This assumes you have already

• Installed the OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP) Operator
• Created OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP) backup Storage Location

Let's say you want to use OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP) to backup images and store the backups in an Amazon Web Services S3 Bucket. 

Let's create a YAML file that contains the following, replacing my-bucket-asdfadkjsfasfljdf with the name of your S3 Bucket. Notice in this example that backupImages: true is specified. When backupImages: true is specified then you must also specify a prefix, prefix: my-prefix in this example.

apiVersion: oadp.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: DataProtectionApplication
metadata:
  name: my-data-protection-application
  namespace: openshift-adp
spec:
  backupImages: true
  backupLocations:
    - name: my-backup-storage-location
      velero:
        default: true
        config:
          region: us-east-1
          profile: default
        credential:
          key: cloud
          name: cloud-credentials
        objectStorage:
          bucket: my-bucket-asdfadkjsfasfljdf
          prefix: my-prefix
        provider: aws
  configuration:
    velero:
      defaultPlugins:
        - openshift
        - aws
      nodeSelector: worker
      resourceTimeout: 10m

Let's use the oc apply command to create my-data-protection-application.

oc apply --filename my-data-protection-application.yaml

Let's ensure the status is Reconciled.

~]$ oc describe DataProtectionApplication my-data-protection-application --namespace openshift-adp
. . .
Status:
  Conditions:
    Last Transition Time:  2025-04-10T01:25:11Z
    Message:               Reconcile complete
    Reason:                Complete
    Status:                True
    Type:                  Reconciled

The Data Protection Application should provision additional "velero" resources in the openshift-adp namespace.

~]$ oc get all --namespace openshift-adp
NAME                                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/openshift-adp-controller-manager-55f68b778f-tlr8v   1/1     Running   0          8m52s
pod/velero-6777878978-nvqm4                             1/1     Running   0          3m10s

NAME                                                       TYPE        CLUSTER-IP       EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)    AGE
service/openshift-adp-controller-manager-metrics-service   ClusterIP   172.30.220.147   <none>        8443/TCP   9m3s
service/openshift-adp-velero-metrics-svc                   ClusterIP   172.30.87.161    <none>        8085/TCP   3m10s

NAME                                               READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
deployment.apps/openshift-adp-controller-manager   1/1     1            1           8m52s
deployment.apps/velero                             1/1     1            1           3m10s

NAME                                                          DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AGE
replicaset.apps/openshift-adp-controller-manager-55f68b778f   1         1         1       8m52s
replicaset.apps/velero-6777878978                             1         1         1       3m10s

Next let's check to see if the backupStorageLocation is Available.

~]$ oc get backupStorageLocations --namespace openshift-adp
NAME                         PHASE       LAST VALIDATED   AGE   DEFAULT
my-backup-storage-location   Available   60s              64s   true

Now let's say you want to backup the resources and images used by the resources in namespace my-project. Let's create a velero backup resource that will backup the resources and images used by the resources in namespace my-project. Let's say this markup is in a file named my-project-backup.yml. By default, the Time To Live (TTL) will be 30 days, which means the backup will be retained for 30 days. Once the backup has exceeded 30 days, the backup will be removed from the storage location.

apiVersion: velero.io/v1
kind: Backup
metadata:
  name: my-project
  labels:
    velero.io/storage-location: my-backup-storage-location
  namespace: openshift-adp
spec:
  hooks: {}
  includedNamespaces:
  - my-project
  includedResources: []
  excludedResources: []
  storageLocation: my-backup-storage-location

Let's use the oc apply command to create the velero backup resource.

~]$ oc apply --filename my-project-backup.yml
backup.velero.io/my-project created

There should now be a backup resource named my-project in the openshift-adp namespace.

~]$ oc get backups --namespace openshift-adp
NAME          AGE
my-project    102s

If you then describe the backup resource named my-project the status should be InProgress.

~]$ oc describe backup my-project --namespace openshift-adp
Status:
  Expiration:      2025-05-16T01:25:16Z
  Format Version:  1.1.0
  Hook Status:
  Phase:  InProgress
  Progress:
    Items Backed Up:  18
    Total Items:      18
  Start Timestamp:    2025-04-16T01:25:13Z
  Version:            1
Events:               <none>

And then shortly thereafter, the status should be Completed. Awesome!

Notice also that the Time To Live (TTL) is 30 days which means the backup will be retained for 30 days and Expiration is 30 days from when the backup was created. In 30 days, the items that were backed up will be removed from the storage location.

~]$ oc describe backup my-project --namespace openshift-adp
Spec:
  Ttl:                 30d
Status:
  Completion Timestamp:  2025-04-16T01:25:16Z
  Expiration:            2025-05-16T01:25:16Z
  Format Version:        1.1.0
  Hook Status:
  Phase:  Completed
  Progress:
    Items Backed Up:  18
    Total Items:      18
  Start Timestamp:    2025-04-16T01:25:13Z
  Version:            1
Events:               <none>

Recall in this example that OADP was configured to store the backups in an Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 Bucket named my-bucket-asdfadkjsfasfljdf. The aws s3api list-objects command can be used to list the objects in the S3 Bucket. Something like this should be returned, where there are my-project objects in the S3 Bucket. Awesome, it works!

~]$ aws s3api list-objects --bucket my-bucket-asdfadkjsfasfljdf --profile velero | jq .Contents[].Key
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051-csi-volumesnapshotclasses.json.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051-csi-volumesnapshotcontents.json.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051-csi-volumesnapshots.json.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051-itemoperations.json.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051-logs.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051-podvolumebackups.json.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051-resource-list.json.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051-results.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051-volumeinfo.json.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051-volumesnapshots.json.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051.tar.gz"
"my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/velero-backup.json"

The aws s3api get-object command can be used to download one of the files in the S3 bucket to your present working directory.

aws s3api get-object --bucket my-bucket-asdfadkjsfasfljdf --profile velero --key my-prefix/backups/my-project-20250522010051/my-project-20250522010051.tar.gz resources.tar.gz

The tar command can be used to list the files in the gzip compressed tar archive. In this example my-project-20250522010051.tar.gz contains a handful of python version 3.11 image streams. An image stream doesn't have anything to do with "streaming" services like Spotify (to stream music) or Netflix (to stream movies). Instead, an image stream will list similar images, for example similar Python images or similar Node.js images.

~]# tar -tf resources.tar.gz
resources/imagetags.image.openshift.io/namespaces/my-project/python-311:latest.json
resources/imagetags.image.openshift.io/v1-preferredversion/namespaces/my-project/python-311:latest.json
resources/imagetags.image.openshift.io/namespaces/my-project/python-311:v4.7.0-202205312157.p0.g7706ed4.assembly.stream.json
resources/imagetags.image.openshift.io/v1-preferredversion/namespaces/my-project/python-311:v4.7.0-202205312157.p0.g7706ed4.assembly.stream.json
resources/imagestreams.image.openshift.io/namespaces/my-project/python-311.json
resources/imagestreams.image.openshift.io/v1-preferredversion/namespaces/my-project/python-311.json
resources/imagestreamtags.image.openshift.io/namespaces/my-project/python-311:latest.json
resources/imagestreamtags.image.openshift.io/v1-preferredversion/namespaces/my-project/python-311:latest.json
resources/imagestreamtags.image.openshift.io/namespaces/my-project/ose-hello-openshift-rhel8:v4.7.0-202205312157.p0.g7706ed4.assembly.stream.json
resources/imagestreamtags.image.openshift.io/v1-preferredversion/namespaces/my-project/python-311:v4.7.0-202205312157.p0.g7706ed4.assembly.stream.json

Or you can view the backups in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 console.

And selecting one of the backup folders should display a gzip compressed file for the various resources that were backed up.