Can I create Velero backups in namespaces other than the one Velero is installed to?

[nrb]

A common question that folks ask:

Is it possible to store Velero Backup and Restore resources in the namespaces they protect? For example, putting a Backup for the default namespace within default, rather than in the velero namespace.

[nrb]

This is currently not possible with Velero.

The reason is that Backup custom resources are essentially pointers to a backup on object storage. If a given Kubernetes namespace is deleted, the Backup record would be deleted with it, leaving Velero with no pointer to the actual, authoritative backup.

Velero stores the Backup and Restore resources in its own namespace so that the backups are stored independently of the resources that it tries to backup, and to provide a quick way to enumerate the backups and restores known to it without reaching out to object storage all the time.