kube-dump

Backup Kubernetes cluster resources as clean, reusable YAML manifests.

About

This project is a Python reimplementation inspired by WoozyMasta/kube-dump. The original bash-based tool is excellent, but hasn't been actively maintained. This Python version was created to:

• Provide continued maintenance and updates
• Add new features like Slack notifications
• Improve cross-platform compatibility
• Make the codebase more maintainable and extensible

Credits: Original concept and design by WoozyMasta.

Features

• 📦 Dump all Kubernetes resources - namespaced and cluster-wide
• 🧹 Clean YAML output - removes runtime fields (uid, resourceVersion, managedFields, etc.)
• ✅ Valid manifests - includes apiVersion and kind for kubectl apply compatibility
• 🔄 Git integration - auto-commit and push backups to a remote repository
• 📁 Archive support - create compressed archives (gz, bz2, xz) with rotation
• 🔔 Slack notifications - get notified on backup success or failure
• 🐳 Docker support - run in containers or Kubernetes CronJobs
• 🔍 Auto-discovery - automatically discovers all API resources

Installation

Using Docker

docker pull devopstales/kube-dump:latest

Usage

Basic Usage

# Dump all resources
./kube-dump.py dump

# Dump only namespaced resources
./kube-dump.py dump-namespaces

# Dump only cluster-wide resources  
./kube-dump.py dump-cluster

# Dump specific namespaces
./kube-dump.py dump -n default,kube-system

Commands

Command	Alias	Description
all	dump	Dump all kubernetes resources
ns	dump-namespaces	Dump namespaced resources only
cls	dump-cluster	Dump cluster-wide resources only

CLI Options

Flag	Environment Variable	Default	Description
-h, --help			Show help message
-s, --silent	SILENT	false	Suppress stdout messages
-d, --destination-dir	DESTINATION_DIR	./data	Output directory for dumps
-f, --force-remove	FORCE_REMOVE	false	Remove destination before dump
--detailed	DETAILED	false	Keep detailed fields (status, etc.)
-n, --namespaces	NAMESPACES	all	Comma-separated list of namespaces
--kube-config	KUBE_CONFIG	auto	Path to kubeconfig file
--kube-context	KUBE_CONTEXT	current	Kubeconfig context to use

Git Options

Flag	Environment Variable	Default	Description
-c, --git-commit	GIT_COMMIT	false	Commit changes to git
-p, --git-push	GIT_PUSH	false	Push commits to remote
-b, --git-branch	GIT_BRANCH	main	Git branch name
--git-commit-user	GIT_COMMIT_USER	kube-dump	Git commit author name
--git-commit-email	GIT_COMMIT_EMAIL	[email protected]	Git commit author email
--git-remote-url	GIT_REMOTE_URL		Remote repository URL (with credentials)

Archive Options

Flag	Environment Variable	Default	Description
-a, --archive	ARCHIVE	false	Create compressed archive
--archive-type	ARCHIVE_TYPE	gz	Archive type: gz, bz2, xz
--archive-rotate-days	ARCHIVE_ROTATE_DAYS	7	Delete archives older than N days

Slack Options

Flag	Environment Variable	Default	Description
--cluster-name	CLUSTER_NAME	unknown	Cluster name for notifications
--slack-url	SLACK_URL		Slack webhook URL
--slack-channel	SLACK_CHANNEL	#alerts	Slack channel for notifications

Examples

Local backup with archiving

./kube-dump.py dump \
  --destination-dir ./backup \
  --archive \
  --archive-type gz \
  --archive-rotate-days 30

Backup with Git push

export GIT_REMOTE_URL="https://user:[email protected]/org/k8s-backups.git"

./kube-dump.py dump \
  --destination-dir ./backup \
  --git-commit \
  --git-push \
  --git-branch main

Backup with Slack notifications

export SLACK_URL="https://hooks.slack.com/services/XXX/YYY/ZZZ"
export CLUSTER_NAME="production-cluster"

./kube-dump.py dump \
  --destination-dir ./backup \
  --slack-channel "#k8s-backups"

Full example with all features

./kube-dump.py dump \
  --destination-dir ./backup \
  --namespaces default,kube-system,monitoring \
  --archive \
  --archive-type gz \
  --git-commit \
  --git-push \
  --git-remote-url "https://user:[email protected]/backups/k8s.git" \
  --cluster-name "prod-cluster" \
  --slack-url "https://hooks.slack.com/services/XXX" \
  --slack-channel "#alerts"

Docker Usage

Run with kubeconfig

docker run --rm \
  -v ~/.kube/config:/root/.kube/config:ro \
  -v /path/to/backup:/data/kube-dump \
  devopstales/kube-dump:latest

Run with all options

docker run --rm \
  -v ~/.kube/config:/root/.kube/config:ro \
  -v /path/to/backup:/data/kube-dump \
  -e CLUSTER_NAME=production \
  -e SLACK_URL="https://hooks.slack.com/services/XXX" \
  -e SLACK_CHANNEL="#backups" \
  -e GIT_COMMIT=true \
  -e GIT_PUSH=true \
  -e GIT_REMOTE_URL="https://user:[email protected]/org/backup.git" \
  devopstales/kube-dump:latest

Helm Chart

# Install with Helm
helm install kube-dump ./chart \
  --namespace kube-dump \
  --create-namespace \
  --set config.clusterName=my-cluster \
  --set git.remoteUrl="https://user:[email protected]/org/backup.git" \
  --set slack.enabled=true \
  --set slack.webhookUrl="https://hooks.slack.com/services/XXX"

Or with a values file:

helm install kube-dump ./chart \
  --namespace kube-dump \
  --create-namespace \
  -f my-values.yaml

See chart/values.yaml for all configuration options.

Kustomize / kubectl

Ready-to-use Kubernetes manifests are available in the deploy/ folder:

# Review and edit the secret with your credentials
vim deploy/secret.yaml

# Apply with kubectl
kubectl apply -f deploy/

# Or use kustomize
kubectl apply -k deploy/

Included manifests:

• serviceaccount.yaml - ServiceAccount for kube-dump
• clusterrole.yaml - ClusterRole with read permissions for all resources
• clusterrolebinding.yaml - Binds the ClusterRole to the ServiceAccount
• secret.yaml - Secret for Git and Slack credentials (edit before applying!)
• pvc.yaml - PersistentVolumeClaim for backup data
• cronjob.yaml - CronJob running daily at 2:00 AM
• kustomization.yaml - Kustomize configuration

Output Structure

backup/
├── cluster/
│   ├── namespaces/
│   │   ├── default.yaml
│   │   ├── kube-system.yaml
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── clusterroles/
│   ├── clusterrolebindings/
│   └── ...
├── namespaces/
│   ├── default/
│   │   ├── configmaps/
│   │   ├── deployments/
│   │   ├── services/
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── kube-system/
│   │   └── ...
│   └── ...
└── backup-20231201-120000.tar.gz  (if archiving enabled)

Development

Using Poetry (recommended for development)

git clone https://github.com/devopstales/kube-dump.git
cd kube-dump
poetry install

Using pip

pip install -r requirements.txt

Using Task

# Install dependencies
task install

# Run locally
task run

# Run for specific namespaces
task run-ns NAMESPACES=default,monitoring

# Lint code
task lint

# Build Docker image
task docker-build VERSION=1.0.0

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 - see the original WoozyMasta/kube-dump for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Related Projects

• WoozyMasta/kube-dump - Original bash implementation