Cloud Backup:Overview

Introduction

Cloud Backup provides the on-premises file backup feature to protect the files on your on-premises servers. Cloud Backup allows you to back up on-premises files to the cloud in a simple, secure, and reliable manner. If data is accidentally deleted or your production system encounters ransomware attacks, you can restore data from backup vaults.

Benefits

• No hardware investment

  The Cloud Backup client migrates backup data from the on-premises server to the cloud. You do not need to purchase hardware devices.

• Flexible backup policies

  You can configure scheduled backup plans by hour, day, week, month, and year, and specify the retention period of the backup data.

• Deduplication and compression

  When Cloud Backup backs up on-premises files, the Cloud Backup client compresses and deduplicates the data. This minimizes the bandwidth of backing up data to the cloud and the storage space occupied by the backup data.

• Immutable backup against accidental or malicious deletion

  Cloud Backup provides the immutable backup feature based on backup vaults. Backup data cannot be deleted by any account or method before the configured retention period expires.

• Multi-branch management and cross-account backup

  You can use Cloud Backup to perform unified backup for multiple branches in different regions. After you grant the required permissions, you can use Account A to back up the data of Account B. This allows you to centrally manage data protection.

How it works

You must install and activate the Cloud Backup client on the servers from which you need to back up files. You need to install the Cloud Backup client on each server only once. The client backs up the specified folders on each server based on the backup plan that you configure.

When a backup plan is running, the Cloud Backup client scans the specified folders to identify the files to be backed up, compresses and deduplicates the source data, and then uploads incremental data to the cloud. Cloud Backup uses an incremental-forever backup strategy. Except for the first full backup job, each subsequent backup job uploads only the data that has changed compared with the previous backup job. A complete full backup is synthesized on the cloud to minimize network and storage consumption.

Cloud Backup allows you to back up data to Alibaba Cloud over the Internet, virtual private networks (VPNs), or Express Connect circuits. If you back up data over the Internet, you must make sure that the source servers can access the Internet. You do not need to expose the IP addresses of the servers to the Internet.

Procedure

The following procedure shows how to back up on-premises files in the Cloud Backup console.

1. Activate Cloud Backup

   You are not charged for activating Cloud Backup. You are charged for the Cloud Backup client that you use to back up files and the storage usage of backup vaults. For more information, see Billing methods and billable items.

2. Install a Cloud Backup client

   A backup client is used to establish communication and control services between your on-premises server and Cloud Backup. After the client is installed, Activated is displayed in the Client Status column on the Clients tab.

   You can view the installation path, logs, and status of the Cloud Backup client on the server. For more information, see Where do I view the default installation path and logs of a Cloud Backup client?

3. Back up on-premises files

   When you create a backup plan, configure the backup vault, source paths, backup cycle, and retention period. Cloud Backup starts the backup plan and continuously backs up the specified on-premises files to Alibaba Cloud. You can view backed-up files at any time.

   Important

   • If the region that you select supports backup policies, you can set a backup plan only by associating it with a backup policy. Cloud Backup periodically backs up on-premises files based on the backup policy.

   • To view the regions that support backup policies, click Policy Center in the left-side navigation pane of the Cloud Backup console. For more information about how to create a backup policy, see Create a backup policy.

   • Backup plans are upgraded to backup policies. If you are using a backup plan of the previous version, you can create a backup policy or bind a backup policy to the backup plan when you edit the backup plan. After the upgrade, the backup history of the previous backup plan still exists. To ensure that you are able to view the backup history, we recommend that you use the same backup vault for the old backup plan and the new backup policy.

4. Restore on-premises files

   If an exception occurs in an on-premises file, you can restore the file based on the data that has been backed up. You can restore backup files to the source path of the original server, a new path (created in advance), an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, or a new on-premises server. If you restore backup files to an ECS instance, you must install a Cloud Backup client on the ECS instance. If you restore backup files to another on-premises server, you must install a Cloud Backup client on the new on-premises server.

   Important

   • Before you restore files to a new path on the source on-premises server, you must create the path.

   • Before you restore files to an ECS instance, you must install a Cloud Backup client on the ECS instance. You can automatically install a Cloud Backup client on the ECS File Backup page. If the client is used only for recovery, no client usage fees are incurred. If the client is used for backup, client usage fees and storage usage fees are incurred.

   • Before you restore files to another on-premises server, you must install a Cloud Backup client on the on-premises server. For more information, see Billing methods and billable items.

     • If the client is used only for recovery, no client usage fees are incurred.

     • If the client is used for backup, client usage fees and storage usage fees are incurred.

     • If the client restores files over the Internet, outbound fees are incurred.

Billing

What to do next

• Learn about how to back up on-premises files. For more information, see Back up files.

• View answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQ). For more information, see On-premises backup FAQ.

• Learn about the best practices of Cloud Backup. For more information, see Best Practices.