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

Verify scheduled backups are running

List recent backups:
Terminal window
```
uds zarf tools kubectl get backup -n velero --sort-by=.status.startTimestamp
```
Check the status of the most recent backup:
Terminal window
```
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.

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

Alternatively, if you have the Velero CLI installed:

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

Wait for the backup to complete

Monitor the backup status:
Terminal window
```
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):
Terminal window
```
uds zarf tools kubectl get volumesnapshot -A
```
Native AWS EBS plugin:
Terminal window
```
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.

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
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.