Chapter 7. Backup and disaster recovery

This section describes aspects of the CodeReady Workspaces backup and disaster recovery.

7.1. External database setup

The PostgreSQL database is used by the CodeReady Workspaces server for persisting data about the state of CodeReady Workspaces. It contains information about user accounts, workspaces, preferences, and other details.

By default, the CodeReady Workspaces Operator creates and manages the database deployment.

However, the CodeReady Workspaces Operator does not support full life-cycle capabilities, such as backups and recovery.

For a business-critical setup, configure an external database with the following recommended disaster-recovery options:

  • High Availability (HA)
  • Point In Time Recovery (PITR)

Configure an external PostgreSQL instance on-premises or use a cloud service, such as Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). With Amazon RDS, it is possible to deploy production databases in a Multi-Availability Zone configuration for a resilient disaster recovery strategy with daily and on-demand snapshots.

The recommended configuration of the example database is:

ParameterValue

Instance class

db.t2.small

vCPU

1

RAM

2 GB

Multi-az

true, 2 replicas

Engine version

9.6.11

TLS

enabled

Automated backups

enabled (30 days)

7.1.1. Configuring external PostgreSQL

Procedure

  1. Use the following SQL script to create user and database for the CodeReady Workspaces server to persist workspaces metadata etc:

    CREATE USER <database-user> WITH PASSWORD '<database-password>' 1 2
    CREATE DATABASE <database>                                      3
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE <database> TO <database-user>
    ALTER USER <database-user> WITH SUPERUSER
    1
    CodeReady Workspaces server database username
    2
    CodeReady Workspaces server database password
    3
    CodeReady Workspaces server database name
  2. Use the following SQL script to create database for RH-SSO back end to persist user information:

    CREATE USER keycloak WITH PASSWORD '<identity-database-password>' 1
    CREATE DATABASE keycloak
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE keycloak TO keycloak
    1
    RH-SSO database password

7.1.2. Configuring CodeReady Workspaces to work with an external PostgreSQL

Prerequisites

  • The oc tool is available.

Procedure

  1. Pre-create a project for CodeReady Workspaces:

    $ oc create namespace openshift-workspaces
  2. Create a secret to store CodeReady Workspaces server database credentials:

    $ oc create secret generic <server-database-credentials> \ 1
    --from-literal=user=<database-user> \                            2
    --from-literal=password=<database-password> \                    3
    -n openshift-workspaces
    1
    Secret name to store CodeReady Workspaces server database credentials
    2
    CodeReady Workspaces server database username
    3
    CodeReady Workspaces server database password
  3. Create a secret to store RH-SSO database credentials:

    $ oc create secret generic <identity-database-credentials> \ 1
    --from-literal=password=<identity-database-password> \             2
    -n openshift-workspaces
    1
    Secret name to store RH-SSO database credentials
    2
    RH-SSO database password
  4. Deploy Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces by executing the crwctl command with applying a patch. For example:

    $ crwctl server:deploy --che-operator-cr-patch-yaml=patch.yaml ...

patch.yaml should contain the following to make the Operator skip deploying a database and pass connection details of an existing database to a CodeReady Workspaces server:

spec:
  database:
    externalDb: true
    chePostgresHostName: <hostname>                     1
    chePostgresPort: <port>                             2
    chePostgresSecret: <server-database-credentials>    3
    chePostgresDb: <database>                           4
spec:
  auth:
    identityProviderPostgresSecret: <identity-database-credentials> 5
1
External database hostname
2
External database port
3
Secret name with CodeReady Workspaces server database credentials
4
CodeReady Workspaces server database name
5
Secret name with RH-SSO database credentials

Additional resources

7.2. Persistent Volumes backups

Persistent Volumes (PVs) store the CodeReady Workspaces workspace data similarly to how workspace data is stored for desktop IDEs on the local hard disk drive.

To prevent data loss, back up PVs periodically. The recommended approach is to use storage-agnostic tools for backing up and restoring OpenShift resources, including PVs.