Create a backup policy

You can configure separate backup policies for different data sources to manage and back them up flexibly from a central location. You can also create a single backup policy for similar data sources and associate them for quick backups. This topic describes how to create, modify, and associate backup policies.

Supported data sources and limits

Backup policies are available only for specific data sources and regions:

To view the regions that support backup policies, go to the Policy Center page in the Cloud Backup console. For more information about supported regions, see Features by region.
Backup policies are supported only for ECS File Backup, ECS instance backup, OSS backup, Alibaba Cloud NAS backup, on-premises NAS backup, Tablestore backup, CPFS backup, and local file backup.
The Backup Vault Configuration feature applies only to general-purpose backup policies.
The Automatic Archiving Feature applies only to ECS File Backup, ECS instance backup, OSS backup, Alibaba Cloud NAS backup, on-premises NAS backup, CPFS backup, and local file backup.
Both general-purpose backup policies and instance backup policies support the Backup Lock feature.
The Backup Point Virus Detection feature applies only to ECS File Backup (new version), local file backup (new version), OSS backup, Alibaba Cloud NAS backup, and on-premises NAS backup.
The Associate Resource Tag feature applies only to ECS instance backup, ECS File Backup, OSS backup, Alibaba Cloud NAS backup, and Tablestore backup.

Prerequisites

You must activate the Alibaba Cloud Cloud Backup service. Activating Cloud Backup is free of charge. For more information, see Activate Cloud Backup.

Notes

If the Policy Type for a backup policy is "Legacy backup policy", the policy is associated with an entire machine backup and uses a backup vault. The specific limitations are as follows:

If you are using a legacy backup policy, you can still edit this type of policy, but you cannot create new policies of this type or attach them to new ECS instance backups. This does not affect currently attached ECS instance backups. To back up a new ECS instance, you must create and use an Instance Backup Policy.
ECS instances associated with a legacy backup policy are backed up using snapshots. The backups are not written to a backup vault and do not support cross-region replication or automatic archiving.
Regarding the backup replication and backup lock features:
- If a legacy policy is not attached to a backup vault, you can view and edit the ECS instance backup configurations on the ECS Entire Machine Backup page.
- If a legacy policy is attached to a backup vault, you can view and edit backup vault-related configurations on the Policy Center page. The ECS instance backup configuration items are still displayed on the ECS Instance Backup page, but you cannot modify these configurations.

Before you back up a data source, you must create a backup policy.

Log on to the Cloud Backup console.
In the navigation pane on the left, choose Backup > Policy Center.
In the top navigation bar, select a region.
On the Policy Center page, click Create Backup Policy.

In the Create Backup Policy dialog box, configure parameters such as policy type, policy name, execution plan, lifecycle, automatic archiving settings, backup vault configuration, and replication policy. Then, click OK.

General Backup Policy Parameters

Important

Select a policy type as needed. Read the parameter descriptions carefully to ensure that the configuration meets your requirements.

Parameter	Description
Policy Type	Specifies the policy type. This policy applies to all backups except for ECS instance backups. Supported data sources include ECS File, Local File, OSS, Alibaba Cloud NAS, CPFS, Tablestore, and On-premises NAS. Backup data is stored in a general-purpose backup vault.
Policy Name	A custom name for the backup policy. The name must be 2 to 128 characters in length. It cannot start with `auto`, a special character, or a number. It can contain only periods (.), underscores (_), hyphens (-), and colons (:).
Schedule
Backup Frequency	Specifies how often to run backups. Note If a backup job is still running when the next one is scheduled to start, the new job is skipped. It will run at the next scheduled time. Hourly: Runs backups at a fixed hourly interval. Daily: Runs backups at a fixed daily interval. Weekly: Runs backups on specified days of the week. Monthly: Runs backups on specified days of the month.
First Execution Time	You can specify the first execution time.
Time Interval	Specifies the interval between backups.
Incremental Backup Interval	This setting is only for Tablestore. For other data sources, Cloud Backup automatically performs full or incremental backups. Do Not Use: Incremental backups are not used. Specify Time: Specifies the interval for Tablestore incremental backups.
Lifecycle
Retention Period	Sets how long to keep backup data. Permanent: Retains backup data permanently. Specify Time: The total retention period for the backup data. The unit is days. The maximum period cannot exceed 999 years. For example, if you set this to 210 days, the backup is deleted after 210 days. If you set Archive After (Days), the data must be retained in the archive tier for at least 60 days. Therefore, the total retention period must be greater than or equal to the sum of the auto-archive trigger days and the minimum archive retention period (60 days). For example, if you set data to be auto-archived after 30 days, the total retention period must be at least 30 + 60 = 90 days.
Special Retention Period	In addition to the standard retention policy, Cloud Backup lets you set a longer retention period for the first available backup of a specific cycle (weekly, monthly, or yearly) to meet data security requirements. This serves as an advanced retention rule for the backup policy. You can set weekly, monthly, and yearly advanced retention rules for a single backup policy. For more information, see Advanced retention policies. Important The advanced retention period and the standard retention period are codependent. When setting an advanced retention period, follow the system recommendations. The following limits generally apply: You cannot set an advanced retention period for backups that are retained permanently. The advanced retention period must be longer than the standard retention period. The advanced retention period, converted from weeks, months, or years, cannot exceed 999 years.
Keep At Least One Backup Version	Enable this option. If you do, the latest backup version created by this plan will not be deleted due to expiration or accidental deletion. This prevents data loss if the backup plan is not configured correctly. For more information, see Enable Keep at Least One Backup Version. Important This feature takes effect only after a data source is associated with this backup policy. At least one version of the backup points from a general-purpose backup policy is also retained for geo-redundant backups. This feature is not supported for Tablestore backups. The latest backup is not automatically archived.
Automatic Archiving
Days to Transfer to Archive Tier	Sets the number of days after which backups are moved to the archive tier. By default, backup data is stored in the standard tier of a backup vault. For long-term storage, you can use this feature to move backup points from the standard tier to the archive tier to reduce costs. Important When you use a backup vault for cross-region backup (by creating a mirror vault), archived data in the source vault is not replicated to the destination region. When standard-tier data is moved to the archive tier in the source vault, the corresponding data in the mirror vault is deleted. Archived data is billed based on the size of the raw data before archiving. Objects or files smaller than 64 KB are billed as 64 KB. Carefully evaluate whether to archive data if you have many small files. For detailed rules, see Auto-archive. Backup data must be stored in the standard tier for at least 30 days before it can be archived. After being moved to the archive tier, it must be stored there for at least 60 days. No: Backup data remains in the standard tier and is not moved to the archive tier. Specify Time: The value can be from 30 to 65535 days. To balance data access frequency, recovery needs, storage costs, and data lifecycle, backup points must be retained in the standard tier for at least 30 days before they can be automatically archived. This policy is based on the higher probability of recovering recent data. It helps reduce your long-term storage costs and avoids the high fees that may be incurred when recovering data from the archive tier. If you set Specify Time to 30 days: If the Retention Period is Permanent, the backup data is moved to the archive tier after 30 days and stored there permanently. If the Retention Period is 210 days, the backup data is moved to the archive tier after 30 days, stored there for another 180 days, and then automatically deleted. The total retention period is 210 days.
Backup Vault
Backup Vault	Configure the backup vault where backups are saved. Create Vault: Creates a new backup vault to store backup data. By default, the vault is named based on the date and time. Select Vault: Selects an existing backup vault from the drop-down list. To maximize the redundancy of your backup data, Cloud Backup uses zone-redundant storage (ZRS) backup vaults by default in regions that support them. For regions that support only locally redundant storage (LRS), Cloud Backup uses LRS backup vaults. You do not need to manually select a vault type.
Vault Name	This parameter is required only when Backup Vault is set to Create Backup Vault or Select Backup Vault. Enter or select the name of the backup vault.
Vault Resource Group	This parameter is required only when Backup Vault is set to Create Backup Vault. It specifies the resource group to which the backup vault belongs. A resource group is a mechanism for managing resources by group under an Alibaba Cloud account. Resource groups help you manage resource grouping and authorization for a single Alibaba Cloud account. For more information, see Create a resource group.
Backup Vault Encryption Method	This parameter is required only when Backup Vault is set to Create Backup Vault. It specifies the encryption method for the backup vault. Cloud Backup-managed (default): Uses the default encryption method of the backup service. KMS: Uses a custom key from the Alibaba Cloud KMS service for encryption. You must specify the KMS KeyId parameter. Important After you use KMS to encrypt a vault, you cannot change the KMS key. To use a KMS key to encrypt a backup vault, you must first create a KMS key ID in the Alibaba Cloud KMS service. For more information, see Create a key.
Replication Policy
Replication to Other Region	After you enable Replication to Other Region, backups are automatically replicated to the destination region for cross-region protection. Enabling geo-redundancy may incur storage or traffic fees depending on the backup source type. For billing details, see Billing methods and billable items. The system automatically creates a mirror vault in the destination region and replicates data from the source vault to the mirror vault. This ensures data consistency and provides cross-region disaster recovery. You can switch to the destination region to check the synchronization progress of the mirror vault. Enabling Geo-redundancy in a general-purpose backup policy is equivalent to enabling Cross-region Backup for the backup vault associated with the policy. You can also enable Cross-region Backup in Vault Management. After you enable Geo-redundancy, the backup vault for the data sources associated with this policy automatically performs geo-redundant replication. Both existing and new backup points are replicated to the destination region. Note The retention period for geo-redundant backups is the same as that for the source backup points. You can disable geo-redundancy by deleting the mirror vault in the destination region. For more information, see Disable cross-region backup.
Destination Region	This parameter is required only when the Replication to Other Region switch is turned on. Specify the destination region for replication.
Mirror Vault Encryption Method	Fully Managed By Cloud Backup: If the source backup vault uses the Fully Managed By Cloud Backup encryption method, the mirror vault must use the same method. KMS: If the source backup vault uses the KMS encryption method, the mirror vault must use the same method.
Data Security
Backup Lock	Once enabled, this feature cannot be disabled. When enabled, the backup vault and all its backup data cannot be deleted before their expiration date. When enabled, all existing and new backup points in the vault are locked. When enabled, if geo-redundancy is also enabled, the replicated backup vault and backup points in the destination region are also locked. For more information, see Backup lock.
Backup Point Virus Detection	After you enable this option, the system automatically scans backup data for viruses after each backup is complete. You can view the scan results for each backup point. For more information, see Backup point virus scan. Important After you enable virus scan in a backup policy, a full scan is performed on the first backup point, and incremental scans are performed on subsequent backup points. Backup point virus scan is a paid feature. A virus scan task cannot be canceled once it starts. You can disable this feature by turning off the Backup Point Virus Scan switch.
Associate Resource Tag	Backup policies support batch association of resources using tags. Resource Type: ECS File, OSS Bucket, Alibaba Cloud NAS, Tablestore. Select Resource: You can associate all resources of a type or associate specific resources using Specify Tag. Resource Tag: Resources are matched only if they have all the specified tags. You can click Associate Tags to add multiple tags. Resource tags must correspond to the resource type: Resource type is ECS File: Specify ECS instance tags Resource type is OSS Bucket: Specify OSS Bucket tags Resource type is Alibaba Cloud NAS: Specify NAS file system tags Resource type is Tablestore: Specify Tablestore instance tags Note You can add up to 30 resource tags. When an ECS instance is associated with a backup policy through tags and the resource type is ECS File, Cloud Backup automatically deploys the ECS File Backup client when the next backup job starts. Conversely, if an ECS instance's tags are no longer associated with any backup policy and all related backup jobs have expired, Cloud Backup automatically uninstalls the ECS File Backup client. Each time a backup policy runs, Cloud Backup performs the following tag matching check: Automatically associate new matching resources: If Cloud Backup finds data sources that match the policy's tags but are not yet associated with it, the policy automatically associates these resources. They will be backed up periodically starting from the next scheduled backup time. Automatically adjust associated resources: For data sources already associated with the policy, the system checks if they still meet the tag requirements. If a data source no longer matches the policy's tags, Cloud Backup automatically pauses its backups and dissociates it from the policy after the backup cycle ends. Tag Hit Detection: Click Detect Now to check which resources match all the tags you have set. To add resources of multiple types, you can click Add Resource.

Entire Machine Backup Policy parameters

Important

Select a policy type as needed. Read the parameter descriptions carefully to ensure that the configuration meets your requirements.

Parameter	Description
Policy Type	Specifies the policy type. This policy applies only to ECS instance backup. Backup data uses snapshot size and does not use a backup vault.
Policy Name	A custom name for the backup policy. The name must be 2 to 128 characters in length. It cannot start with `auto`, a special character, or a number. It can contain only periods (.), underscores (_), hyphens (-), and colons (:).
Schedule
Backup Frequency	Specifies how often to run backups. Note If a backup job is still running when the next one is scheduled to start, the new job is skipped. It will run at the next scheduled time. Hourly: Runs backups at a fixed hourly interval. Daily: Runs backups at a fixed daily interval. Weekly: Runs backups on specified days of the week. Monthly: Runs backups on specified days of the month.
First Execution Time	Specify the initial execution time.
Time Interval	Specifies the interval between backups.
Lifecycle
Retention Period	Sets how long to keep backup data. Important You cannot set the retention period to permanent for instance backups. Specify Time: The total retention period for the backup data. The unit is days. The maximum period cannot exceed 999 years. For example, if you set this to 210 days, the backup is deleted after 210 days. If you set Archive After (Days), the data must be retained in the archive tier for at least 60 days. Therefore, the total retention period must be greater than or equal to the sum of the auto-archive trigger days and the minimum archive retention period (60 days). For example, if you set data to be auto-archived after 15 days, the total retention period must be at least 15 + 60 = 75 days.
Special Retention Period	In addition to the standard retention policy, Cloud Backup lets you set a longer retention period for the first available backup of a specific cycle (weekly, monthly, or yearly) to meet data security requirements. This serves as an advanced retention rule for the backup policy. You can set weekly, monthly, and yearly advanced retention rules for a single backup policy. For more information, see Advanced retention policies. Important The advanced retention period and the standard retention period are codependent. When setting an advanced retention period, follow the system recommendations. The following limits generally apply: The advanced retention period must be longer than the standard retention period. The advanced retention period, converted from weeks, months, or years, cannot exceed 999 years.
Keep At Least One Backup Version	We recommend that you enable the Keep at least one backup version option. If you enable this option, the latest backup version generated by this backup plan is not deleted due to the expiration of the retention period or accidental operations. This prevents the risk that no backup version is available for restoration due to reasons such as improper backup plan settings. Important This feature takes effect only after a data source is associated with this backup policy. The 'Keep at Least One Backup Version' setting in the local policy does not affect geo-redundant backup points of an instance backup policy. The latest backup is not automatically archived.
Auto-Archive
Archive After (Days)	Sets the number of days after which backups are moved to the archive tier. By default, backup data is stored in the standard tier. For long-term storage, you can use this feature to move backup points from the standard tier to the archive tier to reduce costs. Important This setting only affects new ECS instance backup points created after the setting is configured or modified. It does not apply to existing backup points. Archived data is billed as archive snapshots, and the fees are charged by the ECS service. Before an ECS instance backup point is archived, snapshots that fail to be archived are billed as standard snapshots. Successfully archived snapshots are billed as archive snapshots. Backup points must be stored in the standard tier for at least 14 days before they can be archived. After being moved to the archive tier, they must be stored there for at least 60 days. If you manually delete a backup point within 60 days, you will be charged for the remaining duration. No: Backup data remains in the standard tier and is not moved to the archive tier. Specify Time: The value can be from 14 to 65535 days. To balance data access frequency, recovery needs, storage costs, and data lifecycle, backup points must be retained in the standard tier for at least 14 days before they can be automatically archived. This policy is based on the higher probability of recovering recent data. It helps reduce your long-term storage costs and avoids the high fees that may be incurred when recovering data from the archive tier. For example, if you set Specify Time to 30 days and the Retention Period is 210 days, the backup data is moved to the archive tier after 30 days, stored there for another 180 days, and then automatically deleted. The total retention period is 210 days.
Replication Policy
Replication to Other Region	After you enable Replication to Other Region, backups are immediately and automatically replicated to the destination region for cross-region protection. Enabling geo-redundancy may incur storage or cross-region data transfer fees, depending on the backup source type. For billing details, see Billing methods and billable items. Cloud Backup uses the following technology for geo-redundant data replication: Snapshot cross-region replication technology is used for geo-redundant backups. This applies only to backing up ECS instances. Important After you enable Geo-redundancy, existing backups are not replicated. The feature only applies to new backup points created after it is enabled. After you disable geo-redundancy, backup points that have already been replicated to the destination region are not immediately deleted. They are automatically cleaned up after their retention period expires.
Destination Region	This parameter is required only when the Replication to Other Region feature is enabled. Specify the destination region where the backup data will be replicated.
Remote Retention Period	This parameter is required when the Replication to Other Region feature is enabled. You can set the retention period for backup data in the destination region. Note You cannot set the retention period to permanent for instance backups. Specify Time: The total retention period for the off-site backup data. The unit is days. The default value is 7 days. The maximum period cannot exceed 999 years. The backup data is automatically deleted after the retention period expires. If you set Archive Off-site Data After (Days), the data must be retained in the archive tier for at least 60 days. Therefore, the total off-site retention period must be greater than or equal to the sum of the auto-archive trigger days and the minimum archive retention period (60 days). For example, if you set data to be auto-archived after 15 days, the total retention period must be at least 15 + 60 = 75 days.
Archive Off-site Data After (Days)	This parameter is required when the Replication to Other Region feature is enabled. Off-site backup data is stored in the standard tier by default. By setting the number of days after which to archive off-site data, you can move long-term off-site backups from the standard tier to the archive tier to reduce data protection costs. Important Archived data is billed as archive snapshots, and the fees are charged by the ECS service. Before an ECS instance backup point is archived, snapshots that fail to be archived are billed as standard snapshots. Successfully archived snapshots are billed as archive snapshots. Backup points must be stored in the standard tier for at least 14 days before they can be archived. After being moved to the archive tier, they must be stored there for at least 60 days. If you manually delete a backup point within 60 days, you will be charged for the remaining duration. If the value of Archive Off-site Data After (Days) is greater than or equal to the value of Off-site Retention Period, no backups will be archived. No: Off-site backup data remains in the standard tier and is not moved to the archive tier. Specify Time: The value can be from 14 to 65535 days. To balance data access frequency, recovery needs, storage costs, and data lifecycle, backup points must be retained in the standard tier for at least 14 days before they can be automatically archived. This policy is based on the higher probability of recovering recent data. It helps reduce your long-term storage costs and avoids the high fees that may be incurred when recovering data from the archive tier. For example, if you set Specify Time to 30 days and the Off-site Retention Period is 210 days, the off-site backup data is moved to the archive tier after 30 days, stored there for another 180 days, and then automatically deleted. The total retention period is 210 days.

Data Security
Backup Lock	Once enabled, the Backup Lock feature cannot be disabled. When enabled, instance backup points cannot be deleted before their expiration date. When enabled, only instance backup points created in the next backup cycle are locked. Existing instance backup points are not locked. When enabled, if geo-redundancy is also enabled, the replicated backup points in the destination region are also locked. This feature does not affect the normal use of the corresponding disks and snapshots, such as creating disks or sharing snapshots.
Associate Resource Tag	Backup policies support batch association of resources using tags. Resource Type: ECS Instance. Select Resource: You can associate all resources of a type or associate specific resources using Specify Tag. Resource Tag: Resources are matched only if they have all the specified tags. You can click Associate Tags to add multiple tags. Specify ECS instance tags. Note You can add up to 30 resource tags. When an ECS instance is associated with a backup policy through tags and the resource type is ECS File, Cloud Backup automatically deploys the ECS File Backup client when the next backup job starts. Conversely, if an ECS instance's tags are no longer associated with any backup policy and all related backup jobs have expired, Cloud Backup automatically uninstalls the ECS File Backup client. Each time a backup policy runs, Cloud Backup performs the following tag matching check: Automatically associate new matching resources: If Cloud Backup finds data sources that match the policy's tags but are not yet associated with it, the policy automatically associates these resources. They will be backed up periodically starting from the next scheduled backup time. Automatically adjust associated resources: For data sources already associated with the policy, the system checks if they still meet the tag requirements. If a data source no longer matches the policy's tags, Cloud Backup automatically pauses its backups and dissociates it from the policy after the backup cycle ends. Tag Hit Detection: Click Detect Now to check which resources match all the tags you have set. To add resources of multiple types, you can click Add Resource.

After the policy is created, it appears in the policy list on the Policy Center page.

If you set the Policy Type to General Backup Policy, the new policy is displayed as shown in the following figure.
If you set the Policy Type to ECS Instance Backup Policy, the new policy is displayed as shown in the following figure.

Associate a backup policy with a data source

After you create a backup policy, you can associate resources with the policy for automatic backups. You can associate resources in the following ways:

Associate the backup policy when you create a backup plan for the data source.
From the backup policy list, you can batch associate resources by resource ID.
Specify resource tags in the backup policy to automatically associate matching resources. For more information, see Automatic resource association for backups based on tags.

Click the icon to the left of a policy to view the data sources associated with it.

Batch associate resources by resource ID

After you create a backup policy, you can click Add Associated Resource in the Actions column for the policy to associate multiple resources.

For a general-purpose backup policy:

If the Resource Type is ECS File, from the ECS Instance drop-down list, select multiple ECS instances.
The selected ECS instances are automatically backed up based on this policy. By default, all files except for system directories are backed up. For information about which system directories are excluded, see the instructions in the console.
If the Resource Type is OSS, from the OSS Bucket drop-down list, select multiple OSS buckets.
The selected Standard and Infrequent Access OSS buckets are automatically backed up based on this policy. By default, the entire bucket is backed up.
If the Resource Type is Alibaba Cloud NAS, from the NAS File System drop-down list, select multiple NAS file systems.
The selected General-purpose NAS file systems are automatically backed up based on this policy. By default, the entire file system is backed up.
If the Resource Type is Tablestore, from the Tablestore Instance drop-down list, select multiple Tablestore instances.
The selected Tablestore instances are automatically backed up based on this policy. By default, the entire instance is backed up.

For an instance backup policy:

If the Resource Type is ECS Instance, from the ECS Instance drop-down list, select multiple ECS instances.
The selected ECS instances are automatically backed up based on this policy. By default, all disks are backed up.

To add resources of multiple types, click Add Associated Resource.

Modify a backup policy

After a backup policy is created, you can find the policy in the list and click Edit Policy in the Actions column to modify it. The modified settings take effect during the next scheduled backup.

Run a backup policy immediately

Run a backup job for all associated data sources
Find the policy in the list. In the Actions column, choose More > Execute Immediately. This action immediately starts a backup job for all associated data sources. After the job is complete, you can go to the Backup Jobs page for each data source to view its progress.
Run a backup job for a specific data source
Click the icon to expand the details of the backup policy. In the navigation pane on the left, select the data source. In the Actions column for the data source, choose More > Run Now. This action immediately starts a backup job for the selected data source.

Dissociate a backup policy

After a backup policy is created, you can select the data source from the navigation pane on the left. Click the Backup Plan tab. Find the backup plan that you want to dissociate. In the Actions column, choose More > Delete Plan to dissociate the backup policy from the data source. After the policy is dissociated, the backup plan for the data source is no longer run.

Warning

After you dissociate a data source from a backup policy, the backup plan for that data source is no longer run, and the data source is no longer protected. Existing backups are not affected. Proceed with caution.

Delete a backup policy

Find the policy in the list. In the Actions column, choose More > Delete to delete the backup policy. After the policy is deleted, backup jobs for the associated data sources are no longer run. However, existing backup data is retained.

Warning

You cannot delete a backup policy that is associated with a data source. To delete a backup policy, you must first dissociate it from all data sources.
After a backup policy is deleted, all backup jobs that use the policy are no longer run, and the corresponding data sources are no longer protected. Proceed with caution.

Detach resource tags

Find the policy in the list and click Edit Policy in the Actions column. Click the icon next to a resource tag to detach it from the backup policy. When a resource tag is detached, the data sources associated with that tag are automatically dissociated from the backup policy. This change takes effect the next time the backup policy runs.