This topic provides an overview of the ECS database backup feature of Hybrid Backup Recovery (HBR), 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 Hybrid Backup Recovery (HBR) for self-managed databases that are hosted on ECS instances. You can back up data from a database to an HBR 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 HBR backup vault.

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, HBR 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 HBR 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

    HBR 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 HBR console. HBR 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 HBR 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 HBR console.

ecs-hosted databases
Note
  • The procedure for backing up MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server databases that are hosted on ECS instances is basically the same. In this example, a MySQL database is backed up.
  • HBR 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.
  1. Activate HBR

    You are not charged for activating HBR. You are charged for the rental and storage usage of backup vaults. For more information, see Billing methods and billable items.

  2. Register a database

    Register a database in the HBR console. HBR automatically installs a backup client on the ECS instance that hosts the database. HBR can discover the database that you want to back up only after you register the database.

  3. Precheck a database

    To ensure that your database can be backed up as expected, HBR provides the precheck feature to identify issues that may cause backup failure.

  4. Back up a database

    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). HBR starts the backup plan and continuously backs up data from the specified database.

  5. Restore a database

    If a database exception occurs, you can restore the database based on the data that has been backed up.

Supported database versions

  • Oracle
    The following table lists the operating systems and backup features that are supported by each version of Oracle databases.
    Database type Supported version Supported operating system Minimum backup granularity Backup feature
    Full backup Incremental backup Log backup (scheduled backup) Real-time backup
    Oracle 9i RHEL 4, RHEL 5, SLES 9, SUSE 9.3, and CentOS 4.5 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    10g RHEL 4, RHEL 5, RHEL 6.5, RHEL 9, CentOS 4.6, and SUSE 11 SP4 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    11g RHEL 5, RHEL 6, RHEL 6.5, RHEL 7, CentOS 6.4, CentOS 6.5, Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    12c Windows Server 2008 R2, RHEL 6.5, and RHEL 7.5 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    18c RHEL 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    19c Oracle Enterprise Linux 7.0 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
  • Oracle RAC
    The following table lists the operating systems and backup features that are supported by each version of Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC).
    Database type Supported version Supported operating system Minimum backup granularity Backup feature
    Full backup Incremental backup Log backup (scheduled backup) Real-time backup
    Oralce RAC 9i SUSE 9.3 and RHEL 4 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    10g RHEL 5 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    11g Windows Server 2008 R2, Oracle Linux 6.4, RHEL 5, RHEL 6.5, and iSoft Server 3 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    12c CentOS 6, CentOS 6.7, RHEL 6.5, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Oracle Enterprise Linux 6 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    18c Windows Server 2008 R2 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    19c RHEL 7.6 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
  • Oracle Data Guard
    The following table lists the operating systems and backup features that are supported by each version of Oracle Data Guard.
    Database type Supported version Supported operating system Minimum backup granularity Backup feature
    Full backup Incremental backup Log backup (scheduled backup) Real-time backup
    Oracle Data Guard 11g CentOS 6.4, CentOS 6.5, RHEL 6, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
    12c Oracle Enterprise Linux 6 Tablespace Supported Supported Supported Supported
  • MySQL
    The following table lists the operating systems and backup features that are supported by each version of MySQL databases.
    Database type Supported version Supported operating system Minimum backup granularity Backup feature
    Full backup Incremental backup Log backup (scheduled backup) Real-time backup
    MySQL 5.0 RHEL 5, RHEL 6, RHEL 6.5, Ubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu 12.10, SLES 10, SUSE 11 SP4, and NeoKylin 6.0 Instance Supported Supported Supported Supported
    5.1 RHEL 6, RHEL 6.5, and SUSE 11 SP4 Instance Supported Supported Supported Supported
    5.4 RHEL 6.5 and SUSE 11 SP4 Instance Supported Supported Supported Supported
    5.5 Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Debian 7.8, Debian 8.3, CentOS 6.0, and RHEL 6.5 Instance Supported Supported Supported Supported
    5.6 RHEL 5, RHEL 6, RHEL 6.5, Ubuntu 14.04, CentOS 6.0, and CentOS 7.2 Instance Supported Supported Supported Supported
    5.7 RHEL 6, RHEL 6.5, RHEL 7, CentOS 7.0, CentOS 7.2, Ubuntu 16.04, NeoKylin 7.0, Alibaba Cloud Linux 2, and Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 Instance Supported Supported Supported Supported
  • MariaDB
    The following table lists the supported versions, operating systems, and backup features of MariaDB databases.
    Database type Supported version Supported operating system Minimum backup granularity Backup feature
    Full backup Incremental backup Log backup (scheduled backup) Real-time backup
    MariaDB 5.5, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3 CentOS 7.0 and Ubuntu 18.04 Instance Supported Supported Supported Supported
  • SQL Server
    The following table lists the operating systems and backup features that are supported by each version of SQL Server databases.
    Database type Supported version Supported operating system Minimum backup granularity Backup feature
    Full backup Incremental backup Log backup (scheduled backup)
    SQL Server 2005 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Instance Supported Supported Supported
    2008 Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Instance Supported Supported Supported
    2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 Instance Supported Supported Supported
    2012 Windows Server 2012 RC Instance Supported Supported Supported
    2014 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Server 2016 Instance Supported Supported Supported
    2016 (RTM) Windows Server 2012 R2 Instance Supported Supported Supported
    2017 Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2016 Instance Supported Supported Supported
    2019 Windows Server 2016 Instance Supported Supported Supported
  • SQL Server Always On
    The following table lists the supported versions, operating systems, and backup features of SQL Server Always On availability groups.
    Database type Supported version Supported operating system Minimum backup granularity Backup feature
    Full backup Incremental backup Log backup (scheduled backup)
    SQL Server Always On 2012, 2016, and 2017 Windows Server 2012 R2 Instance Supported Supported Supported

Billing

You are charged for ECS database backup based on the following billable items:
  1. 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 Pricing.

  2. 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 Pricing.

In addition, HBR 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.

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