Bringing Incremental Backups to Kubernetes with CSI Snapshot Metadata Service

Explore how to implement efficient incremental backups in Kubernetes environments through the Container Storage Interface (CSI) Snapshot Metadata Service in this 30-minute conference talk from DevConf.CZ 2025. Learn about the limitations of traditional backup methods that process entire volumes regardless of actual data changes, leading to time-consuming and resource-intensive operations that don't scale effectively. Discover how Changed Block Tracking (CBT) technology revolutionizes backup processes by identifying allocated blocks within single snapshots and tracking block-level changes between snapshot pairs of the same volume, enabling differential backups that capture only modified data. Understand the architecture and implementation of the new CSI CBT API that allows CSI drivers to expose changed block tracking as a native Kubernetes service, eliminating the need for storage-specific backup implementations. Examine how backup applications can efficiently retrieve metadata on allocated blocks and changed blocks between snapshots, resulting in faster and more reliable differential backups of CSI volumes. Gain insights into the efficiency, reliability, and scalability benefits this approach brings to the Kubernetes ecosystem, making backup processes more streamlined and performant while reducing both processing time and resource demands for enterprise-scale deployments.