ApsaraDB RDS:Sparse backup

Prerequisites

• If you are using the RDS backup service for the first time, you must use your Alibaba Cloud account to authorize the service-linked role for Data Disaster Recovery (AliyunServiceRoleForDBS). For more information, see Authorize the service-linked role for Data Disaster Recovery.

• You have switched the backup policy page to the Premium Edition. For more information, see Switch to the advanced backup policy.

  Note

  You must switch to the premium backup policy page before you can set a backup policy to implement sparse backup.

Differences between regular and sparse backups

Precautions

• A sparse backup policy takes effect in about 10 to 15 minutes after it is configured.

• The first backup policy for the instance is fixed to Every Week, must be configured for backups on at least two days, and cannot be deleted.

• If multiple sparse backup policies are scheduled for the same day, the system generates only one backup set and retains it for the longest specified retention period.

• After you delete a sparse backup policy, the backup sets that have been generated are still retained for their original retention period.

• After you configure a sparse backup policy, if a backup set fails to be generated or dumped within the backup window on a specific day, the backup for that day is skipped. No extra backup set is retained. Examples of failures include a failed backup, a locked instance, or a dump that is not completed before the level-1 backup expires.

  For example, you set a policy to perform a backup on the first day of each month and retain the backup set for 30 days. If the backup fails within the backup window on December 1, no backup set is retained for December 1.

Billing

You are not charged for backups if the total size of your backup sets does not exceed your free quota. If the free quota is exceeded, you are charged for backup storage costs. For more information about the free quota and billing, see Backup storage costs.

Switch to the advanced backup policy

You must switch to the advanced backup policy page to set a backup policy that implements sparse backup. If you have already switched, you can skip this step.

1. Go to the Instances page. In the top navigation bar, select the region in which the RDS instance resides. Then, find the RDS instance and click the ID of the instance.

2. In the navigation pane on the left, click Backup and Restoration.

3. On the Backup and Restoration page, click the Backup Strategy tab. Then, click Switch to Advanced Backup Policy.

   

   Important

   If the Switch to Advanced Backup Policy button is not displayed on the page, submit a ticket to request access. After your request is approved, refresh the page and proceed with the following steps.

4. In the dialog box that appears, select Understood and click OK.

   Important

   The backup policy page of the instance is switched to the premium version. You cannot switch back to the basic version.

   The Backup Policy page appears as shown in the following figure. This indicates that you have switched to the advanced backup policy page. You can now set a sparse backup policy on this page.

Set a sparse backup policy

You can manually configure one or more backup policies to retain the minimum number of backup sets. This is known as sparse backup.

1. Go to the Instances page. In the top navigation bar, select the region in which the RDS instance resides. Then, find the RDS instance and click the ID of the instance.

2. In the navigation pane on the left, click Backup and Restoration.

3. On the Backup and Restoration page, click the Backup Strategy tab. Then, click the circled number between MySQL and Level-1 Backup.

   

4. In the dialog box that appears, click Add Backup Policy, configure the sparse backup policy, and then click OK.

   Backup Cycle	Backup Time	Retention Period
   Every Week	You can select one or more days of the week.	You can set a different retention period for each policy. The retention period can range from 7 to 7,300 days. Note You can also select Long-term Retention for a backup policy to retain the backup sets for a long term.
   Every Month	You can select one or more days of the month, or select Last Day Of Each Month.
   Every Year	You can select a specific day of the year. For example, you can select January 1.

   Note

   • RDS for MySQL 5.6 and 5.7 instances of the high-availability series that use high-performance local disks support High-frequency Incremental Backup. You can enable and configure this feature. In addition to the full backups that are performed at the specified time points, the system preferentially performs physical incremental backups at the specified High-frequency Incremental Backup Frequency. For more information about this feature, see Use the high-frequency physical backup feature.

     • The retention period for high-frequency incremental backup sets ranges from 7 to 30 days. This retention period must be shorter than or equal to the retention period specified in the backup policy.

     • If a full backup set expires but the incremental backup sets that are based on it have not expired, the full backup set is not automatically deleted. The full backup set and all its subsequent incremental backup sets are deleted together only after all the incremental backup sets expire.

   • The first backup policy for the instance is fixed to Every Week, must be configured for backups on at least two days, and cannot be deleted.

   • For information about other parameter settings, see Automatic backup and Backup encryption.

5. In the lower-left corner of the Backup Policy tab, click Save.

What to do next