Cloud Backup is integrated with the Alibaba Cloud snapshot service to provide agentless backup for Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances and disks. Cloud Backup can create crash-consistent snapshots for all disks, including system disks and data disks. You can use these snapshots to back up or restore an entire disk.
Background information
Disk backup is a backup orchestration service that is provided by Cloud Backup based on the snapshot capability of ECS. Before you use the disk backup feature, make sure that the snapshot service is activated. To check whether the snapshot service is activated, go to the Snapshots page in the ECS console.
You are charged for using the snapshot service. For more information, see Snapshots.
The following fees are included into the snapshot service bills: snapshot storage fees in the source region, snapshot storage fees in the destination region, and data transfer fees for snapshot replication. For more information, see Snapshots.
Usage notes
You cannot use the disk backup feature to back up or restore local disks. For more information, see Local disks.
If you use local disks to store data, your data may be lost. We recommend that you use the ECS file backup feature to protect your files in local disks and use the database backup feature to protect your databases that are deployed in local disks. For more information, see Back up files from an ECS instance and Database backup.
Procedure
When you add an ECS instance and disks, make sure that the disks are in the In Use or Unattached state. If the disks are in the In Use state, the ECS instance must be in the Running or Stopped state.
Log on to the Cloud Backup console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose .
In the top navigation bar, select a region.
Click Disk Backup Wizard.
In the Disk Backup Wizard panel, select the disks that you want to back up and click Next.
In the Configure Backup Policy step, set the Backup Type parameter to Manual Backup or Auto Backup.
Manual Backup
If Manual Backup is specified, you must enter the name of the backup file in the Backup Name field.
The name must be 2 to 128 characters in length, and can contain only the following special characters: periods (.), underscores (_), hyphens (-), and colons (:). The name cannot start with auto, a special character, or a digit.
Auto Backup
ImportantIf you select a region that supports backup policies, associate a backup policy with the ECS disks that you want to back up. Cloud Backup periodically backs up the ECS disks.
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.
If you select a region that does not support backup policies, configure a backup plan.
Parameter
Description
Backup Policy
Select a proper backup policy from the drop-down list.
Cloud Backup automatically backs up data sources based on the backup policy that you configure. Backup policies help you flexibly manage data sources. A backup policy includes the following settings: backup vault encryption method, backup interval, retention period, cross-region replication policy, and automatic archiving of backup data.
If the default backup policy does not meet your requirements, you can click Create Policy or Edit Policy to create or modify a backup policy.
For more information about the parameters in a backup policy, see Manage backup policies.
Click OK.
After the backup policy is created, you can view the progress of disk backup on the Protected Disk tab.