ABS configuration file examples

This page explains the sections of an example Aerospike Backup Service (ABS) configuration file, illustrating the basic requirements for a backup configuration.

Aerospike publishes a JSON schema for this configuration file that enables autocomplete and validation in the VSCode and IntelliJ editors.

ABS performs strict validation of the configuration file at startup. Invalid configurations prevent the service from starting.

All configuration parameters use kebab-case, including min-part-size and max-async-connections.

View full configuration file

# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aerospike/aerospike-backup-service/refs/tags/v3.1.0/docs/config.schema.json
aerospike-clusters:
abs-cluster: # <--- Custom user-defined cluster name
  seed-nodes:
    - host-name: localhost
      port: 3000
  credentials:
    user: tester
    password: secrets:cluster-creds:password # Secret Agent path
    secret-agent-name: secret-agent  # <--- Refers to the secret agent name under secret-agents

secret-agents:
secret-agent: # <--- Custom user-defined secret agent name
  address: localhost
  port: 5000
  connection-type: tcp

storage:
s3: # <--- Custom user-defined storage name
  s3-storage: # Storage type; can be one of "local-storage", "s3-storage", "azure-storage", "gcp-storage"
    path: backups
    bucket: as-backup-bucket
    s3-region: eu-central-1
    min-part-size: 5_242_880 # Minimum S3 upload chunk size in bytes

backup-policies:
dailyBackupPolicy: # <--- Custom user-defined policy name
  parallel: 8 # Parallelism level (May affect performance)
  file-limit: 1000 # Max backup file size in MB (May affect performance)
  compression: # Backup files will be compressed before uploading (May affect performance)
    mode: ZSTD
    level: 3
  concurrent-incremental: false
  with-cluster-configuration: false
  retention:
    full: 10 # Retain 10 full backups
    incremental: 5 # Retain incremental backups for the 5 latest full backups

backup-routines:
dailyLocalBackupRoutine: # <--- Custom routine name
  interval-cron: "@daily" # Full backup will be triggered daily at midnight
  incr-interval-cron: "0 */2 * * * *" # Incremental backups every 2 hours
  source-cluster: abs-cluster         # <--- Refers to the cluster name under aerospike-clusters
  storage: s3                         # <--- Refers to the storage name under storage
  backup-policy: dailyBackupPolicy    # <--- Refers to the policy name under backup-policies
  namespaces: ["test"]                # <--- Optional; omit or use [] to back up all namespaces

Configuration file components

aerospike-clusters

This example configuration connects to the Aerospike Database cluster named abs-cluster. The seed-nodes parameter defines the host and port for the Aerospike cluster on the network. The credentials parameter passes a plaintext username and a reference to a password stored in the Secret Agent. You can also use a plaintext username and password without the Secret Agent reference for testing purposes.

If a credential value starts with secrets:, ABS treats it as a Secret Agent reference in the format secrets:RESOURCE_LABEL:KEY. Configure Secret Agent connections for ABS in the secret-agents section. The middle segment is a Secret Agent resource label you define when storing secrets in the agent.

Note

ABS does not support directly passing a Kubernetes Secret.

max-parallel-scans

max-parallel-scans sets a per-cluster limit on the number of concurrent scans across all routines.

aerospike-clusters:
  abs-cluster:
    max-parallel-scans: 4

secret-agents

The secret-agents section defines one or more connections to the Aerospike Secret Agent.

secret-agents:
  secret-agent: # <--- Custom user-defined secret agent name
    address: localhost
    port: 5000
    connection-type: tcp

To configure TLS, use ca-file alone for server verification, or add cert-file, key-file, and name together for mutual TLS authentication:

secret-agents:
  secure-agent:
    address: secret-agent.example.com
    port: 3005
    connection-type: tcp
    ca-file: /etc/ssl/certs/ca.pem           # CA certificate to verify the server
    cert-file: /etc/ssl/certs/client-cert.pem # Client certificate for mutual TLS
    key-file: /etc/ssl/private/client-key.pem # Client private key for mutual TLS
    name: secret-agent.example.com            # Required for mutual TLS (SNI)

storage

The storage section sets up four different storage destinations: local, S3, Azure, and GCP. Each one has a separate label, here storage1, storage2, and so on. You can set up as many or as few destinations as you want in your own configuration. Note the specific authentication requirements for the different cloud storage providers.

You can set an object storage class on S3, Azure, and GCP destinations. Use storage-class.data (and storage-class.metadata for S3 and Azure) to choose the durability and availability tier. Supported values depend on the provider, and for S3 and Azure, the allowed values differ between data and metadata:

• S3: data accepts any of STANDARD, GLACIER, STANDARD_IA, ONEZONE_IA, INTELLIGENT_TIERING, DEEP_ARCHIVE, OUTPOSTS, GLACIER_IR, SNOW, or EXPRESS_ONEZONE. metadata only accepts fast-retrieval classes: STANDARD, STANDARD_IA, INTELLIGENT_TIERING, EXPRESS_ONEZONE, ONEZONE_IA, or OUTPOSTS.
• Azure Blob Storage: data accepts Hot, Cool, Cold, or Archive. metadata accepts Hot, Cool, or Cold, but not Archive.
• Google Cloud Storage: data accepts STANDARD, NEARLINE, COLDLINE, or ARCHIVE. GCP has no configurable metadata tier; ABS always stores metadata objects using STANDARD.

storage:
    s3: # <--- Custom user-defined storage name
        s3-storage: # Storage type; can be one of "local-storage", "s3-storage", "azure-storage", "gcp-storage"
            path: backups
            bucket: as-backup-bucket
            s3-region: eu-central-1
            min-part-size: 5_242_880 # Minimum S3 upload chunk size in bytes

Additional storage examples:

storage:
  # Example 1: Local Storage
    storage1:
      local-storage:
        path: /local/backups

    # Example 2: S3 Storage
    storage2:
      s3-storage:
        bucket: my-backup-bucket
        path: backups
        s3-profile: default
        s3-region: eu-central-1
        storage-class:
          data: STANDARD
          metadata: STANDARD

    # Example 3: Azure Storage
    storage3:
      azure-storage:
        account-name: my-storage-account
        account-key: my-secret-key
        container-name: my-container
        endpoint: 'https://my-storage-account.blob.core.windows.net'
        path: backups
        storage-class:
          data: Hot
          metadata: Hot

    # Example 4: GCP Storage
    storage4:
      gcp-storage:
        bucket-name: my-gcp-bucket
        key-file-path: /path/to/service-account-key.json
        endpoint: 'https://storage.googleapis.com'
        path: backups
        storage-class:
          data: STANDARD

backup-policies

A backup policy is a set of parameters that define how to perform a backup. You can create many different policies, then schedule each to run at different times or under different circumstances.

The following example defines a policy called dailyBackupPolicy, which is later scheduled to run daily in the backup-routines section.

With parallel, it specifies the number of parallel reader threads that read Aerospike partitions. You can also specify the size of each backup file with file-limit in MB, as well as a compression algorithm and compression level with compression. Set concurrent-incremental: true to allow incremental backups to run alongside a full backup of the same routine. The default is false, which skips incremental backups while another backup for that routine is in progress. Set with-cluster-configuration: true to include cluster configuration in the backup. The default is false. In the retention section, this example specifies that the previous 10 full backups are retained in storage, in addition to any incremental backups made during the last 5 full backups.

backup-policies:
    dailyBackupPolicy: # <--- Custom user-defined policy name
        parallel: 8 # Parallelism level (May affect performance)
        file-limit: 1000 # Max backup file size in MB (May affect performance)
        compression: # Backup files will be compressed before uploading (May affect performance)
            mode: ZSTD
            level: 3
        concurrent-incremental: false
        with-cluster-configuration: false
        retention:
            full: 10 # Retain 10 full backups
            incremental: 5 # Retain incremental backups for the 5 latest full backups

backup-routines

The backup-routines section schedules one or more routines to run from specified sources at specified intervals.

In this example, the routine dailyLocalBackupRoutine backs up the test namespace from source cluster abs-cluster to the storage destination s3, following the rules defined in dailyBackupPolicy. This routine performs full and incremental backups based on cron intervals. It performs an incremental backup every two hours and a full backup each day at midnight (UTC+0).

Note

All cron times are in the UTC+0 time zone. ABS does not support converting between time zones.

backup-routines:
    dailyLocalBackupRoutine: # <--- Custom routine name
        interval-cron: "@daily" # Full backup will be triggered daily at midnight
        incr-interval-cron: "0 */2 * * * *" # Incremental backups every 2 hours
        source-cluster: abs-cluster         # <--- Refers to the cluster name under aerospike-clusters
        storage: s3                         # <--- Refers to the storage name under storage
        backup-policy: dailyBackupPolicy    # <--- Refers to the policy name under backup-policies
        namespaces: ["test"]                # <--- Optional; omit or use [] to back up all namespaces

prefer-racks

prefer-racks takes a list of Aerospike rack IDs on a backup routine.

:::caution Not implemented in this version ABS 3.1.0 accepts prefer-racks in a routine’s configuration, but does not act on it. Backups run identically whether or not prefer-racks is set, with no rack-based read preference applied. Rack-preferred reads were implemented starting in ABS 3.4.0, under aerospike-clusters.CLUSTER_NAME.prefer-racks rather than under the routine. :::

For parallel backup sliced by host or partition, use node-list or partition-list on separate ABS instances instead. See Rack awareness for more information on masters, replicas, and racks.

backup-routines:
  dailyLocalBackupRoutine:
    interval-cron: "@daily"
    incr-interval-cron: "0 */2 * * * *"
    source-cluster: abs-cluster
    storage: s3
    backup-policy: dailyBackupPolicy
    namespaces: ["test"]
    prefer-racks: [100, 101] # Accepted but has no effect in ABS 3.1.0

node-list

Set node-list on a routine to back up only the listed cluster nodes. Each node can be an IP address and port (IP:PORT), a hostname and port (HOSTNAME:PORT), or a node ID. See node-list in the configuration reference.

If you omit node-list, ABS backs up all nodes in the cluster.

node-list is mutually exclusive with partition-list.

Each routine with node-list is potentially partial: assign non-overlapping node slices across parallel ABS instances so together they cover every node you intend to back up. See Parallel backups.

:::caution Topology changes during backup When the job starts, ABS scans the listed nodes. If partition ownership changes during a long backup, scans can read from the current master for a selected partition, which may be on a different node than when the job started. If a partition’s master migrates onto a listed node after the job starts, that partition was not in the initial slice and is not included in that routine’s backup. :::

backup-routines:
  nodeABackup:
    interval-cron: "@daily"
    source-cluster: abs-cluster
    storage: s3
    backup-policy: dailyBackupPolicy
    namespaces: ["test"]
    node-list:
      - 10.0.48.7:4333
      - 10.0.48.8:4333

partition-list

Set partition-list on a routine to back up only specific partitions. By default, ABS backs up all partitions (0 to 4095).

The format supports individual partitions or ranges:

• Specify a single partition as a number, such as "0".
• Specify a range as start-count, where the first number is the starting partition (inclusive) and the second is how many partitions to include. "100-50" backs up 50 partitions starting from 100.
• Specify a list of partitions or ranges as a comma-separated string, such as "0,100,200,300,400,500".

partition-list is mutually exclusive with node-list.

Use partition-list to parallelize backups across multiple ABS instances. Assign each instance a non-overlapping subset of partitions. See Parallel backups.

backup-routines:
  partitionABackup:
    interval-cron: "@daily"
    source-cluster: abs-cluster
    storage: s3
    backup-policy: dailyBackupPolicy
    namespaces: ["test"]
    partition-list: "0-2048"

GitHub repository example files

This section explains the two sample configuration files included in the ABS GitHub repository.

Default Docker Compose ABS Configuration:

The following sample backup service configuration supplied with the Docker Compose stack for ABS consists of four sections:

• aerospike-clusters defines the location and access credentials for ABS to communicate with Aerospike Database, calling that cluster absCluster1. Since this is a Docker Compose stack, it uses the Aerospike Database Docker container name "aerospike-cluster" as the hostname instead of an IP address.
• storage defines the location of the storage for database backups. Here, it creates a storage type called minioStorage that uses the s3-endpoint-override parameter to send backed up data to MinIO instead of Amazon S3. You can define multiple storage types that can later be used in multiple backup policies.
• In backup-policies, a new policy called keepFilesPolicy is defined with simple instructions to run in a single thread and keep all previous backups. A policy is a set of instructions defining how to do a specific type of backup. You can define multiple policies that can be used in various backup routines.
  Note

  Backup policies are defined in the configuration file. In contrast, restore policies are not defined beforehand; they are sent in the body of each restore request.

• backup-routines specifies a routine called minioKeepFilesRoutine that runs the keepFilesPolicy policy daily for full backups and hourly for incremental backups. Routines specify the source cluster to back up data from, a storage type as defined under the storage section, and a namespace from the source cluster to back up. You can define multiple routines that can be run according to different schedules or on demand.

aerospike-clusters:
  absCluster1:
    seed-nodes:
      - host-name: "aerospike-cluster"
        port: 3000
    credentials:
      user: admin
      password: admin

storage:
  minioStorage:
    s3-storage:
      bucket: my-backup-bucket
      path: backups
      s3-profile: default
      s3-region: eu-central-1
      s3-endpoint-override: http://minio:9000

backup-policies:
  keepFilesPolicy:
    # Run backup operations in a single thread.
    parallel: 1

backup-routines:
  minioKeepFilesRoutine:
    # 24 hours interval for full backups.
    interval-cron: "@daily"
    # 1 hour interval for incremental backups.
    incr-interval-cron: "@hourly"
    source-cluster: absCluster1
    storage: minioStorage
    namespaces: ["test"]
    backup-policy: keepFilesPolicy

Default Linux ABS Configuration:

The default configuration file supplied with Linux distributions is smaller and simpler than the configuration in the Docker Compose setup. By default, it sets up a connection to a namespace called "test" in an Aerospike Database cluster accessible at 127.0.0.1:3000. It stores backup files locally at /var/lib/aerospike-backup-service.

aerospike-clusters:
  cluster1:
    use-services-alternate: false
    seed-nodes:
      - host-name: "127.0.0.1"
        port: 3000
    credentials:
      user: "admin"
      password: "admin"

storage:
  local:
    local-storage:
      path: /var/lib/aerospike-backup-service

backup-policies:
  policy1:
    parallel: 1

backup-routines:
  routine1:
    interval-cron: "@weekly"
    incr-interval-cron: "@daily"
    backup-policy: "policy1"
    source-cluster: "cluster1"
    storage: "local"
    namespaces: ["test"]