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Cloud Backup:What is Cloud Backup?

Last Updated:Mar 06, 2024

Cloud Backup is a fully-managed online backup service that allows you to back up data to the cloud in a convenient, efficient, and secure manner. You can use Cloud Backup to back up data from Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances, ECS databases, ECS files, Apsara File Storage NAS file systems, and Object Storage Service (OSS) buckets. You can also use Cloud Backup to back up data from self-managed data centers that store files, databases, virtual machines (VMs), and large-scale file systems. Cloud Backup allows you to implement disaster recovery and archive data based on the archive policies that you configure for the preceding resources.

Scenarios

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  • Back up data on the cloud

    You can efficiently back up important data to a backup vault over the internal network of Alibaba Cloud. Backup data sources include ECS files, self-managed MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, and SAP HANA databases, NAS file systems, OSS buckets, and Tablestore instances. You can perform real-time backups of MySQL and Oracle databases with a near-zero recovery point objective (RPO). In addition, you can back up data from other cloud platforms to a backup vault on Alibaba Cloud.

  • Back up on-premises data to the cloud

    You can back up on-premises data from servers, NAS file systems, VMware VMs, and databases to a backup vault on the cloud. You can configure backup policies based on your business requirements.

  • Backup and disaster recovery of ECS instances across regions

    • Cloud Backup provides mirror vaults for you to back up data across regions, enhancing data security.

    • To meet your requirements for RPOs and recovery time objectives (RTOs), continuous data replication (CDR) and async replication (in public review) are provided for cross-region ECS disaster recovery.

  • Migrate VMware VMs to the cloud

    Cloud Backup allows you to migrate on-premises VMware VMs to the cloud without installing an agent. You can also use Cloud Backup to perform incremental migration with ease.

  • Archive files from on-premises NAS file systems, Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) file systems, and S3-Compatible Storage buckets to the cloud

    Cloud Backup allows you to archive a large number of files from your on-premises NAS file systems, HDFS file systems, and S3-Compatible Storage buckets to an archive vault or a cold archive vault on the cloud. You can customize an archive policy. You can also search for files in the on-premises storage space and archive libraries in a full-text manner within seconds.

The following table lists the features supported by Cloud Backup.

Level-1 feature

Level-2 feature

Level-3 feature

Key features

References

Backup

Backup of on-premises data to the cloud

On-premises database backup

  • Supports MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server databases.

  • Supports precheck.

  • Supports full backup, incremental backup, log backup, and real-time backup.

On-premises file backup

  • Supports backup of specified files and directories to the cloud.

  • Supports network throttling by time period.

On-premises VMware backup and disaster recovery

  • Supports backup of virtual machines (VMs) from on-premises VMware to the cloud and restoration of VMs to on-premises VMware.

  • Supports restoration of VMs to Elastic Compute Service (ECS) for cloud disaster recovery.

On-premises NAS backup

  • Supports cluster-based concurrent backup.

  • Supports Dell EMC PowerScale (Isilon) API integration.

Alibaba Cloud data backup

OSS backup

  • Supports agentless backup.

  • Supports backup of all objects in a bucket or objects that match specified prefixes.

  • Supports using the Object Storage Service (OSS) inventory feature for OSS backup.

NAS backup

  • Agentless backup

  • Supports backup of specified files and directories.

Tablestore backup

  • Agentless backup

  • Supports table-level backup.

ECS instance backup

  • Supports backup of ECS instances or disks.

  • Supports cloning of ECS instances from a backup point.

ECS file backup

  • Supports automatic client installation.

  • Supports backup of specified files and directories.

Backup of self-managed databases on ECS

  • Supports MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server databases.

  • Supports precheck.

  • Supports full backup, incremental backup, log backup, and real-time backup.

ACVS backup

  • Supports Alibaba Cloud VMware Service (ACVS) backup.

  • Supports restoration of VMs to ECS for disaster recovery.

SAP HANA backup

  • This feature is compatible with SAP HANA 2.0 and supports HA, scale-out, and other modes.

  • Supports full backup, incremental backup, and log backup.

Archiving

Archiving of on-premises NAS data to the cloud

N/A

  • Supports NAS data attribute analysis.

  • Supports global retrieval.

  • Supports backup of specified files and directories.

Disaster recovery

ECS cross-region and cross-zone disaster recovery

N/A

  • Supports cross-region and cross-zone disaster recovery.

  • Supports recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs) in minutes.

Get started with ECS disaster recovery

Migration

Migration of on-premises VMware VMs to the cloud

N/A

  • Supports agentless incremental migration.

Enterprise-class capabilities

Automatic archiving

N/A

  • Supports transfer of backup data from the Standard tier to the Archive tier based on a specified policy.

Automatic archiving

Special retention period

N/A

  • A backup policy in Policy Center is used to specify independent retention periods for the first backups that are generated every week, every month, and every year.

Special retention periods

Remote backup

N/A

  • Mirror vaults are used to implement cross-region backup.

Back up data across regions

Immutable backup

N/A

  • Backup vaults for which the immutable backup feature is enabled cannot be deleted before they expire.

Enable immutable backup

Cross-account backup

N/A

  • Supports backup and restoration of data sources across Alibaba Cloud accounts.

Back up data sources across Alibaba Cloud accounts

KMS-based encryption

N/A

  • Supports KMS-based encryption.

Use KMS to encrypt backup data

Supported data sources

Data source

Operating system

Self-managed data centers

Files and directories

Windows, Windows Server, or Linux

NAS

N/A

Images of VMware vSphere VMs

Windows, Windows Server, or Linux

MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server databases

Windows, Windows Server, or Linux

Alibaba Cloud ECS

Files and directories of an ECS instance

Windows Server or Linux

SAP HANA databases that are deployed on an ECS instance

Windows Server or Linux

MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server databases deployed on an ECS instance

Windows Server or Linux

Cloud disks (system disks and data disks)

N/A

ECS instances

Windows Server or Linux

NAS

Data stored in NAS file systems

N/A

OSS

Data stored in OSS buckets

N/A

Tablestore

Data stored in Tablestore instances

N/A

Data sources that support data archiving based on archive policies

Data source

On-premises NAS

NAS file systems deployed on on-premises servers

HDFS

HDFS file systems deployed on on-premises servers

S3-Compatible Storage

Amazon S3 compatible storage buckets

Activate Cloud Backup

Activate Cloud Backup

  • You are not charged for activating Cloud Backup. You are charged for using Cloud Backup.

  • If you only activate Cloud Backup, no data is backed up. We recommend that you use the features provided by Cloud Backup to back up important data. If data is lost or deleted accidentally without being backed up, the data cannot be restored.