Restore a Deleted DocumentDB Cluster¶

Overview¶

Restoring a deleted DocumentDB cluster recovers your data after accidental or unplanned DocumentDB cluster removal. Acting quickly matters — retained PersistentVolumes preserve data up to the moment of deletion, while backups restore to the point in time they were taken.

When a DocumentDB cluster is deleted, there are two paths to recovery:

Method	Requires	Data Freshness
Backup recovery	A `Backup` resource in `completed` state	Point-in-time (when backup was taken)
PersistentVolume recovery	PV with `persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain`	Latest (up to the moment of deletion)

Tip

PV recovery preserves data up to the moment of deletion, while backup recovery restores to the point in time when the backup was taken. If both are available, PV recovery provides more recent data.

Method 1: Restore from Backup¶

If you have a Backup resource in completed status, follow the restore procedure in Backup and Restore — Restore from Backup.

Method 2: Restore from Retained PersistentVolume¶

Use this method if your deleted DocumentDB cluster had persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain configured (this is the default). This approach recovers data up to the moment of deletion.

Step 1: Find the Retained PV¶

kubectl get pv -l documentdb.io/cluster=<cluster-name>,documentdb.io/namespace=<namespace>

Example output:

NAME                                       CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS     CLAIM
pvc-abc123-def456-789                      10Gi       RWO            Retain           Released   default/data-my-cluster-1

The PV should be in Released or Available status.

Step 2: Create a New DocumentDB Cluster with PV Recovery¶

restore-from-pv.yaml

apiVersion: documentdb.io/preview
kind: DocumentDB
metadata:
  name: my-recovered-cluster
  namespace: <namespace>
spec:
  nodeCount: 1
  instancesPerNode: 1
  documentDbCredentialSecret: documentdb-credentials
  resource:
    storage:
      pvcSize: 10Gi
      storageClass: <original-storage-class>
  exposeViaService:
    serviceType: ClusterIP
  bootstrap:
    recovery:
      persistentVolume:
        name: pvc-abc123-def456-789  # The retained PV name

kubectl apply -f restore-from-pv.yaml

Step 3: Verify the Recovery¶

# Wait for the DocumentDB cluster to be ready
kubectl get documentdb my-recovered-cluster -n <namespace> -w

Once the status shows Cluster in healthy state, connect and verify your data. See Connect with mongosh for connection instructions.

Step 4: Clean Up the Source PV¶

After confirming the recovery is successful, delete the source PV:

kubectl delete pv pvc-abc123-def456-789