Hologres supports scheduled and manual backups to protect against accidental data deletion and secure your instance. You can also create an identical instance for testing by using a backup snapshot, effectively cloning the instance. This topic describes how to enable local backup and restore data from a snapshot.
Important notes
Only Hologres V1.3 and later support local backup and recovery. If your instance is running a version earlier than V1.3, upgrade your instance or get online support.
Releasing an instance also deletes its snapshots.
Instance-level backups are supported, including table data and metadata in monitoring. This data may differ from displayed storage data. You can restore a specific time-point snapshot to a new instance.
Snapshots are stored in the same region as the Hologres instance. Cross-zone backup and recovery are supported in specific regions. For more information, see Cross-region backup and recovery.
This feature is restricted to general-purpose and virtual warehouse instances. Read-only secondary instances or shared cluster instances are not supported.
We recommend backing up data during off-peak hours. The backup process does not stop your instance. For data consistency, original instance storage usage may temporarily increase and will be released within four hours after the backup starts.
Billing
Local backup incurs fees for backup storage. For more information, see Billing overview.
Feature introduction
Local backup
Local backup creates a snapshot of an instance and stores it locally. If data is accidentally deleted or a zone fails, you can use the backup snapshot to quickly restore a new instance and resume business operations.
Use cases: Protects your data from accidental deletion, data loss, or zone failures.
Backup type: Full backup.
Backup methods: Manual and scheduled.
Backup speed: Depends on the data volume of the instance.
Instance types: General-purpose and virtual warehouse instances.
Costs: Backup data storage, based on its size.
Restoration
Restore your data by creating a new instance from a backup snapshot.
Recoverable regions and zones: Restore to the local region (same or different zone) or to a different region (supported cross-region pairs only).
Recovery scope: The point in time of the selected snapshot.
Recovery speed: Dependent on the snapshot's data volume.
Costs: No extra fees for the recovery process itself. Standard compute and storage charges apply to the new instance.
The flowchart illustrates creating a scheduled snapshot in Zone A and then restoring a new instance in Zone B (same region).
Access the feature
Log on to the Hologres console and click Instances in the left navigation menu.
On the Instances page, click the instance ID to go to the Instance Details page.
Alternatively, click Manage in the Actions column of the target instance to go to the Instance Details page.
In the left sub-menu, choose Backup and Disaster Recovery and click the Local Backup tab.
Enable local backup
Enable scheduled backup
On the Local Backup page, perform the following steps to enable scheduled backup:
Click Edit next to Periodic Backup.
In the Periodic Backup Settings dialog box, turn on the Periodic Backup switch and configure the parameters.
Parameter
Description
Backup Cycle
Sets the frequency for scheduled data backups.
Backup Time
Sets the start time for automated data backups.
Number of Snapshots
Number of successfully created scheduled snapshots to retain. Failed or manually created snapshots are excluded.
For example, if you set this parameter to 7, only the seven most recent successful scheduled snapshots will be kept; older scheduled snapshots will be deleted.
Click OK.
Create a manual snapshot
Go to the Local Backup tab as instructed in Access the feature, perform the following steps to create a snapshot manually.
Click Create Snapshot.
In the Create Snapshot dialog box, click Create Snapshot.
The backup starts in five minutes. If the data volume is large, the backup may take a longer time.
ImportantManual snapshots are not automatically deleted. To delete one, navigate to the Snapshots page and click Delete in the Actions column for the target snapshot.
Manage snapshots
View existing snapshots
On the Local Backup tab as instructed in Access the feature, perform the following steps to view the snapshots of the current instance.
In the Snapshots section, view existing snapshots.
Field
Description
Snapshot ID
The unique snapshot ID.
Backup Start and End Time
The start and end times of the backup task.
Snapshot Granularity
The granularity of the snapshot. Currently, only Instance is supported.
Snapshot Region
The region of the source instance.
Snapshot Size
The storage size of the snapshot.
Generation Method
Periodic: The snapshot was generated by a scheduled task.
Manual: The snapshot was created manually.
Backup Type
The type of backup. Currently, only Full Data is supported.
Snapshot Type
The source instance type (general-purpose or virtual warehouse). Restoration is restricted to instances of the same type as the snapshot.
Description
The remarks for the backup snapshot.
You can also log on to the Hologres console and click Snapshots in the left navigation menu to view all snapshots in the current region, including cross-region snapshots.
Disable scheduled backup
To disable scheduled backup, turn off the Periodic Backup toggle as instructed in Enable scheduled backup.
Recover data
After navigating to the Local Backup page (see Access the feature), follow these steps to restore a local snapshot to a new instance:
Click Restore Instance.
On the Clone Instance page, configure the parameters. Set the Instance ID (defaults to the original instance ID), Specifications, Snapshot ID, resources, and other required configurations. Click Buy Now.
After the payment is complete, a new instance is created from the selected snapshot.