There are several ways to backup and restore data on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
If you need to backup data on Amazon services, such as Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS), Elastic File System (EFS), DynamoDB, or the Relational Database Service (RDS), you can use AWS Backup. AWS Backup is a central interface that allows you to perform manual and automated backups for many Amazon services.
If you are backing up data from EC2 instances, you can leverage backup capabilities in EBS volumes and EFS file shares, which are commonly used to store data from EC2 instances.
If you need to back up data from on-premises systems to Amazon, you can save data directly to Amazon S3, an elastic object storage service that provides high durability, unlimited scale and low storage costs. For more advanced scenarios, you can use Storage Gateway, an Amazon appliance that can perform regular scheduled backups from on-premise systems to the Amazon cloud.
This is part of our series of articles about AWS backup.
In this article:
Here are several Amazon services you can use to back up data, both for on-premise and cloud-based systems.
AWS Backup is a fully managed backup service that automates and centralizes backup of data over AWS services, including:
AWS Backup consolidates and automates backup tasks, avoiding the requirement to set up backup for each Amazon service separately via manual processes and custom scripts. AWS Backup is a managed solution, which simplifies backup processes and lets the organization fulfil its regulatory and compliance needs.
Amazon’s object storage solution is Amazon S3, which stores unlimited volumes of structured and unstructured data. It provides several data tiers, making it possible to move data that is accessed less frequently to an archive tier, to conserve costs.
Amazon S3 has query-in-place operations, which lets organizations run analytics straight on its data at rest. The service also allows for S3 Transfer Acceleration, which is designed to enable quick, secure data transfers over extended distances.
S3 provides two storage tiers that are useful for backup scenarios:
Storage Gateway is Amazon’s solution for hybrid storage management. This service allows on-premises applications to connect to AWS storage services including S3, S3 Glacier, and EBS.
An organization can use Storage Gateway to transfer information into the cloud via common storage interfaces, including iSCSI and NFS. The service provides support for three data formats: object storage and tape backup (via S3), and block storage (via EBS).
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) offers persistent block storage volumes, which can be used with Amazon EBS instances. Every volume is replicated automatically to safeguard from component malfunction. With Amazon EBS, organizations can scale usage within minutes, either up or down, and Amazon charges per storage provision. A snapshot feature enables organizations to backup and protect the information kept on Amazon EBS volumes (snapshots are stored on S3).
Related content: Read our guide for transferring data from EBS to S3
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) offers file storage that is scalable. EC2 instances attached to EFS can share files between them using traditional mounted folders. This makes it easier to move existing applications to the cloud, by mirroring the folder structure in the on-premise environment.
Amazon EFS provides built-in backup capabilities - it automatically generates file system backups according to a predefined schedule.
Related content: Read our guide to AWS backup pricing
In AWS Backup, you can initiate backups manually, using on-demand backups, or automatically by defining backup plans.
To perform an on-demand backup:
When you reinstate a backup in AWS Backup, it produces a new resource derived from the backup. For every restore, you should outline the restore parameters.
To restore an Amazon EBS volume using AWS Backup:
NetApp Cloud Backup is a backup and restore service that supports AWS and other public clouds, for NetApp Cloud Volumes deployments and on-premises ONTAP clusters. Integrated into NetApp Cloud Manager, Cloud Backup is easily enabled, automated, and scaled allowing you to keep your data safe and compliant, overcoming traditional industry challenges.
Leveraging NetApp’s SnapMirror Cloud replication technology, backups are transferred and stored in a highly durable cloud-based object storage. Backups are automatically generated and stored in an object store within your cloud account, independent of volume Snapshot copies used for near-term recovery or cloning, so that you can effortlessly restore data anytime and to anywhere you need it.
By preserving storage efficiencies and performing block level incremental updates forever, Cloud Backup guarantees minimal data footprint to transfer, leading to optimal bandwidth consumption, reduced performance impact on production and meeting SLA.
The highest level of security as backup copies are stored in your own object storage. As well, data is end-to-end encrypted with AES-256-bit encryption at-rest and with TLS 1.2 HTTPS connections when in-flight.
