Advanced backup sparse backup MongoDB - ApsaraDB for MongoDB

ApsaraDB for MongoDB supports advanced backup (sparse backup) in addition to standard backup. You can configure more flexible backup schedules and retention periods to retain only necessary backup sets, reducing backup storage costs while ensuring recoverability at critical time points.

Feature overview

In standard backup mode, backup sets are generated at fixed intervals and retained for a uniform period. Over time, the number of backup sets grows, resulting in high storage costs. Advanced backup allows you to combine weekly, monthly, yearly, and fixed-interval policies, and set independent retention periods for each policy. This achieves a sparse retention pattern where recent backups are retained densely and older backups are retained sparsely.

Differences between standard backup and advanced backup

Item	Standard backup	Advanced backup (sparse backup)
Backup schedule	Fixed weekly backup	Flexible combination of weekly, monthly, yearly, and fixed-interval (high-frequency) schedules
Retention policy	Uniform retention period	Independent retention period for each policy, with support for long-term retention
Storage cost	More backup sets, higher cost	On-demand sparse retention, lower cost

Prerequisites

The instance is a cloud disk-based replica set or sharded cluster instance.

Note

Local disk instances and standalone instances are not supported.

Limits

Irreversible activation: After you enable advanced backup, you can no longer use the ModifyBackupPolicy and DescribeBackupPolicy operations for standard backup, and you cannot switch back to standard backup.
Default weekly backup cannot be deleted: If no high-frequency backup is configured, at least one weekly backup policy must be retained, with a minimum frequency of twice per week.
Retention period range:
- Standard backup: 7 to 7,300 days.
- High-frequency backup: 1 to 7,300 days.
- Cross-region backup: 3 to 1,825 days.
Policy merging: If multiple policies apply to the same day, the system generates only one backup set and retains it based on the longest retention period among the matching policies.
- Example 1: A weekly backup policy with a 30-day retention and a high-frequency backup policy with a 1-day retention both apply to the same backup set. The backup set is retained for 30 days.
- Example 2: A weekly policy retains backups for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for 8 days, and another weekly policy retains backups for Wednesday and Thursday for 9 days. Backups generated on Monday and Tuesday are retained for 8 days, and backups generated on Wednesday and Thursday are retained for 9 days.
High-frequency backup uniqueness: Only one high-frequency backup policy can be configured.
Cross-region backup uniqueness: Only one cross-region backup policy is allowed, and it supports only weekly scheduling.
Second-level backup requirement: If a policy includes high-frequency backup, the backup type must be second-level backup.
Log backup: For sharded cluster instances, log backup must be enabled. If cross-region backup exists, cross-region log backup must also be enabled, and same-region log backup must be enabled first.
Encrypted cloud disk instances: To enable remote backup, make sure that the service key exists in the destination region.

Billing

Backup storage within the free quota is not charged.
Usage beyond the free quota is billed based on backup storage consumption. For pricing details, see Billable items.

Procedure

Step 1: Enable advanced backup

Log on to the ApsaraDB for MongoDB console and go to the target instance.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Backup and Restoration > Backup Settings.
Click Switch Advanced Backup Settings and confirm the activation.

Important

This operation is irreversible. Proceed with caution. You can also call the ModifyAdvancedBackupStatus operation to enable advanced backup and the DescribeAdvancedBackupStatus operation to query the activation status.

Step 2: Configure advanced backup policies

On the Advanced Backup Settings page, click the node-to-node chain button to add or modify policies with the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
Backup Schedule	Supports weekly, monthly, yearly, and fixed-interval (high-frequency backup, such as every 30, 60, or 120 minutes) schedules.
Retention Period	You can specify a fixed number of days or long-term retention.
Hourly Sparse	Applicable only to high-frequency backups. When enabled, all snapshots within the last hour are retained. For snapshots from 1 to 24 hours ago, only the first snapshot after each hour mark is retained.
Snapshot backup start time	For non-high-frequency backups, specify a backup time window in the `HH:mmZ-HH:mmZ` format (UTC, on the hour).

Configuration examples

Scenario	Schedule	Retention
Daily backup	`dayOfWeek = 1,2,3,4,5,6,7`	7 days
Weekly backup on Monday	`dayOfWeek = 1`	30 days
First and last days of each month	`dayOfMonth = 1,-1`	365 days
January 1 every year	`dayOfYear = 01-01`	Long-term retention

What to do next

View backup policies: On the Advanced Backup Settings page, move the pointer over the circled numbers to view the configured backup policies. The circled numbers indicate the number of configured policies. The backup policy details panel includes the backup schedule, retention period, backup start time, log backup switch, and log backup retention days.
Delete a backup policy: On the Level-1 Backup page, click the delete button to remove an added backup policy.
Note
To ensure data security, if high-frequency backup is not enabled, at least one weekly backup policy must be configured with a minimum frequency of 2 days per week. This policy cannot be deleted.

Related API operations

Operation	Description
`ModifyAdvancedBackupStatus`	Enable advanced backup
`DescribeAdvancedBackupStatus`	Query whether advanced backup is enabled
ModifyAdvancedBackupPolicy	Modify advanced backup policies
DescribeAdvancedBackupPolicy	Query advanced backup policies