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    Cloud Backup:Back up ECS instances

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    Cloud Backup:Back up ECS instances

    Last Updated:Oct 13, 2023

    Cloud Backup is integrated with the Alibaba Cloud snapshot service to provide agentless backup for Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances and disks. Cloud Backup can create crash-consistent snapshots for all disks, including system disks and data disks. You can use the snapshots to back up or restore an entire disk.

    Prerequisites

    All disks attached to your ECS instances are enhanced SSDs (ESSDs). This ensures crash consistency of the ECS instances. If some disks are not ESSDs, Cloud Backup enables the crash consistency feature only for specific disks.

    Background information

    • The ECS instance protection feature allows you to protect ECS instances or specified disks by using a periodic disk backup policy. This ensures low-cost protection.

    • You are charged for the usage of ECS snapshots. You are charged a small amount of fees when you use Cloud Backup to back up ECS instances. For more information, see Cloud Backup Pricing.

      ECS instance backup is a backup orchestration service that is provided by Cloud Backup based on the ECS snapshot capability. The fees for the storage usage of ECS snapshots that are used by this feature are included into the snapshot service bill. If you turn on Replication to Other Region, the fees for the storage usage of ECS snapshots that are replicated to the destination region and the fees for cross-region traffic are also included into the snapshot service bill. For more information, see Snapshots.

    Precautions

    • You cannot use the ECS instance backup feature to back up or restore local disks. For more information, see Local disks.

      If you use local disks to store data, your data may be lost. We recommend that you use the ECS file backup feature to protect your files in local disks and use the database backup feature to protect your databases that are deployed in local disks. For more information, see Back up files from an ECS instance and Database backup.

    • You cannot use the ECS instance backup feature to replicate encrypted disks across regions. We recommend that you use the ECS instance backup feature to protect the files in your encrypted disks. For more information, see Back up files from an ECS instance.

    • If backup policies are supported in the region where you edit a backup plan, Cloud Backup automatically converts your backup plan to a backup policy. The parameter settings of your backup plan remain unchanged.

    Procedure

    Note

    You can create backup policies only in some regions. To view the regions that support backup policies, click Policy Center in the left-side navigation pane of the console.

    1. Log on to the Cloud Backup console.

    2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Back Up > ECS Server Backup.

    3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.

    4. In the upper-right corner of the page, click Add ECS Backup.

    5. In the Add ECS Backup panel, configure the backup objects and backup settings.

      1. Specify the backup objects and click Next.

        Important

        • You must select the ECS instances and disks that you want to back up. Protect All Disks is turned on by default. If you want to protect all disks of an ECS instance, turn on Protect All Disks. In this case, the disks that are later attached to the ECS instance are also protected. If you want to protect only specific disks, turn off Protect All Disks.

        • You can associate up to 99 ECS instances with a backup policy.

        • Cloud Backup automatically checks whether the selected ECS instances support snapshot-consistent groups. Cloud Backup automatically creates a snapshot-consistent group for the ECS instances that support snapshot-consistent groups. If an ECS instance does not support snapshot-consistent groups, Cloud Backup ensures only the crash consistency of disks. For more information, see Create a snapshot-consistent group.

      2. Configure the backup settings and click OK.

        1. Configure the backup mode.

          You can select Manual Backup or Auto Backup. The following list describes the parameters.

          • Manual Backup

            • Only one backup file is created for the selected ECS instances at the current point in time.

            • You must specify the retention period of the backup data, whether to enable application-consistent backup, and whether to enable cross-region replication.

          • Auto Backup

            • If you select a region that supports backup policies, associate a backup policy with the ECS instances that you want to back up. Cloud Backup periodically backs up the ECS instances.

              To view the regions that support backup policies, click Policy Center in the left-side navigation pane of the console. For more information, see Create a backup policy.

            • If you select a region that does not support backup policies, configure the following parameters to create a backup plan.

              Parameter

              Description

              Start Time

              The start time of the scheduled backup plan. The time is accurate to seconds.

              Backup Interval

              The interval at which Cloud Backup runs backup jobs. Unit: hours, days, or weeks.

              Retention Period

              The retention period of the backup data. Unit: days, weeks, months, or years.

        2. If you select a single ECS instance, you can turn on Application Consistent Backup to enable the application-consistent backup feature.

          For more information, see Enable the application-consistent backup feature.

        3. Optional: Turn on Replication to Other Region to enable the cross-region replication feature, and then configure the parameters. The following table describes the parameters.

          Parameter

          Description

          Destination Region

          If you enable the cross-region replication feature, the backup files that are created by the backup plan are automatically replicated to the specified destination region.

          If an ECS instance is infected with viruses or data is lost due to accidental deletion, you can use the backup files replicated to the destination region to create another instance to restore data.

          Retention Period

          The retention period of the backup data in the destination region. Unit: days, weeks, months, or years.

      After you create the backup policy, Cloud Backup runs the first backup job at the start time that you specified and runs the subsequent backup jobs based on the interval that you specified.

    What to do next

    The following table describes the tabs that are provided by the ECS instance backup feature. You can efficiently manage backup jobs on these tabs.

    Tab

    Description

    Operation

    Backed-up ECS Instances

    Displays the ECS instances that are protected by Cloud Backup.

    • Manual Backup: To perform manual backup, you must configure a backup plan.

    • Auto Backup: To perform automatic backup, you must configure a backup plan.

    • Clone Now: You can clone an ECS instance only if the system disk of the ECS instance is an enhanced SSD (ESSD). A new pay-as-you-go ECS instance is created based on the configurations and data of the ECS instance at the current point in time. Snapshots are created for all disks on the ECS instance and retained for one day. For more information about the billing of snapshots, see Snapshots.

    • Add to Consistency Group: You can add multiple ECS instances whose system disks are ESSDs to a consistency group. Then, you can back up, restore, or clone the ECS instances by group.

      You can create a consistency group or specify an existing consistency group.

    • Run Now: You can immediately execute a backup plan.

    • Modify Plan: If a backup plan no longer meets your business requirements, you can modify the backup plan.

      Important

      If backup policies are supported in the region where you modify a backup plan, you must associate a backup policy with the data sources. We recommend that you create a backup policy before you modify a backup plan. The disk configuration in a historical backup plan is retained. Backups that have been generated are not affected.

    • Delete Plan: If a backup plan expires, you can delete the backup plan.

    • Resume Plan: You can resume a suspended backup plan.

    • Suspend Plan: If you suspend a backup plan, backup protection is no longer performed.

    • Stop Backup: You can stop protection for an ECS instance.

      Important

      If you stop protection for an ECS instance, the ECS instance is removed from the Backed-up ECS Instances tab and all backup plans of the ECS instance are deleted. The generated ECS instance backups are retained. If you want to delete a backup file of an ECS instance, find the backup point of the backup file in the backup history and then click Delete.

    • Delete Snapshot: You can delete backup points that are created within a specified period of time. You cannot restore data from deleted backup points.

      Important

      If the disk snapshot corresponding to a backup point has been used to create a new disk or a custom image, the snapshot is not deleted and only the backup point for the ECS instance is deleted.

    Job List

    Displays the status of each executed job.

    You can cancel the jobs that are being executed.

    What to do next