A complete list of AWS Backup’s features
AWS Backup is an AWS service meant to provide a centralized location for automating data backups, as detailed in the previous article in this series.
AWS Backup only works with a few select services at the time of writing. EBS volumes (block storage used by various AWS instances), RDS databases (Amazon’s relational database offering), DynamoDB tables (a key-value and document database), EFS file systems (fully controlled network shared storage), and Storage Gateway volumes can all be backed up using it (a hybrid cloud storage service designed to work with on-premises resources). Because Amazon EC2, Amazon VPC, Amazon Aurora, and Amazon Redshift are still not supported by AWS Backup, you’ll need to use other methods to automate your EC2 backups.
Backup rules, also known as “backup plans,” are used by AWS Backup to enable you to establish the various criteria that can be applied to your AWS services. You can construct a backup plan to ensure a daily, weekly, monthly, 12-hour, or even custom backup schedule (made in cron format) backup. The backup plan can then be run using the recommended default backup window or a custom backup window of your choice.
You can create a lifespan for your backups when you choose your backup plan. They can either be transferred to cold storage (currently only possible for EFS file systems) or fully expired. These alternatives help you to save money on backup storage.
When you use AWS Backup for the first time, it produces a complete duplicate of your data. Every successive backup is incremental, which means that just the changes to your AWS resources are backed up.
Making Resource Assignments
Following the creation of a backup plan, you must assign the resources that will be backed up. You can accomplish this either by specifying tags or by selecting a resource ID (which is the ideal method if you don’t have a lot of resources to add). You may quickly build backups while retaining logical segmentation using AWS Tag-based resource selection. Each group is free to devise its own backup strategy. EBS volumes that require daily backups, for example, can be tagged one way and attached to a backup plan that ensures they are backed up every day at a specified time. You can assign a different tag to your RDS instances and add them to a different backup plan, such as one that backs them up hourly. Finally, you can give your EFS file system a tag that will ensure weekly backups.
Use Cases for Hybrid Cloud
AWS Backup is primarily used to back up and restore AWS cloud resources, but it can also be used to backup and restore on-premises resources. Its interaction with AWS Storage Gateway (a hybrid cloud storage service) enables you to back up the data in your Storage Gateway volumes. Because these volumes are compatible with EBS volumes, they may be restored both on-premises and in the cloud.
Backup Vaults on AWS
The AWS Backup service stores all data backups in vaults, which are containers that let you arrange your backups. The default vault will be “default,” however if you wish to have a logical separation of resources, you can build additional vaults. These vaults encrypt your backups and enable access control for the backups stored within the vault using AWS KMS (Key Management Service). You can have a different KMS key for each of your vaults if your organization requires several KMS keys.
AWS Backup encrypts your data backups in transit and at rest for compliance reasons.
Pricing
AWS Backup charges based on the amount of backup storage utilised (which makes incremental backups a breeze) and the amount of data restored.
EBS volume backups cost $0.05 per GB per month, while data restoration is free. Backups of RDS databases and AWS Storage Gateway Volumes cost both $0.095 per GB per month, with restores being free. Backing up DynamoDB tables costs $0.10 per GB per month. It will cost $0.15 per GB of data to restore them. The cost of backing up an EFS file system is $0.05 per GB ($0.01 if you use cold storage), and the cost of restoring it is $0.02 per GB ($0.03 per GB if you use cold storage).
AWS Backup is a centralised backup management system.
This AWS Backup overview went through the service’s features and limits, which we’ll go over in more detail in future blog entries. We’ll provide you step-by-step instructions on how to use all of the features outlined in this AWS Backup overview, as well as some specific use scenarios. Our next blog post will go through how to back up and restore your AWS cloud resources in detail.
1 aws backup start-backup-job \2 --backup-vault-name "Default" \3 --resource-arn "arn:aws:ec2:region:account-id:volume/volume-id" \4 --iam-role-arn "arn:aws:iam::account-id:role/service-role/AWSBackupDefaultServiceRole" \5 --idempotency-token "unique-token" \6 --start-window-minutes 60 \7 --complete-window-minutes 1008
API for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Backup
An application programme interface (API) is a communication interface that allows programmes to communicate with one another. APIs come in handy when you or your programme needs to access certain features. Many of AWS’s services have APIs, and AWS Backup is no different.
The AWS Backup API enables you to use the AWS CLI or SDKs (Software Development Kits) for procedures such as automation instead of using the web UI. The AWS Backup API allows you to create backup plans, vaults, list tags, and start backups or restores, among other things.