2. Create the restore-demo2-tidb-secret secret to store the root account and password to access the TiDB cluster:
```
kubectl create secret generic restore-demo2-tidb-secret --from-literal=user=root --from-literal=password=<password> --namespace=test2
```

Step 2: Restore the backup data to a TiDB cluster

Create the Restore custom resource (CR) to restore the specified data to your cluster:

kubectl apply -f restore-full-gcs.yaml

The content of restore-full-gcs.yaml file is as follows:

---
apiVersion: pingcap.com/v1alpha1
kind: Restore
metadata:
  name: demo2-restore-gcs
  namespace: restore-test
spec:
  # backupType: full
  br:
    cluster: demo2
    clusterNamespace: test2
    # logLevel: info
    # statusAddr: ${status-addr}
    # concurrency: 4
    # rateLimit: 0
    # checksum: true
    # sendCredToTikv: true
  gcs:
    projectId: ${project_id}
    secretName: gcs-secret
    bucket: my-bucket
    prefix: my-full-backup-folder
    # location: us-east1
    # storageClass: STANDARD_IA
    # objectAcl: private

When configuring restore-full-gcs.yaml, note the following:

For more information about GCS configuration, refer to GCS fields.
Some parameters in .spec.br are optional, such as logLevel, statusAddr, concurrency, rateLimit, checksum, timeAgo, and sendCredToTikv. For more information about BR configuration, refer to BR fields.
For v4.0.8 or a later version, BR can automatically adjust tikv_gc_life_time. You do not need to configure spec.to fields in the Restore CR.
For more information about the Restore CR fields, refer to Restore CR fields.

After creating the Restore CR, execute the following command to check the restore status:

kubectl get restore -n restore-test -owide

NAME                STATUS     ...
demo2-restore-gcs   Complete   ...

Point-in-time recovery

This section provides an example about how to perform point-in-time recovery (PITR) in a demo3 cluster in the test3 namespace. PITR takes two steps:

Restore the cluster to the time point of the snapshot backup using the snapshot backup data in the spec.pitrFullBackupStorageProvider.gcs.prefix folder of the spec.pitrFullBackupStorageProvider.gcs.bucket bucket.
Restore the cluster to any point in time using the log backup data in the spec.gcs.prefix folder of the spec.gcs.bucket bucket.

The detailed steps are as follows.

Prerequisites: Complete data backup

In this example, the my-bucket bucket of GCS stores the following two types of backup data:

The snapshot backup data generated during the log backup, stored in the my-full-backup-folder-pitr folder.
The log backup data, stored in the my-log-backup-folder-pitr folder.

For detailed steps of how to perform data backup, refer to Back up data to GCS Using BR.

Note

The specified restoration time point must be between the snapshot backup time point and the log backup checkpoint-ts.

Step 1: Prepare the restoration environment

Before restoring backup data on GCS to TiDB using BR, take the following steps to prepare the restoration environment:

Create a namespace for managing restoration. The following example creates a restore-test namespace:
```
kubectl create namespace restore-test
```
Download backup-rbac.yaml, and execute the following command to create the role-based access control (RBAC) resources in the restore-test namespace:
```
kubectl apply -f backup-rbac.yaml -n restore-test
```
Grant permissions to the remote storage for the restore-test namespace.
Refer to GCS account permissions.

Step 2: Restore the backup data to a TiDB cluster

The example in this section restores the snapshot backup data to the cluster. The specified restoration time point must be between the time point of snapshot backup and the Log Checkpoint Ts of log backup.

The detailed steps are as follows:

Create a Restore CR named demo3-restore-gcs in the restore-test namespace and specify the restoration time point as 2022-10-10T17:21:00+08:00:

kubectl apply -f restore-point-gcs.yaml

The content of restore-point-gcs.yaml is as follows:

---
apiVersion: pingcap.com/v1alpha1
kind: Restore
metadata:
  name: demo3-restore-gcs
  namespace: restore-test
spec:
  restoreMode: pitr
  br:
    cluster: demo3
    clusterNamespace: test3
  gcs:
    projectId: ${project_id}
    secretName: gcs-secret
    bucket: my-bucket
    prefix: my-log-backup-folder-pitr
  pitrRestoredTs: "2022-10-10T17:21:00+08:00"
  pitrFullBackupStorageProvider:
    gcs:
      projectId: ${project_id}
      secretName: gcs-secret
      bucket: my-bucket
      prefix: my-full-backup-folder-pitr

When you configure restore-point-gcs.yaml, note the following:

spec.restoreMode: when you perform PITR, set this field to pitr. The default value of this field is snapshot, which means snapshot backup.

Wait for the restoration operation to complete:

kubectl get jobs -n restore-test

NAME                        COMPLETIONS   ...
restore-demo3-restore-gcs   1/1           ...

You can also check the restoration status by using the following command:

kubectl get restore -n restore-test -o wide

NAME                STATUS     ...
demo3-restore-gcs   Complete   ...

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any problem during the restore process, refer to Common Deployment Failures.

Restore Data from GCS Using BR

Full restoration

Prerequisites: Complete the snapshot backup

Step 1: Prepare the restore environment

Step 2: Restore the backup data to a TiDB cluster

Point-in-time recovery

Prerequisites: Complete data backup

Step 1: Prepare the restoration environment

Step 2: Restore the backup data to a TiDB cluster

Troubleshooting

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