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    ApsaraDB RDS:Download backups

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    ApsaraDB RDS:Download backups

    Last Updated:Jun 09, 2026

    This topic describes how to download backup data from an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance for long-term retention, queries, migration, and auditing.

    Before you begin

    • No fees are charged for failed tasks.

    • You cannot cancel a backup download task after it starts.

    • Only one download task (running or failed) is allowed per cluster or instance at a time.

    • You cannot use downloaded backup data to directly restore an RDS instance. To restore an instance, see Overview of data restoration solutions.

    • Directly downloading a backup is not always the best option. Before you start, identify the instance type and use cases to choose the most efficient and cost-effective solution.

    Billing

    Public network traffic fees may apply when you download backups from an instance that uses a high-performance local disk. If your instance uses cloud disks, both public network traffic and backup set conversion fees may apply.

    Note

    If you download backups to OSS, you are charged based on your actual OSS usage.

    Network traffic fees

    • Internal network downloads: Free of charge.

    • Public network downloads: Each instance includes a free monthly quota of 500 GB per month. Usage beyond this quota is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. You can view the downloaded traffic volume on the Basic Information page of the RDS instance. For more information about unit prices, see Network fees.

    Note

    • You can download backups over an internal network or the public network for instances that use cloud disks and instances that use a high-performance local disk.

    • When you initiate a snapshot backup download for an instance that uses cloud disks, the system creates a data conversion download task. You cannot obtain a download link while the task is in progress or has failed. No public network traffic fees are incurred during this period. After the task is successfully completed, you are charged for the actual traffic that is generated when you use the download link.

    • A physical backup download for an instance that uses a high-performance local disk does not involve data conversion. You can directly obtain the download link. You are charged for the actual traffic that is generated when you use the link to download the backup.

    • To view the amount of backups downloaded over the public network, go to the RDS Instance List, click the instance ID, and view the Backup Downloads in the Instance Resources section on the Basic Information page.

    • To offset public network traffic fees from downloads, consider purchasing a subscription network plan. Larger plans offer greater discounts.

    Backup set conversion fees

    This fee applies when you use the advanced download feature for an instance that uses cloud disks to convert a snapshot backup into a CSV (without header), CSV-with-header, SQL, Parquet, or qb.xb (physical backup) file. No free quota is provided. The billing standards are as follows:

    Region

    Conversion fee (USD/GB)

    Public cloud

    0.03125
    Note

    • When you initiate a snapshot backup download for an instance that uses cloud disks, the system creates a data conversion download task. No backup set conversion fees are charged if this task fails.

    • A decompressed qb.xb (physical backup) file converted from a snapshot backup may be smaller than the Backup Conversion Traffic value displayed in the console.

    Download from cloud disk instances

    For an instance that uses cloud disks, the advanced download feature lets you create a task for a specific point in time or backup set. You can convert a snapshot backup to CSV, SQL, Parquet, or qb.xb (physical backup) format and download it via a URL or save it directly to an OSS bucket.

    Prerequisites

    Before you start, make sure that the instance meets all the following conditions:

    • Instance status: Running.

    • Storage type: ESSD cloud disk or high-performance cloud disk.

    • Database version: MySQL 8.0 or 5.7.

    • Region support: The instance resides in one of the following regions: China (Chengdu), China (Shenzhen), China (Guangzhou), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Hong Kong), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Japan (Tokyo), Singapore, US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), or Germany (Frankfurt). Support for other regions is gradually rolling out. The console displays all currently supported regions.

    • Minor engine version: The minor engine version must be later than 20201031. If the minor engine version of your instance does not meet this requirement, upgrade the minor engine version.

      Important

      If the minor engine version meets the requirements but the Download Instance Backup button is still unavailable, the database proxy may be enabled. Some instances do not support the advanced download feature due to hardware limitations. To use this feature, you must first disable the database proxy and then upgrade the minor engine version. After the issue is resolved, you can re-enable the proxy service as needed.

    • Backup encryption: Disabled. The advanced download feature is not supported for encrypted instances that use cloud disks.

    • Data archiving: Disabled. The advanced download feature is not supported for instances that use high-performance cloud disks for which the data archiving feature is enabled.

    • RAM permissions: The RAM user must have the permissions to download backup files. To grant the permissions to a RAM user, see Grant permissions to a read-only RAM user to download backup files.

    Limitations

    • Unsupported objects: Downloaded backup files do not include expression indexes, foreign keys, generated columns, hidden columns, views, functions, stored procedures, system variables, or triggers.

    • Unsupported databases: The download does not include system databases such as information_schema, mysql, performance_schema, sys, and __recycle_bin__.

    • Unsupported data types: The download task may fail if a table contains special data types such as GEOMETRY, POINT, LINESTRING, POLYGON, MULTIPOINT, MULTILINESTRING, MULTIPOLYGON, or GEOMETRYCOLLECTION.

    • Name restrictions: Database and table names cannot contain the forward slash (/) character, or the download task will fail.

    • Storage type restrictions: If the download destination is an OSS bucket, the storage class of the target bucket must be Standard. To save a downloaded backup to an OSS bucket with a different storage class, use one of the following methods:

      • Method 1: Download the backup to a bucket that uses the Standard storage class, and then convert the storage class.

      • Method 2: Download the backup to your computer, and then upload it to the destination bucket.

    Procedure

    1. Go to the backup list

      1. Go to the RDS instance list. In the top navigation bar, select the region where your RDS instance resides. Then, find your RDS instance and click its ID.

      2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Restoration > Base Backups.

    2. Start a download task

      • Download a log backup: On the Log Backup tab, find the desired log file and click Download in the Actions column. Log backup must be enabled.

      • Download a data backup: On the Data Backup tab, find the backup set that you want to download and click Download Instance Backup in the Actions column.

    3. Configure instance backup download parameters

      1. In the Download Time Point and Backup Set step, select Download by Backup Set or Download by Time Point based on your business requirements, and then click Next.

      2. In the Download Instance and Database/Table step, keep the default setting (instance download), and click Next.

      3. In the Download Destination and Format step, configure the download destination and format.

        Download destination

        Configuration

        OSS (Recommended)

        1. Enter the name of the destination OSS bucket and a directory prefix.

        2. Select a download format: CSV (without header), CSV-with-header, SQL, Parquet, or qb.xb (physical backup).

        3. If this is the first time you use this feature, click Go to Authorize > Agree to Authorization as prompted to grant ApsaraDB RDS the permissions to access OSS.

        URL

        1. Select URL.

        2. Select a download format.

        3. After the task succeeds, you must manually generate a download link, which is valid for a limited time.

    4. Confirm and execute Read the notice and check the box, and then click Finish. You are redirected to the Backup Download List tab, where you can monitor the task status.

    5. Obtain the backup file

      • OSS method: After the task status changes to Successful, the file is automatically downloaded to the specified OSS bucket and directory.

      • URL method: After the task status changes to Successful, click Generate Link in the Download Destination column within the validity period of 3 days. Then, set the validity period of the link, which can range from 5 minutes to 1 day. The default validity period is 2 hours. After you set the validity period, you can obtain an internal or public network download address. The system automatically deletes the temporary data when the task and link expire. If the link expires, you must start a new download task.

      Important

      The conversion process competes for computing resources, and downloads may fail due to temporary resource allocation issues or unsupported data formats. If a task fails, we recommend retrying.

    6. Use a command-line tool to download the file

      After you obtain the URL for the download:

      • Use a command-line tool, such as wget or curl, to download the file. This is the recommended method. For more information, see Appendix 1: Download commands in this topic.

      • If the file is small, you can copy the public network URL to the address bar of your browser.

    Download from high-performance local disk instances

    Downloading backups from an instance that uses a high-performance local disk is more direct because it does not require data format conversion. You can immediately obtain the download link for a physical backup or a log backup.

    Prerequisites

    Before you start, make sure that the instance meets all the following conditions:

    Procedure

    1. Go to the backup list

      1. Go to the RDS instance list. In the top navigation bar, select the region where your RDS instance resides. Then, find your RDS instance and click its ID.

      2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Backup and Restoration > Base Backup List.

    2. Obtain the download link

      1. Click the Data Backup or Log Backup tab.

      2. Find the backup file that you want to download and click Download Instance Backup or Download in the Actions column.

      3. In the dialog box that appears, you can copy the internal URL or the public network URL.

        • Internal URL: Recommended. To use this fast and free method, download the backup from an Alibaba Cloud ECS instance in the same region and VPC as the RDS instance. Cross-region downloads over the internal network are not supported.

        • Public network URL: Use this URL to download from your computer or another network environment.

    3. Use a command-line tool to download the file

      After you obtain the URL for the download:

      • Use a command-line tool, such as wget or curl, to download the file. This is the recommended method. For more information, see Appendix 1: Download commands in this topic.

      • If the file is small, you can copy the public network URL to the address bar of your browser.

    Note

    • The backup download link is valid for 48 hours. Download the file promptly to avoid expiration. If the link expires, you must start a new download task to obtain a new link. A download already in progress is not affected by link expiration.

    • A log backup is a backup of local logs. To obtain local logs, see mysqlbinlog.

    • If an instance is of the High-availability Edition or three-node edition, both the primary and secondary instances generate log backups. You can view the IDs of the primary and secondary instances on the Service Availability page.

    • If you want to restore data to a self-managed database, the point in time of the data backup must be within the time range of the log backup. The log backup and data backup must be from the same instance.

    Appendix 1: Download commands

    After you obtain a URL for the download, we recommend that you use a command-line tool, such as wget or curl, to download the file. These tools support resumable downloads and help ensure stability.

    Note

    • If the network download speed is lower than 64 KB/s, the download may be interrupted. Make sure that you have a stable network connection during the download.

    • If you download a backup file to an ossfs-mounted disk, you may also need to adjust the multipart_size parameter of ossfs. By default, this parameter supports a maximum file size of 100 GB. If a backup set is larger than 100 GB, the download fails. For more information about ossfs and how to configure its parameters, see ossfs and Mounting options.

    • We recommend using the wget or curl commands provided in this topic to download backup sets. Other third-party tools might repeatedly download the file, causing the downloaded data size to exceed the backup set size. This results in extra public network traffic fees.

    wget

    nohup wget -c -t 0 "Backup file download URL" -O "Path and filename for the downloaded file" > "Download process monitoring log" &

    Parameter description:

    Parameter

    Description

    nohup

    Keeps the download process running even if the terminal is disconnected. The process exits automatically upon completion.

    -t

    The number of retries. If you set this parameter to 0, an unlimited number of retries are allowed.

    -c

    Enables resumable downloads.

    -O

    The path and filename for the downloaded file.

    Example:

    nohup wget -c -t 0 "https://dbs-****.aliyundoc.com/****.tar.gz****" -O /backup/examplebackup.tar.gz > /tmp/download.log &

    curl

    nohup curl -C - --retry 10 "Backup file download URL" -o "Path and filename for the downloaded file" > "Download process monitoring log" &

    Parameter description:

    Parameter

    Description

    nohup

    Keeps the download process running even if the terminal is disconnected. The process exits automatically upon completion.

    --retry

    The number of retries that are allowed if the task fails. In this example, the value is set to 10, which indicates that 10 retries are allowed.

    -C -

    Enables automatic resumable downloads.

    -o

    The path and filename for the downloaded file.

    Example:

    nohup curl -C - --retry 10 "https://dbs-****.aliyundoc.com/****.tar.gz****" -o examplebackup.tar.gz > /tmp/download.log &

    Appendix 2: Use cases

    Scenario and purpose

    Recommendation

    • Migrate data from an RDS instance to another RDS instance or a self-managed database

    • Restore an existing backup

    Choose one of the following methods:

    • Query data from a specific point in time

    • Query data from a backup

    Choose one of the following methods:

    • Restore the backup to a pay-as-you-go or serverless instance, query the data, and then release the instance. For more information, see Restore the data of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.

    • Follow the instructions in this topic to download the backup and restore it to a self-managed database for querying.

    • Save a local copy of a backup

    • Download a backup for auditing

    Choose one of the following methods:

    Upload a backup to OSS

    RDS backups are stored in a dedicated backup storage space and do not occupy the storage space of your instance. To store backups in an OSS bucket, you can choose one of the following methods:

    • For an eligible instance that uses cloud disks, you can create an advanced download task as described in this topic and choose to save the downloaded data directly to an OSS bucket during the task configuration. For other instances that use cloud disks or instances that use a high-performance local disk, you can first download the backup as described in this topic and then upload it to OSS.

    • Use DBS to create a backup and select User OSS as the storage type. You can then directly use the disaster recovery feature of DBS to restore the backup data from the OSS bucket to the RDS instance.

    Retain backups long-term

    Automatically download backups

    Download a binary log

    • Instances that use cloud disks: After you enable the log backup feature, which is enabled by default, local logs (binary logs) are uploaded or copied to a backup storage space in real time to form log backups. You can download the log backup for the desired point in time. For more information, see Download from cloud disk instances.

    • Instances that use a high-performance local disk: For more information, see Download from high-performance local disk instances.

    Related documents

    FAQ

    Can I upload ApsaraDB RDS database backups to OSS?

    Yes, you can. For an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance that uses cloud disks, you can create an advanced download task for a specific point in time or a specific backup set. You can also save the downloaded data directly to your OSS bucket. For more information, see Download from cloud disk instances in this topic. You can also download backups from an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance that uses cloud disks or a high-performance local disk to your computer and then upload the backups to an OSS bucket.

    Is there a bandwidth limit for downloading MySQL backups over the public network?

    ApsaraDB RDS does not impose a bandwidth limit. The public network download speed depends on your local network's bandwidth. Limited local bandwidth may restrict download speed. In addition, when you download backup data by using a public network URL, you must pay for the public network traffic that exceeds the free quota. For more information, see Billing.

    How do I use downloaded data backups and log backups?

    You can restore the backup files that you download from an instance that uses a high-performance local disk to a self-managed database. For more information, see Restore a physical backup file of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance to a self-managed database or Restore a logical backup file of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance to a self-managed database.

    Can I convert the default qp.xb format of physical backups for an instance that uses a high-performance local disk to the .gz format?

    • If the Restore data to databases or tables feature is enabled for the instance, the backup compression format must be qp.xb. The format cannot be converted.

    • If the Restore data to databases or tables feature is not enabled for the instance, you can call the ModifyBackupPolicy operation to change the backup set compression format from qp.xb to tar.gz. This operation changes only the compression method of the backup set and does not affect the instance in other ways.

    When I restore data downloaded from an instance that uses cloud disks to a local MySQL database, the error ERROR 1148 (42000): The used command is not allowed with this MySQL version is reported. How do I fix this issue?

    Run the show variables like 'local_infile'; command on the MySQL database. If the value of the local_infile parameter is OFF, run the following statement to enable file import: set global local_infile = 1;. After you perform this operation, run the import script again.

    Why is the backup size displayed in the console different from the actual size of the downloaded backup file?

    The downloaded backup file is compressed and is generally smaller than the backup size displayed in the console. You can restore the file and check whether the data is complete. For more information, see Restore a snapshot backup of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance to a self-managed database.

    Can I directly restore a backup file downloaded from the ApsaraDB RDS console to another ApsaraDB RDS instance?

    No. A backup file downloaded from the ApsaraDB RDS console cannot be directly restored to another RDS instance. Instead, perform one of the following operations:

    Can an in-progress backup download task be canceled?

    No, a backup download task cannot be canceled after it starts.

    What do I do if some data is missing from the backup list?

    You can perform the following steps:

    1. Restore the full data to a new instance.

    2. On the new instance, check and confirm which tables or data are missing.

    3. Export the missing tables or data from the original instance.

    4. Use DTS to synchronize the exported data from the original instance to the restored new instance.

    When I use an internal URL to download a backup, the "ERROR 403: Forbidden." error is reported. How do I fix this issue?

    1. Check whether the instance meets the conditions for an internal network connection. Make sure that the ECS instance in the VPC can communicate with the RDS instance over the internal network.

    2. Check whether the format of the download command is correct. For example, check whether the download URL uses standard double quotation marks (" ").

    If you still cannot access the RDS instance over the internal network, try to use a public network URL to download the backup.

    How do I delete expired backup information from the backup download list?

    Information in the backup download list cannot be deleted. This does not affect the use of the instance.

    Can I directly import a downloaded backup file into a self-managed database?

    A physical backup cannot be directly imported into a self-managed database. To import a backup, we recommend that you manually create a logical backup, download it to your computer, and then import it.

    When I use the wget command to download a backup, the "ERROR 504: Gateway Time-out" error is reported. How do I fix this issue?

    When you run the wget command, we recommend that you add the --read-timeout=300 --connect-timeout=300 parameter.

    Does downloading a backup use the bandwidth of the current instance?

    No.

    Downloading over an internal network does not affect the instance bandwidth. Downloading over the public network is billed and depends only on your local network bandwidth.

    Why is the file garbled after I use a download command to download a backup?

    After downloading the backup to your computer or an ECS instance, run the tar -izxvf <compressed_package_filename>.tar.gz -C <path_to_decompressed_file> command to decompress the file and view it in the destination folder.

    How are the downloaded backup files named?

    The backup files are named based on the host ID and the creation time of the instance.

    When I download a backup file to an OSS bucket, the "Unsupported bucket XXX's StorageClass is IA, Please Use bucket's StorageClass is Standard" error is reported. How do I fix this issue?

    When you download a backup to an OSS bucket, the storage class of the bucket must be Standard. If you want to save the downloaded backup to an OSS bucket that uses a different storage class, use one of the following methods:

    • Method 1: Download the backup to a bucket that uses Standard storage, and then convert the storage class.

    • Method 2: Download the backup to your computer, and then upload it to the destination bucket.

    Why can't I find the backup download buttons in the console?

    • If your instance is a primary instance, it must meet the prerequisites for backup download.

    • If your instance is a read-only instance, you must download the backup from its corresponding primary instance because read-only instances are not backed up.

    Why am I charged even though I did not download any backups?

    You were likely charged a backup set conversion fee. This fee is charged when you use the advanced download feature of a cloud disk instance to convert a snapshot backup into a CSV (without header), CSV-with-header (with header), SQL, or Parquet file. You can view the corresponding Backup Conversion Traffic in the Backup Download List.

    For more information about downloading backups, see FAQ about backup downloads.