Cross-region recovery switches Iceberg data operations from a failed region or environment to a replicated one. It must isolate failures and reproduce data, metadata, and catalog state rather than merely copy files. section 11.3.3
A functional recovery plan separates responsibilities across the lakehouse:
- Replicate data files and Iceberg metadata files through cloud object-store replication. section 11.3.3
- Preserve table definitions through catalog replication or version control. section 11.3.3
- Rewrite absolute metadata paths so recovered tables reference replicated storage; copying files alone does not produce a usable backup. section 11.3.3
- Validate referenced files after recovery, then test and promote a replicated catalog branch where versioned catalogs support that workflow. section 11.3.8
Recovery and branch validation
A recovery workflow can register a recovered table from a metadata file, set its current snapshot, scan manifests for missing files, and use a recovery branch for testing before production promotion. section 11.3.8 section 11.3.8
CALL my_catalog.system.register_table( table =>'recovered_db.recovered_table', metadata_file =>'s3://my-bucket/iceberg/metadata/metadata-000123.json' ); #1 CALL my_catalog.system.set_current_snapshot( table =>'recovered_db.recovered_table', snapshot_id =>123 ); #2
Use the recovery procedure to register a recovered table and select its current snapshot from a metadata file. section 11.3.8
