You can use Hybrid Backup Recovery (HBR) to back up files from Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances and restore these files as required. This topic describes the preparations that you need to make before backing up data.

Note
  • To achieve the optimal backup performance, we recommend that you run a backup client on a host with the following configurations: 64-bit CPU with two or more cores and more than 8 GB available memory. If you need to back up tens of millions of files, 16 GB available memory is recommended.
  • The available memory determines the size of data that can be backed up. For a host with 4 GB available memory, a maximum of one million files can be backed up, with 8 TB data in total.
  • Currently, HBR can back up files from ECS instances and restore these files in the following regions: China (Beijing), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Hangzhou), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Hong Kong), Singapore, US (Silicon Valley), Indonesia (Jakarta), Australia (Sydney), and Germany (Frankfurt). This feature will be available in other regions soon.

Step 1: Authorize roles

Before using HBR to back up files from ECS instances, you must authorize the AliyunHBRDefaultRole and AliyunECSAccessingHBRRole roles to access your cloud resources. Follow these steps:

  1. Log on to the HBR console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Backup > ECS File Backup.
  3. In the authorization dialog boxes that appear one by one, authorize the two roles to access your cloud resources as prompted.

Step 2: Install and configure Cloud Assistant

  • An ECS backup client must work with Cloud Assistant. By default, a Cloud Assistant client is installed on ECS instances that are created after December 1, 2017. For ECS instances purchased before December 1, 2017, you must install a Cloud Assistant client.
  • After a Cloud Assistant client is installed on an ECS instance located on the classic network, configure the Cloud Assistant client based on the operating system of the ECS instance.
    • Windows:
      1. Connect to the ECS instance. In the C:\ProgramData\aliyun\assist\ directory, create a file named region-id and enter the region ID in the file based on the region where the ECS instance resides. For example, for an ECS instance that resides in the China (Hangzhou) region, enter cn-hangzhou. 
        echo cn-hangzhou >C:\ProgramData\aliyun\assist\region-id

        The following table lists regions and their IDs.

        Region Region ID
        China (Hangzhou) cn-hangzhou
        China (Shanghai) cn-shanghai
        China (Beijing) cn-beijing
        China (Shenzhen) cn-shenzhen
      2. Restart AliyunService in Task Manager.
    • Linux:
      1. Connect to the ECS instance. In the /usr/local/share/aliyun-assist/ directory, create a file named region-id and enter the region ID in the file based on the region where the ECS instance resides. For example, for an ECS instance that resides in the China (Hangzhou) region, enter cn-hangzhou. 
        echo cn-hangzhou >/usr/local/share/aliyun-assist/region-id
        The following table lists regions and their IDs.
        Region Region ID
        China (Hangzhou) cn-hangzhou
        China (Shanghai) cn-shanghai
        China (Beijing) cn-beijing
        China (Shenzhen) cn-shenzhen
      2. Start the Cloud Assistant client.

        For more information about how to start different versions of the Cloud Assistant client, see Install the Cloud Assistant client.