This topic provides an overview of the ECS database backup feature of Cloud Backup, including the benefits, working principles, procedure, supported database versions, and billing of the feature.
Introduction
ECS database backup is a data protection solution provided by Alibaba Cloud Cloud Backup for self-managed databases that are hosted on ECS instances. You can back up data from a database to an Cloud Backup backup vault in a simple, secure, and reliable manner. If your database system or the ECS instance fails, a logical error occurs in the database, or the database encounters ransomware attacks, you can restore data from the Cloud Backup backup vault.
Cloud Backup cannot back up databases deployed in containers.
Benefits
Low costs
You are charged for the backup storage based on the storage space occupied by the data that is deduplicated and compressed.
High backup performance
Database backup consumes less than 100 MB memory and 0.5 core CPU. MySQL and Oracle databases can be backed up in real time with near-zero recovery point objective (RPO).
Compatibility
The mainstream versions of MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server are supported.
Simple configurations
After you register a database, Cloud Backup automatically identifies the database on the ECS instance, pushes the backup client to the ECS instance, and installs the client on the ECS instance.
Automatic alerts
In the Cloud Backup console, you can configure alert rules to monitor backup jobs. If a backup job fails, the system automatically sends alert notifications to the specified alert contacts by using emails, text messages, and phone calls.
Immutable backup against accidental deletion
Cloud Backup provides the immutable backup feature based on backup vaults. Backup data cannot be deleted by any account or method before the configured retention period expires.
How it works
You can specify the ECS instance to be backed up in the Cloud Backup console. Cloud Backup automatically pushes the backup client to the ECS instance. You must make sure that Cloud Assistant is installed on the ECS instance. The client backs up the specified database on the ECS instance based on the backup plan that you configure.
When a backup plan is executed, the Cloud Backup client calls a backup command by using the native backup component of the specified database instance, reads the source data, deduplicates and compresses the data, and then uploads the data to the backup vault.
Procedure
The following procedure shows how to back up an ECS-hosted database in the Cloud Backup console.
The procedures for backing up MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server databases that are hosted on ECS instances are basically the same. In this example, a MySQL database is backed up.
Cloud Backup registers databases based on username and password. To back up a MySQL or SQL Server database, you must obtain the username and password from the database administrator. Oracle databases can be registered without passwords.
You are not charged for activating Cloud Backup. You are charged for the rental and storage usage of backup vaults. For more information, see Billing methods and billable items.
Register a database in the Cloud Backup console. Cloud Backup automatically installs a backup client on the ECS instance that hosts the database. Cloud Backup can discover the database that you want to back up only after you register the database.
To ensure that your database can be backed up as expected, Cloud Backup provides the precheck feature to identify issues that may cause backup failure.
When you create a backup plan, configure the backup vault, data source, backup cycle, retention period, and backup policies (such as full backup and incremental backup). Cloud Backup starts the backup plan and continuously backs up data from the specified database.
If a database exception occurs, you can restore the database based on the data that has been backed up.
Billing
You are charged for ECS database backup based on the following billable items:
Rental of database backup vaults
You must create backup vaults for your databases. Multiple databases in a region can share a backup vault. Each backup vault contains a certain amount of free capacity. For more information, see Cloud Backup Pricing.
Storage usage of database backup vaults
Each database backup vault provides a free capacity of 100 GB. You are charged for the excess storage usage. You are charged based on the storage space occupied by the data that is deduplicated and compressed. For more information, see Cloud Backup Pricing.
In addition, Cloud Backup charges the following fees based on specific configurations or operations:
Geo-redundancy fees: If you create a remote mirror vault to copy data from a backup vault in an Alibaba Cloud region to another region for geo-redundancy, you are charged for the storage capacity of the mirror vault and the cross-region replication traffic. The size of the mirror vault is the same as that of the source backup vault, and the pricing is the same.
What to do next
Learn about how to back up ECS-hosted databases. For more information, see Register an ECS-hosted database, Register an ECS-hosted Oracle database, and Register an ECS-hosted SQL Server database.
View answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQ). For more information, see FAQ.
Learn about the best practices of Cloud Backup. For more information, see Best Practices.