This topic outlines the Alibaba Cloud NAS backup feature, including its benefits, how it works, procedures, and billing.
Introduction
Alibaba Cloud Cloud Backup provides a highly efficient and low-cost data protection solution for Alibaba Cloud General-purpose NAS file systems (Capacity and Performance) and Extreme NAS file systems (Standard and Advanced). This solution uses data deduplication and compression to quickly back up NAS files to a backup vault.
General-purpose NAS file systems support agentless backup. You do not need additional computing resources. These file systems are compatible with the NFS and SMB/CIFS protocols. You do not need to install any components, and the configuration is simple.
Extreme NAS file systems support only the NFS protocol. You must install a backup client to protect data using the local NAS backup feature.
If files are accidentally deleted or a ransomware attack occurs, quickly restore data from Cloud Backup to ensure business continuity and data security.
This feature has some limitations. For more information, see Compatibility list and limits.
Benefits
Fine-grained data protection
Back up an entire file system or specific folders based on your business needs to achieve more fine-grained data protection.
Flexible data versioning
Configure scheduled incremental backups to run daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. You can also specify the retention period for backup points. This lets you flexibly manage backup data versions.
Easy file recovery
Restore one or more objects to a specific point in time from the Cloud Backup console. You do not need to use scripts or programming to check the historical versions of the objects.
Source-side deduplication and compression
Cloud Backup compresses and deduplicates data before it is backed up. This saves backup storage space.
Backup locking to prevent accidental or malicious deletion
Cloud Backup provides a backup locking feature for backup vaults. Backup data cannot be deleted by any account or method before the configured retention period expires.
How it works
General-purpose NAS and Extreme NAS file systems use different proxy modes.
General-purpose NAS file system: Cloud Backup provides an agentless backup service. You do not need to prepare computing resources for backups. You can simply add the General-purpose NAS file system to the protection list in Cloud Backup. Cloud Backup then backs up the specified file system.
Extreme NAS file system: You must install a backup client. Data protection is achieved using the local NAS backup feature.
When a backup job runs, Cloud Backup scans the specified NAS folders to identify the files to back up. It then performs data reduction operations, such as data deduplication and compression. Finally, it uploads the incremental data to a backup vault to complete the backup.
Cloud Backup uses a forever incremental backup mechanism. After the first full backup, each subsequent backup uploads only the data that has changed since the previous backup. A complete full backup is synthesized in the background to minimize storage consumption.
When you delete any backup, only the data segments unique to that backup are deleted. Other backups are not affected.
Deleting a full backup does not affect subsequent data restoration. This is because deleting a full backup removes only the data segments exclusive to that backup. Data segments referenced by other backups are not deleted.
Deleting an intermediate backup does not affect the incremental backups and recovery after that backup point. This is because file backup is a forever incremental backup. The first backup is a full backup. Each subsequent backup uploads only the data that has changed since the previous backup.
Procedure
General-purpose NAS
The following figure shows the process of backing up an Alibaba Cloud General-purpose NAS file system in the Cloud Backup console.
You are not charged for activating Cloud Backup. If you create a backup vault, you are charged for the storage usage of the backup vault. For more information, see Billing methods and billable items.
When you create a backup plan, configure the backup vault, encryption type, backup cycle, and retention period. Cloud Backup starts the backup plan and continuously backs up files from the specified NAS file system.
ImportantYou can enjoy a 30-day free backup plan for your first trial. You cannot edit the source path and backup cycle for a free backup plan.
We recommend that you include no more than 50 million files in each NAS backup job and no more than 8 million files and subdirectories in each directory.
After you create a backup plan, the first backup job performs a full backup and subsequent backup jobs perform incremental backups.
If the region that you select supports backup policies, you can set a backup plan only by associating it with a backup policy. Cloud Backup periodically backs up NAS file systems based on the backup policy.
To view the regions that support backup policies, click Policy Center in the left-side navigation pane of the Cloud Backup console. For more information about how to create a backup policy, see Create a backup policy.
If an exception occurs in a NAS file system, you can restore data to the source NAS file system or a new NAS file system that resides in the same region as the source NAS file system. You can also restore data to a new NAS file system across regions by using a remote mirror vault. You are charged for the traffic and storage capacity of the remote mirror vault.
Extreme NAS
The following figure shows the process of backing up an Alibaba Cloud Extreme NAS file system in the Cloud Backup console.
Activating the Cloud Backup service is free of charge. Cloud Backup charges a software usage fee (file backup software usage fee) and a storage capacity fee. For more information about billing, see Billing methods and billable items.
Download and activate the Linux backup client
The backup client is used to establish communication and management services between a local server and Cloud Backup. Configure the backup client as required.
Create a backup plan to periodically back up an Extreme NAS file system
Create a backup plan. Set parameters such as the backup vault, source path, backup cycle, and retention period. Cloud Backup starts the plan and continuously backs up the NAS file system according to the plan.
ImportantAfter you create a backup plan, the first backup job is a full backup. Subsequent jobs are incremental backups by default.
If the region that you select supports backup policies, set a backup plan only by associating it with a backup policy. Cloud Backup then periodically backs up the Extreme NAS file system according to the backup policy.
In the navigation pane on the left of the console, click Policy Center to view the regions that support backup policies. For more information about how to create a backup policy, see Create a backup policy.
If an Extreme NAS file system is abnormal, you can restore it to the source NAS file system or a new Extreme NAS file system based on the created backup points and time. A browse feature is provided that lets you view backed-up files at any time.
Billing
You are charged the following fees for backing up Alibaba Cloud NAS files:
Storage usage fees: Cloud Backup provides two types of backup storage: locally redundant storage and zone-redundant storage. You are charged based on the actual storage capacity that your backup data consumes in the backup vault. View the detailed data of the backup vault on the Overview page of the Cloud Backup console. For more information, see Pricing.
In addition, Cloud Backup charges the following fees based on specific backup configurations or operations:
Geo-redundancy fees: When you use the mirror vault feature to replicate data from a backup vault in one Alibaba Cloud region to another for geo-redundancy, you are charged for the storage capacity of the mirror vault and cross-region replication traffic. The capacity of the mirror vault is the same as that of the source backup vault, and the pricing is also the same.
The preceding fees are calculated based on the data volume.
What to do next
Learn how to back up a General-purpose NAS file system and back up an Extreme NAS file system.
Learn about the best practices of Cloud Backup.