Database Backup (DBS) allows you to back up your database data in a continuous and cost-effective manner. DBS provides a variety of instance types, including micro, small, medium, large, and xlarge. A more advanced instance type offers a lower unit price and higher performance. This topic describes how to select a DBS instance type.

DBS instance types

Scenario Instance type Free quota and unit price Estimated time taken to back up 100 GB of data
Test micro
  • Free quota for data backup: 40 GB per month
  • Unit price for excess data backup: USD 0.117 per GB
 20 hours
Individual user small
  • Free quota for data backup: 400 GB per month
  • Unit price for excess data backup: USD 0.055 per GB
 5 hours
Enterprise medium
  • Free quota for data backup: 800 GB per month
  • Unit price for excess data backup: USD 0.039 per GB
 2.5 hours
Enterprise large
  • Free quota for data backup: 1,600 GB per month
  • Unit price for excess data backup: USD 0.024 per GB
 1.5 hours
Enterprise xlarge
  • Fixed monthly cost, with no limit on the volume of data to be backed up
 1 hour
Note For information about backup and restore performance of each instance type, see Backup and restore performance.

Concepts

Database backup scenarios involve four concepts: database disk space, data file size, backup data volume, and storage data volume.

Concept Description
Database disk space The disk space of a database consists of the data file size and log file size of the database, and the file size and available space of the operating system of the server where the database resides.
Note
  • For an ApsaraDB for RDS instance, database disk space is the storage space that you select when you purchase the instance.
  • For a database hosted on an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, database disk space is the collective storage space of the system disks and data disks that you select when you purchase the ECS instance.
Data file size The data file size of a database equals the disk space that the data files of the database occupy on the server where the database resides.
You can perform the following operations to view the data file size of a database:
  • To view the data file size of an ApsaraDB for RDS instance, log on to the ApsaraDB for RDS console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Instances. On the Instances page, find the instance and click Manage in the Tags column. On the page that appears, click Monitoring and Alerts in the left-side navigation pane. On the page that appears, click Data Usage below the Disk Space (MB) chart.
  • To view the data file size of a database hosted on a Linux server, go to the directory of the data files of the database and run the du -sh command.
  • To view the data file size of a database hosted on a Windows server, open the folder where the data files of the database reside. Right-click the blank area and select Properties.
Backup data volume The backup data volume of a database refers to the volume of data that you back up by using DBS. This volume depends on a variety of factors such as the database type, backup mode, and backup granularity.
Storage data volume The storage data volume of a database refers to the volume of data that you store in the storage system. This volume depends on a variety of factors such as the backup data volume, the storage format of backup data, and the compression algorithm.