Backing up the Policy Workbench

By default, the Policy Workbench data is backed up on a daily basis using a scheduled backup, after the Policy Workbench has been installed. The backed-up data includes the Kubernetes object state and the persistent volume data. The backed-up data is automatically stored in the encrypted AWS S3 bucket that you created when you deployed PPC.

For more information about the AWS S3 bucket, refer to the section Creating AWS KMS Key and S3 Bucket.

You can also choose to manually back up the data to the AWS S3 bucket using Velero.

Important: Before you manually back up the data, ensure that Velero CLI version 1.17 or later is installed.

To manually back up the data:

1. Run the following command on the jump box.

velero backup create --from-schedule workbench-backup-schedule -n <Namespace where data is backed up>

For example:

velero backup create --from-schedule workbench-backup-schedule -n pty-backup-recovery

The following output appears.

INFO[0001] No Schedule.template.metadata.labels set - using Schedule.labels for backup object  backup=pty-backup-recovery/workbench-backup-schedule-20260331094735 labels="map[app.kubernetes.io/managed-by:Helm deployment:policy-workbench]"
Creating backup from schedule, all other filters are ignored.
Backup request "workbench-backup-schedule-20260331094735" submitted successfully.
Run `velero backup describe workbench-backup-schedule-20260331094735` or `velero backup logs workbench-backup-schedule-20260331094735` for more details.

For more information about the velero backup command, refer to the section Backup Reference in the Velero documentation.

2. Run the following commands to monitor the backup status.
   1. Run the following command to retrieve the list of existing backups.

   velero backup get -n pty-backup-recovery
   

   The following output appears.

   NAME                                               STATUS                       ERRORS   WARNINGS   CREATED                         EXPIRES   STORAGE LOCATION   SELECTOR
   authnz-postgresql-schedule-backup-20260331093017   Completed                    0        0          2026-03-31 09:30:18 +0000 UTC   59d       default            app.kubernetes.io/persistence=enabled
   workbench-backup-schedule-20260331094735           WaitingForPluginOperations   0        0          2026-03-31 09:47:38 +0000 UTC   59d       default            <none>
   workbench-backup-schedule-20260331094704           WaitingForPluginOperations   0        0          2026-03-31 09:47:04 +0000 UTC   59d
   

   2. Run the following command to obtain details of a specific backup.

   velero backup describe <backup-name> -n pty-backup-recovery
   

   The following code block shows a snippet of the output.

   Name:         workbench-backup-schedule-20260331094735
   Namespace:    pty-backup-recovery
   Labels:       app.kubernetes.io/managed-by=Helm
                 deployment=policy-workbench
                 velero.io/schedule-name=workbench-backup-schedule
                 velero.io/storage-location=default
   Annotations:  meta.helm.sh/release-name=policy-workbench
                 meta.helm.sh/release-namespace=policy-workbench
                 velero.io/resource-timeout=10m0s
                 velero.io/source-cluster-k8s-gitversion=v1.35.2-eks-f69f56f
                 velero.io/source-cluster-k8s-major-version=1
                 velero.io/source-cluster-k8s-minor-version=35
   
   Phase:  WaitingForPluginOperations
   

   3. Run the following command obtains the log details for a specific backup.

   velero backup logs <backup-name> -n pty-backup-restore
   

   The following code block shows a snippet of the output.

   time="2026-03-31T09:47:38Z" level=info msg="Setting up backup temp file" backup=pty-backup-recovery/workbench-backup-schedule-20260331094735 logSource="pkg/controller/backup_controller.go:690"
   time="2026-03-31T09:47:38Z" level=info msg="Setting up plugin manager" backup=pty-backup-recovery/workbench-backup-schedule-20260331094735 logSource="pkg/controller/backup_controller.go:697"
   time="2026-03-31T09:47:38Z" level=info msg="Getting backup item actions" backup=pty-backup-recovery/workbench-backup-schedule-20260331094735 logSource="pkg/controller/backup_controller.go:701"