etcd is a consistent and highly-available key value store used as Kubernetes' backing store for all cluster data. If your Kubernetes cluster uses etcd as its backing store, make sure you have a back up plan for the data. You can find in-depth information about etcd in the official documentation. Before you begin Before you follow steps in this page to deploy, manage, back up or restore etcd, you need to understand the typical expectations for operating an etcd cluster.