If you create Database Backup (DBS) sandbox instances, you are charged for the creation and storage of the sandbox instances. This topic describes the billable items and pricing of the sandbox feature.

Background information

DBS provides a complete sandbox solution for MySQL and Oracle databases based on copy data management (CDM). You can use the DBS sandbox feature to create a sandbox instance to restore data in a backup set in a short period of time. Read and write operations performed within sandbox instances do not affect source databases. You can perform a variety of operations within sandbox instances, such as data restoration, recovery drills, development and testing, query and analysis, and emergency disaster recovery. For more information, see Overview.

Promotional discounts

Each Alibaba Cloud account can receive a one-month free capacity-type sandbox storage plan that contains 100 GB storage space.
Note You can enjoy the free trial only when you purchase a capacity-type sandbox storage plan and select 100GB for Specification and 1 Month for Duration.

Billable items

Only the sandbox storage and sandbox instances of Capacity Edition are charged. The sandbox storage and sandbox instances of Performance Edition are free of charge.

Sandbox type Available item Billable item
MySQL sandbox instance
  • Sandbox storage
  • Sandbox instance

    The instance is a database instance provided by DBS.

Oracle sandbox instance
  • Sandbox storage
  • Sandbox data disk

    You must provide a database instance and attach the sandbox data disk to the database instance.

Sandbox storage fees

After you enable the sandbox feature, DBS automatically synchronizes the data to be restored to the sandbox storage and generates multiple ready-to-use sandbox instance snapshots in the sandbox storage. DBS charges you sandbox storage fees based on the volume of the data stored in the sandbox storage.

The storage fees are billed by using the following methods:

  • Pay-as-you-go sandbox storage:USD 0.008/GB/Day

    You are charged for the actual amount of data you use on an hourly basis.

  • Capacity-type sandbox storage plans

    Sandbox storage plans can be used to offset sandbox storage fees. If the space of storage plans is exhausted, you are charged for excess storage on a pay-as-you-go basis.

    Storage (GB) Unit price (USD/Day)
    100 23
    500 111
    1,024 221
    2,048 442
    5,120 1,044
    10,240 2,089
    20,480 4,178
    51,200 9,830
    102,400 19,661
    204,800 39,322
    307,200 58,982
    512,000 92,160

Sandbox instance fees

After you create a sandbox instance for emergency disaster recovery, DBS charges you sandbox instance fees based on the specifications and usage duration of the sandbox instance. If you have not created sandbox instances for emergency disaster recovery, you are not charged sandbox instance fees.

The following table describes the billing standards of sandbox instances. You are charged for sandbox instances on an hourly basis.

Instance specification Unit price for regions in mainland China (USD/Day) Unit price for the China (Hong Kong) region and regions outside China (USD/Day)
1 CPU core and 1 GB of memory 0.346 0.346
1 CPU core and 2 GB of memory 0.864 0.864
2 CPU cores and 4 GB of memory 2.203 4.104
2 CPU cores and 8 GB of memory 2.678 4.709
4 CPU cores and 8 GB of memory 5.160 9.559
4 CPU cores and 16 GB of memory 6.739 11.923
8 CPU cores and 16 GB of memory 10.264 19.157
8 CPU cores and 32 GB of memory 13.522 23.846