Velero

Ark was the earlier name of Velero, a tool for backing up and restoring Kubernetes resources and persistent volumes. It is useful when you need to recover an environment after loss or reproduce its configuration and data elsewhere. A backup must include the data your application needs, not just the instructions that start its containers. This legacy entry is especially relevant when the surviving backups came from an Ark-era installation.

Current guidance

The preserved /ark/ URL already described Velero, reflecting the project’s rename from Heptio Ark. For an inherited installation, identify the version that originally created each backup rather than relying only on the current controller image. Historical Velero 1.0 migration documentation explains that backups created before 0.11 used legacy metadata that needed rewriting, and that a direct jump from 0.10 or earlier to 1.0 was unsupported.

That historical procedure is evidence of a compatibility boundary, not a recommendation to install obsolete releases in production. Copy the backup bucket before any conversion, retain its snapshot references and credentials securely, and establish an isolated path for reading the old format. Never let a cleanup or retention controller modify the only surviving copy while recovery is being investigated.

For new backups, use current Velero and provider documentation. Test an old representative restore separately from a newly created backup, including actual volume contents and application behavior. Resource definitions alone cannot demonstrate recovery of a database or filesystem. Preserve this legacy URL as the entry point for Ark-era recovery questions while making current installation choices through the maintained Velero chart.