This topic provides an overview of ECS Backup Essential Edition, including the introduction, benefits, working mechanism, procedure, and billing of ECS Backup Essential Edition.
Introduction
ECS Backup Essential Edition is a subscription service provided by Cloud Backup to protect Elastic Compute Service (ECS) data. ECS Backup Essential Edition supports basic backup for ECS files, ECS-hosted databases including MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server databases, and ECS instances. ECS Backup Essential Edition is suitable for small and medium-sized customers or developers who need to back up and restore ECS data and meet compliance requirements.
ECS Backup Essential Edition is available only in some regions. For more information about the supported regions, see Supported regions for subscription instances of ECS Backup Essential Edition.
Benefits
Easy budget estimation
Billing of ECS Backup Essential Edition is only related to the number of ECS instances that need to be backed up. The storage space occupied by the data that is deduplicated and compressed is not billed.
Controllable costs
If the total amount of ECS data protected by each subscription instance exceeds 500 GB, the backup fails, preventing unexpected fees.
Simple configurations
ECS Backup Essential Edition has the following advantages: highly simplified backup process, preset policies, easy configuration, and low learning costs.
User-friendly GUI
All operations are performed on one graphical user interface (GUI). You do not need to switch between pages, implementing efficient backup management.
Scenarios
Budget-sensitive scenarios that require simple backup and restoration of ECS files, ECS-hosted databases, and ECS instances.
For example, you have deployed an ECS instance in a region. 200 GB of files on the ECS instance require backup, and 150 GB of files on a MySQL database require backup. The backup and restoration requirements are simple. Only simple ECS file backup and MySQL database backup are required to ensure that data can be restored if lost. Enterprise-class capabilities such as remote disaster recovery and cross-account backup are not required. ECS Backup Essential Edition offers significant benefits in such scenarios.
Working mechanism
ECS Backup Essential Edition provides the following features: ECS file backup, ECS instance backup, and ECS-hosted database backup. ECS Backup Essential Edition has the same working mechanism as Cloud Backup. ECS Backup Essential Edition simplifies the billing method and workflow, and helps you manage backups in a more cost-effective, efficient, and centralized manner.
For more information about the backup features, see the following topics:
The following figure shows the GUI for ECS file backup, ECS-hosted database backup, and ECS instance backup of ECS Backup Essential Edition.
Limits
The maximum amount of ECS data that can be protected by each subscription instance of ECS Backup Essential Edition is 500 GB. The limit applies only to the data volume of ECS files and ECS-hosted databases, and does not apply to the data volume of ECS instances. If the limit is exceeded, the backup job fails. To prevent backup failure, you can reduce the number of files and databases to be backed up, or use Cloud Backup instead.
A subscription instance of ECS Backup Essential Edition can be bound to only one ECS instance.
Fixed backup policy: The backup is performed once a day, the backup data is retained for 30 days, and the policy cannot be modified.
A single backup point cannot be deleted.
Mirror vaults (for cross-region backup) are not supported.
Cross-account backup is not supported.
Automatic archiving of backup data is not supported.
ECS-hosted database backup does not support real-time backup or log backup. The system automatically configures the settings of full backup and incremental backup.
ECS instance backup does not support application-consistent backup settings or cross-instance consistency groups.
Procedure
The following procedure describes how to purchase a subscription instance of ECS Backup Essential Edition and use it for data backup and restoration in the Cloud Backup console:
Purchase a subscription instance of ECS Backup Essential Edition
Before you back up ECS files, ECS-hosted databases, and ECS instances on the unified GUI, you must purchase a subscription instance of ECS Backup Essential Edition.
Bind the subscription instance of ECS Backup Essential Edition to an ECS instance. Then, you can back up ECS files, ECS-hosted databases, and ECS instances on the unified GUI.
Restore ECS files, ECS instances, and ECS-hosted databases
If an exception occurs on the ECS files, ECS-hosted databases, and ECS instances, you can click an available recovery point on the timeline of historical backups to start the restoration. You can also add an ECS instance that is used only for restoration as the restoration destination. When conditions are appropriate, you can change the ECS instance to an ECS instance that is used for general backup and restoration.
Billing
You are charged for using ECS Backup Essential Edition based on the following billable item:
Subscription instance of ECS Backup Essential Edition
You must purchase a subscription instance of ECS Backup Essential Edition in advance. You are charged for the number of instances of ECS Backup Essential Edition based on the subscription billing method. You are charged only for the subscription instances of ECS Backup Essential Edition when you use ECS Backup Essential Edition to back up data. For more information, see Pricing of Cloud Backup.
NoteECS instance backup is a backup orchestration service provided by Cloud Backup based on the snapshot feature. If you need to back up ECS instances, you must activate the snapshot service. When you back up ECS instances for the first time, you can follow the instructions to activate the snapshot service.
The capacity involved in ECS instance backup is not included in the total data quota of the protected ECS instances. You are not charged for using Cloud Backup clients and storage of Cloud Backup. The snapshot fee is included into your snapshot service bill. For more information, see Billing overview.
Differences between the billing methods of ECS Backup Essential Edition and standard backup features of Cloud Backup
Standard backup features of Cloud Backup | ECS Backup Essential Edition | |
Billable item |
| Only one billable item (the subscription instance of ECS Backup Essential Edition) is involved. The fee is simple and predictable. If the capacity is insufficient, the backup is stopped and a notification is sent to you. No fee is automatically incurred. If you use the ECS instance backup feature, the snapshot fee is included into your snapshot service bill. |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go or resource plans | Only the subscription instance of ECS Backup Essential Edition is billed. |
What to do next
Learn about how to back up ECS files independently. For more information, see Overview of ECS file backup.
Learn about how to back up ECS-hosted databases independently. For more information, see Overview (ECS database backup).
Learn about how to back up ECS instances independently. For more information, see Overview of ECS instance backup.
Learn about the best practices of Cloud Backup. For more information, see Best Practices.