# Physical Restore from One Cluster to Another Fails with "not a member of the leader rs"

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/physical-restore-from-one-cluster-to-another-fails-with-not-a-member-of-the-leader-rs/39197>\
**Category:** Percona Operator for MongoDB\
**Created:** [August 22, 2025, 11:42am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/physical-restore-from-one-cluster-to-another-fails-with-not-a-member-of-the-leader-rs/39197 "2025-08-22T11:42:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a87d85/32.png) [@ciel](https://forums.percona.com/u/ciel)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 11:42am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/physical-restore-from-one-cluster-to-another-fails-with-not-a-member-of-the-leader-rs/39197/1 "2025-08-22T11:42:33Z")

</div>

Hi Percona Team,

I am trying to restore a **physical backup** from one MongoDB cluster (`source-cluster`) to another cluster (`target-cluster`) in Kubernetes using the Percona Server for MongoDB Operator. Here is the setup and what I have tried:

* * *

### Environment

- Operator: Percona Server for MongoDB Operator

- Source cluster: `source-cluster` (production-like)

- Target cluster: `target-cluster` (test)

- Both clusters share **the same Secrets** for users

- No encryption key is used

- S3 bucket is accessible by both clusters

* * *

### Attempted Restore

CRD used:

```yaml
apiVersion: psmdb.percona.com/v1
kind: PerconaServerMongoDBRestore
metadata:
  name: restore-test
spec:
  clusterName: target-cluster
  backupSource:
    type: physical
    destination: s3://my-backup-bucket/backup-name
    s3:
      region: ap-northeast-2
      endpointUrl: https://s3.ap-northeast-2.amazonaws.com

```

- `kubectl apply -f restore-crd.yaml` executed

- Percona operator shows events repeteadly:

- 

```auto
INFO waiting for resync to start (up to 30 seconds)

```

- 

```auto
INFO waiting for resync to finish (up to 2 hours)

```

- 

```auto
INFO resync finished

```

- All 3 pods in `target-cluster` log repeatedly:

- Replica set status on `target-cluster` is normal:

- psmdb-restore CRD object’s status shows nothing (the “STATUS” section is blank)

* * *

### Observations

- Logical restore works as expected

- Physical restore also works on same cluster

- Physical restore never completes

- S3 backup is confirmed present

- Secrets are identical

- No encryption key is set (physical backup unencrypted)

- Logs indicate agent cannot recognize the leader in replica set

* * *

### Question

Has anyone successfully performed a **physical restore to a separate cluster** using the Percona Operator without encryption keys? Are there additional requirements regarding **replica set structure or pod names** when restoring to a different cluster?

Any guidance on making the physical restore work across clusters would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ege\_Gunes](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/ege_gunes/32/4595_2.png) [@Ege\_Gunes](https://forums.percona.com/u/Ege_Gunes)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2025, 9:34am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/physical-restore-from-one-cluster-to-another-fails-with-not-a-member-of-the-leader-rs/39197/2 "2025-08-29T09:34:27Z")

</div>

Hi @ciel,

I just tried to restore a physical backup to a new cluster with operator v1.20.1 and restore succeeded:

```auto
$ k get psmdb-restore restore1 -o yaml
apiVersion: psmdb.percona.com/v1
kind: PerconaServerMongoDBRestore
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: "2025-08-29T08:54:26Z"
  generation: 1
  name: restore1
  namespace: psmdb-11459
  resourceVersion: "1756457897207247017"
  uid: 4877c1df-442e-4cf9-8ed0-6c3366cdd346
spec:
  backupSource:
    destination: s3://operator-testing/2025-08-29T08:22:11Z
    s3:
      bucket: operator-testing
      credentialsSecret: minio-secret
      endpointUrl: http://minio-service:9000
      region: us-east-1
      serverSideEncryption: {}
    type: physical
  clusterName: cluster2
status:
  pbmName: "2025-08-29T08:56:34.034604124Z"
  state: ready

$ k get psmdb
NAME ENDPOINT STATUS AGE
cluster1 cluster1-rs0.psmdb-11459.svc.cluster.local ready 75m
cluster2 cluster2-rs0.psmdb-11459.svc.cluster.local ready 44m

```

Before the restore I ensured that these secrets are identical:

```auto
$ copy-secret cluster1-secrets cluster2-secrets
$ copy-secret cluster1-mongodb-encryption-key cluster2-mongodb-encryption-key
$ copy-secret cluster1-mongodb-keyfile cluster2-mongodb-keyfile

```