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feat(backup): incremental NAS backup support for KVM#13074

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jmsperu:feature/nas-backup-incremental
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feat(backup): incremental NAS backup support for KVM#13074
jmsperu wants to merge 9 commits intoapache:mainfrom
jmsperu:feature/nas-backup-incremental

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@jmsperu jmsperu commented Apr 27, 2026

Summary

Implements incremental backup support for the NAS backup provider on KVM, using QEMU dirty bitmaps and libvirt's backup-begin API. RFC: #12899.

For large VMs this reduces daily backup storage 80–95% and shortens backup windows from hours to minutes (e.g. a 500 GB VM with moderate writes goes from ~500 GB/day to ~5–15 GB/day after the initial full backup).

What's in the PR

Commit What
f2a9202d74 RFC document at docs/rfcs/incremental-nas-backup.md
1981469099 NASBackupChainKeys constants + zone-scoped nas.backup.full.every ConfigKey (default 10)
fbb916b254 nasbackup.sh mode-aware: full+checkpoint or incremental+rebase via backup-begin
1f2aebca36 Java orchestration: full-vs-incremental decision in provider, chain metadata in backup_details
43e2f7504a On-demand bitmap recreation when CloudStack rebuilt the domain XML on VM restart
39303fbf88 Restore path: relative-path rebase + qemu-img convert flatten for file-based primary
b8d069e127 Cascade delete: RebaseBackupCommand, chain repair for delete-middle, refuse-delete-full-with-children
49edc7f22c Five new smoke tests in test/integration/smoke/test_backup_recovery_nas.py

Full diff: 11 files, +1617 / −30.

Review feedback addressed (all from #12899 thread)

# Reviewer Concern Resolution
1 @JoaoJandre No new columns on backups Chain metadata stored in existing backup_details kv table via NASBackupChainKeys
2 @abh1sar nas.backup.full.interval (days) doesn't fit hourly/ad-hoc Replaced with count-based nas.backup.full.every (default 10)
3 @abh1sar Use backup-begin for full backups too Done — both modes use backup-begin; full omits <incremental>
4 @abh1sar Timestamp-based bitmap names backup-<epoch> (System.currentTimeMillis()/1000)
5 @abh1sar No explicit block-dirty-bitmap-add libvirt manages bitmaps via --checkpointxml; manual bitmap commands removed
6 @abh1sar qemu-img rebase after each incremental Done in nasbackup.sh, with relative backing path so chain survives mount-point churn
7 @abh1sar Stopped VMs Stopped VMs always full; agent emits INCREMENTAL_FALLBACK= if cadence asked for inc
8 @abh1sar Cascade delete behaviour Implemented: middle-inc rebases child onto grandparent; full-with-children refuses unless forced=true
9 @abh1sar Bitmap recreation on VM restart Lazy recreation at next backup attempt — agent checks virsh checkpoint-list, recreates if missing, emits BITMAP_RECREATED=
10 @abh1sar Smoke tests 5 new cases in test_backup_recovery_nas.py
11 @abh1sar Single PR for 4.23 This PR

Backwards compatibility

  • The new -M / --bitmap-* flags on nasbackup.sh are optional. Without them, the script preserves the legacy full-only behaviour exactly (no checkpoint creation, same XML).
  • TakeBackupCommand new fields default to null; LibvirtTakeBackupCommandWrapper only emits the new flags when set, so a 4.22 management server talking to a 4.23 agent still works.
  • Existing backups (no chain_id in backup_details) are treated as standalone fulls by the cascade-delete logic — no migration needed.

Test plan

  • Build (CI)
  • Unit tests (CI; existing NASBackupProviderTest should still pass)
  • Smoke tests in test_backup_recovery_nas.py (5 new cases — require required_hardware="true")
  • Manual: take 5 backups with nas.backup.full.every=3, verify chain pattern FULL, INC, INC, FULL, INC
  • Manual: restore from a tail incremental and diff the restored disk against the live disk at backup time
  • Manual: stop-start a VM between two incrementals and check BITMAP_RECREATED= shows up in agent logs
  • Manual: delete a middle inc and confirm the next restore from the tail still has the deleted backup's blocks

Refs

Adds the design document for incremental NAS backups using QEMU dirty
bitmaps and libvirt's backup-begin API. Reduces daily backup storage
80-95% for large VMs.

Refs: apache#12899
NASBackupChainKeys defines the keys this provider stores under the
existing backup_details kv table (parent_backup_id, bitmap_name,
chain_id, chain_position, type). This keeps the backups table
provider-agnostic per the RFC review.

nas.backup.full.every is a zone-scoped ConfigKey that controls how
often a full backup is taken; the remaining backups in the cycle are
incremental. Counts backups (not days), so it works for hourly,
daily, and ad-hoc schedules. Default 10. Set to 1 to disable
incrementals (every backup is full).

Refs: apache#12899
Adds three new optional CLI flags to nasbackup.sh:
  -M|--mode <full|incremental>
  --bitmap-new <name>          (checkpoint to create with this backup)
  --bitmap-parent <name>       (incremental: parent bitmap to read changes since)
  --parent-path <path>         (incremental: parent backup file for rebase)

Behavior:
  - When -M is omitted, behavior is unchanged (legacy full-only, no checkpoint
    created), so existing callers are not affected.
  - With -M full + --bitmap-new, a full backup is taken AND a libvirt
    checkpoint of that name is registered atomically (via backup-begin's
    --checkpointxml), giving the next incremental its starting bitmap.
  - With -M incremental, libvirt's <incremental> element references the
    parent bitmap; only changed blocks are written. After completion,
    qemu-img rebase wires the new file to its parent so the chain on the
    NAS is self-describing for restore.
  - Stopped VMs cannot use backup-begin; if -M incremental is requested
    while VM is stopped, the script falls back to a full and emits
    INCREMENTAL_FALLBACK= on stderr so the orchestrator can record it
    correctly in the chain.
  - The script echoes BITMAP_CREATED=<name> on success so the Java caller
    can store it under backup_details (NASBackupChainKeys.BITMAP_NAME).

Works across local file, NFS-file, and LINSTOR primary storage. Ceph RBD
running-VM support is a pre-existing limitation of this script, not
affected by this change.

Refs: apache#12899
jmsperu added 5 commits April 27, 2026 19:07
Adds the Java side of the incremental NAS backup feature:

  TakeBackupCommand
    + mode, bitmapNew, bitmapParent, parentPath fields (null for legacy
      callers — script preserves its existing behaviour when these are
      omitted).

  BackupAnswer
    + bitmapCreated (echoed by the agent on success)
    + incrementalFallback (true when an incremental was requested but the
      agent had to fall back to full because the VM was stopped).

  LibvirtTakeBackupCommandWrapper
    - Forwards the new fields to nasbackup.sh.
    - Strips the new BITMAP_CREATED= / INCREMENTAL_FALLBACK= marker lines
      out of stdout before the existing numeric-suffix size parser runs,
      so the script can keep the same "size as last line(s)" contract.
    - Surfaces both markers on the BackupAnswer.

  NASBackupProvider
    - decideChain(vm) walks backup_details (chain_id, chain_position,
      bitmap_name) for the latest BackedUp backup of the VM and decides:
        * Stopped VM      -> full (libvirt backup-begin needs running QEMU)
        * No prior chain  -> full (chain_position=0)
        * chain_position+1 >= nas.backup.full.every -> new full
        * otherwise       -> incremental, parent=last bitmap
    - Generates timestamp-based bitmap names ("backup-<epoch>") matching
      what the script then registers as the libvirt checkpoint name.
    - persistChainMetadata() writes parent_backup_id, bitmap_name,
      chain_id, chain_position, type into the existing backup_details
      key/value table (per the RFC review — no new columns on backups).
    - Honours the agent's INCREMENTAL_FALLBACK= signal: re-records the
      backup as a full and starts a fresh chain.
    - createBackupObject() now takes a type argument so the BackupVO
      reflects the actual decision instead of always being "FULL".

Refs: apache#12899
CloudStack rebuilds the libvirt domain XML on every VM start, which means
persistent QEMU dirty bitmaps don't survive a stop/start cycle. Rather
than hooking into the VM start lifecycle (intrusive across the
orchestration layer), this commit handles the missing bitmap *lazily* at
the next backup attempt:

  nasbackup.sh
    - When -M incremental is requested, the script first checks
      `virsh checkpoint-list` for the parent bitmap. If absent, it
      recreates the checkpoint on the running domain so libvirt accepts
      the <incremental> reference. The next incremental will be larger
      than usual (it captures all writes since recreate, not since the
      previous incremental) but is correct; subsequent ones return to
      normal size.
    - On recreation, emits BITMAP_RECREATED=<name> on stdout for the
      orchestrator to record.

  BackupAnswer
    + bitmapRecreated field surfaced from the agent.

  LibvirtTakeBackupCommandWrapper
    - Strips BITMAP_RECREATED= line from stdout before size parsing.
    - Sets answer.setBitmapRecreated(...).

  NASBackupChainKeys
    + BITMAP_RECREATED key for backup_details.

  NASBackupProvider
    - When the agent reports a recreated bitmap, persists it under
      backup_details and logs an info-level message so operators can
      correlate larger-than-usual incrementals with VM restarts.

This satisfies the bitmap-loss-on-VM-restart concern from the RFC review
without touching VirtualMachineManager / StartCommand / agent lifecycle.

Refs: apache#12899
Two changes that together let an incremental NAS backup be restored
without manual chain assembly:

  scripts/vm/hypervisor/kvm/nasbackup.sh
    - qemu-img rebase now writes a backing-file path that is RELATIVE to
      the new qcow2's directory (e.g. ../<parent-ts>/root.<uuid>.qcow2)
      rather than the absolute path on the current mount point. NAS mount
      points are ephemeral (mktemp -d), so an absolute reference would
      not resolve when the backup is re-mounted at restore time. Relative
      references are resolved by qemu-img against the file's own
      directory, so the chain stays valid no matter where the NAS is
      mounted next.
    - Verifies the parent file exists on the NAS before rebasing.

  LibvirtRestoreBackupCommandWrapper
    - For file-based primary storage (local, NFS-file), the existing
      code rsync'd the source qcow2 to the volume. That copies only the
      differential blocks of an incremental, leaving a volume whose
      backing-file reference points at a path the primary storage host
      doesn't have. Now: detect a backing-chain via qemu-img info JSON
      and flatten via 'qemu-img convert -O qcow2', which follows the
      chain and produces a self-contained qcow2. Full backups continue
      to use rsync (faster, no chain to flatten).
    - The block-storage path (RBD/Linstor) already used qemu-img convert
      via the QemuImg helper, which auto-flattens chains, so that path
      needed no change.

Refs: apache#12899
Adds the delete-with-chain-repair semantics agreed in the RFC review:

  scripts/vm/hypervisor/kvm/nasbackup.sh
    - New '-o rebase' operation: rebases an existing on-NAS qcow2 onto
      a new backing parent. Uses a SAFE rebase (no -u) so the target
      absorbs blocks of the about-to-be-deleted parent before the
      backing pointer is moved up to the grandparent. Writes the new
      backing reference relative to the target's directory so it
      survives mount-point changes.
    - New CLI flags --rebase-target, --rebase-new-backing (both passed
      mount-relative).

  RebaseBackupCommand + LibvirtRebaseBackupCommandWrapper
    - New agent command that wraps the script's rebase operation. The
      provider sends one of these per child that needs re-pointing.

  NASBackupProvider.deleteBackup
    - Now plans the chain repair before touching files via
      computeChainRepair():
        * No chain metadata     -> single-file delete (legacy behaviour)
        * Tail incremental      -> single delete, no rebase
        * Middle incremental    -> rebase immediate child onto our
                                   parent, then delete; shift
                                   chain_position of all later
                                   descendants by -1
        * Full with descendants -> refuse unless forced=true; with
                                   forced=true delete full + every
                                   descendant newest-first
    - Updates parent_backup_id, chain_position metadata in
      backup_details after each rebase so the model in the DB matches
      the on-disk chain.

This implements the cascade-delete behaviour requested in @abh1sar's
review point apache#7.

Refs: apache#12899
Adds five new test cases to test_backup_recovery_nas.py covering the
end-to-end behaviour of the incremental NAS backup feature:

  * test_incremental_chain_cadence
      - Sets nas.backup.full.every=3, takes 5 backups, verifies the
        type pattern is FULL, INC, INC, FULL, INC.

  * test_restore_from_incremental
      - FULL + 2 INCs, each with a marker file. Restores from the
        latest INC and verifies all three markers are present
        (i.e. qemu-img convert flattened the chain correctly).

  * test_delete_middle_incremental_repairs_chain
      - Builds FULL, INC1, INC2; deletes INC1 (no force needed);
        restores from the surviving INC2 and verifies that markers
        from FULL, INC1 (which was deleted), and INC2 are all present
        — proving the rebase merged INC1's blocks into INC2.

  * test_refuse_delete_full_with_children
      - Verifies plain delete of a FULL that has children fails, and
        delete with forced=true succeeds and removes the whole chain.

  * test_stopped_vm_falls_back_to_full
      - Sets cadence to 2, takes one backup (FULL), stops the VM,
        triggers another (cadence would say INC). Verifies the second
        backup is recorded as FULL because the agent fell back when
        backup-begin couldn't run on a stopped VM.

All tests restore nas.backup.full.every to 10 in finally blocks.

Refs: apache#12899
@boring-cyborg boring-cyborg Bot added component:integration-test Python Warning... Python code Ahead! labels Apr 27, 2026
@jmsperu jmsperu changed the title [WIP] feat(backup): incremental NAS backup support for KVM feat(backup): incremental NAS backup support for KVM Apr 27, 2026
@jmsperu jmsperu marked this pull request as ready for review April 27, 2026 16:26
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codecov Bot commented Apr 27, 2026

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@winterhazel winterhazel added this to the 4.23.0 milestone Apr 27, 2026
@sureshanaparti
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@jmsperu can you check the build failure. thanks.

@weizhouapache
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@jmsperu
is this ready for review ?

Phase 6 added a hasBackingChain() check before rsync that uses
qemu-img info to detect chained incrementals. The existing
testExecuteWithRsyncFailure test mocks Script.runSimpleBashScriptForExitValue
to return 0 for any command, so the new qemu-img info check
incorrectly evaluates as "has backing chain" and routes the test
through the chain-flatten path instead of rsync — the test then
asserts a failure that never occurs.

Add a clause to the mock that returns 1 (no backing chain) for the
qemu-img info backing-filename probe, so the test continues to
exercise the rsync path it was designed for.
@jmsperu
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jmsperu commented Apr 28, 2026

@weizhouapache yes — ready for review.

@sureshanaparti — apologies, I missed your earlier ping. The build failure was a unit test in LibvirtRestoreBackupCommandWrapperTest.testExecuteWithRsyncFailure (NPE on currentDevice after my new chain-flatten check incorrectly routed the test through the qemu-img convert path).

Fixed in d80ed16: the test's Script.runSimpleBashScriptForExitValue mock now returns 1 (no backing chain) for the new qemu-img info | grep "backing-filename" probe, so the test continues to exercise the rsync path it was designed for.

CI should be green on the next run. Cc @abh1sar @JoaoJandre @harikrishna-patnala in case you also want to take a look.

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