ApsaraDB RDS provides two backup types and two restoration methods to protect your data and recover from failures.
Backup
RDS supports two backup types that together define your recovery options:
Data backup: Required. RDS performs at least two physical backups per week. Trigger a manual backup at any time from the ApsaraDB RDS console or by calling an API operation to meet your operations and maintenance (O&M) needs. Data backup files are retained for 7 to 730 days.
Log backup: Optional. When disabled, data can only be restored to the point when the most recent data backup was created. Log backup files follow the same retention policy as data backup files.
For configuration details, see Automatic and manual backups.
Restoration
RDS supports two restoration methods:
Restoration from a data backup file: Restore from a specific data backup file to a temporary or clone instance. Use this method when you want to recover to a known-good state from a completed backup.
Restoration to a point in time: Select a point in time. RDS finds the full backup file closest to that point, then applies subsequent log backup files to bring the data up to the exact moment you specified.
| Restore from backup file | Restore to point in time | |
|---|---|---|
| Requires log backup | No | Yes |
| Recovery granularity | Backup snapshot | Point in time |
| Restore target | Temporary or clone instance | Temporary or clone instance |
| Use when | You want to recover to a specific completed backup | You want to minimize data loss by recovering to a precise moment |
For details, see Restore the data of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
References
The backup and restoration methods supported vary by database engine. See the feature overview for your engine: