Enable Data Protection for a Cluster

Use VMware Tanzu Mission Control to enable data protection capabilities, like backup and restore, on your attached or provisioned clusters.

Before you can use Tanzu Mission Control to back up data resources in your clusters, you must set up your cluster and your target location. This procedure describes how to install the data protection extension (and Velero) on your cluster so that you can use Tanzu Mission Control to perform data protection actions using a specified backup location.

Prerequisites

This procedure assumes that you have a managed cluster, either attached or provisioned, and that it belongs to a cluster group that is associated with a target location, as described in Create a Target Location for Data Protection.

Make sure you have the appropriate permissions.

• To enable data protection, you must be associated with the cluster.admin role in the cluster.
• To see and use a cloud provider account connection for data protection, you must be associated with the organization.credential.view role.

Procedure

1. Log in to the Tanzu Mission Control console, and then navigate to the cluster detail page for the cluster for which you want to enable data protection.
2. In the Data Protection box, click Enable Data Protection.
3. In the Enable Data Protection dialog select the volume backup type that you want to use. File system backup (FSB) is selected by default. You can select either FSB, CSI, or both types for volume backups.
   Note: In order to backup Kubernetes volumes, you should select File System Backup (FSB) or Container Storage Interface (CSI) snapshot or both. You may choose to enable data protection without any of them and enable them later. If neither of the volume backup methods is enabled, volumes are not backed up or restored. To learn more about FSB and CSI snapshot, see Data Protection.

   Note: Once CSI volume snapshot is enabled for the cluster, you need to specify to use CSI snapshot in the backup schedule, otherwise a CSI snapshot is not created.

   Note: You can also enable and disable FSB and CSI in the Backup screen when you go to start a backup.
4. Click Enable.

Results

When you click Enable, Tanzu Mission Control installs the data protection extension, the selected plugins, and Velero on your cluster. After it is installed, the data-protection extension is listed on the cluster detail page along with its status.

What to do next

After you have enabled data protection for a cluster, you can perform actions like backing up and restoring data resources in your cluster.