Velero 1.0: Kubernetes Backup Hits GA

Introduction

Heptio’s Ark project officially became Velero 1.0 on May 14, 2019, graduating from early adopter status to a reliable backup-and-restore platform for Kubernetes clusters. The release focuses on portability, pluggable storage, and compliance-ready workflows.

Production-Ready Enhancements

CSI Snapshot Hooks: Coordinate backups with CSI drivers to quiesce stateful workloads.
Integrated Restic Support: Block-level snapshots for persistent volumes without native CSI snapshots.
Pluggable Storage Targets: AWS, GCP, Azure, and on-premises S3-compatible endpoints.
Restore Hooks: Run init containers or Jobs post-restore to sanitize data or rotate credentials.

Operations Workflow Upgrades

Schedules & Retention: Cron-like schedules with retention policies keep storage costs under control.
Namespace Filtering: Selective backup and restore for multi-tenant clusters.
CLI & API polish: velero backup describe and JSON output integrate with automation pipelines.

Ecosystem Integrations

Works with Argo CD and Flux to ensure GitOps metadata is restored alongside workloads.
Supports OpenShift and PKS distributions with minimal setup changes.
Adds documentation for Velero + Minio clusters for air-gapped environments.

Getting Started

velero install --provider aws --plugins velero/velero-plugin-for-aws:v1.0.0 \
  --bucket velero-prod --backup-location-config region=us-west-2 \
  --snapshot-location-config region=us-west-2

velero schedule create nightly --schedule "@daily" --ttl 720h

Monitor backups with velero backup logs <name> and integrate alerts through Prometheus metrics.

Summary

Aspect	Details
Release Date	May 14, 2019
Headline Features	CSI hooks, Restic integration, schedules
Why it Matters	Makes Kubernetes backup predictable and portable for production workloads

Velero 1.0 cements backup and disaster recovery as a first-class concern for Kubernetes operators, removing a key obstacle to stateful adoption.