# Backup and restore overview

## Overview

Aerospike Kubernetes Operator (AKO) provides backup and restore capabilities for Aerospike clusters running in Kubernetes.

The backup service uses an [Aerospike Backup Service Custom Resource (CR)](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.1.x/tools/backup/backup-service) that is used to create and manage backups and restores of Aerospike clusters. This is a Kubernetes deployment of the [Aerospike Backup Service utility](https://aerospike.com/docs/database/tools/backup-and-restore/backup-service) that provides a REST API to manage backups and restores.

There are also several monitoring endpoints to check backup information and the health of the service in general.

## Components

AKO uses three components to manage backups and restores.

-   [Aerospike Backup Service (ABS)](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.1.x/tools/backup/backup-service): A standalone service in the Kubernetes cluster that provides a REST API to manage backups and restores. ABS reads from backup and restore Custom Resource files to perform backup and restore operations.
-   [Aerospike Backup](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.1.x/tools/backup/backup) Custom Resource: A Kubernetes Custom Resource that represents a backup configuration for an Aerospike cluster. It can trigger on-demand and scheduled backups.
-   [Aerospike Restore](https://aerospike.com/docs/kubernetes/4.1.x/tools/backup/restore) Custom Resource: A Kubernetes Custom Resource that represents a restore operation for an Aerospike cluster.