Backup management

All operations with the service are effected in the Backup section where you can also find data on the main entities that the service handles.

• Plans

• Protected resources

• Recovery points

• Jobs

• Agent solutions

To enable users to manage backup, add them to the BackupOperators or BackupAdministrators group. The first one provides all the necessary rights to manage and perform backups excluding the right to delete backups. The second group makes deletion possible, however, if backup rules are configured properly, there is generally no need to delete recovery points manually, as they are deleted on schedule. Thus, to use backup, we recommend you to add users to the BackupOperators group, while the BackupAdministrators group should be exclusive for backup administrators, if any.

Backup plan

Backup plan enables you to specify backup rules and resources to which these rules are applied to. See the relevant section to learn more on how to use backup plans and rules.

Create a backup plan

To create a backup plan:

1. Go to Backup Plans and click Create.

2. In the dialog window, specify the plan name and rule parameters:

   • Plan name — The name may contain Latin letters, digits, _, - and . symbols.

   • Rule name — The name may contain Latin letters, digits, _, - and . symbols.

   • Vault — Vault cannot be selected yet — only default vault is available.

   • Backup frequency — Schedule according to which recovery points are created. Recovery points can be created at the specified time as frequently as follows:

     • every hour;

     • every 12 hours;

     • daily;

     • weekly.

     For weekly backups, you can specify the days of the week when it should be performed. Moreover, arbitrary schedule can be specified using cron-expressions.

   • Backup window — Backup starts by default within an hour after the time specified at the previous step. You can specify another backup window by selecting the User settings option.

     Note

     By upsizing the window, you lower the chance of skipping the scheduled backup because the cloud will have more time to plan the workload and complete the backup job.

   • Retention period for backups — You can choose the number of days, weeks, months or even years for how long the recovery points should be retained. In addition, you can enable unlimited retention period.

3. To create a plan, click on Create — the resources for which recovery points should be created against the plan can be added later. If you want to specify the resources straight away, click on Create plan and add resources to go to the next step.

4. To add resources, indicate the selection name and select protected resources (for details, see how to create a selection). After selecting all the resources, click Add selection.

After the plan is created, you can add additional rules.

Add a rule

To add an additional rule to a backup plan:

1. Go to the Backup section Plans.

2. Click on the plan name in the resource table to go to its page.

3. Open the Rules tab and click Add.

4. In the dialog window, set the rule parameters.

   • Rule name — The name may contain Latin letters, digits, _, - and . symbols.

   • Vault — Vault cannot be selected yet — only default vault is available.

   • Backup frequency — Schedule according to which recovery points are created. As a rule, recovery points can be created at the specified time as frequently as follows:

     • every hour;

     • every 12 hours;

     • daily;

     • weekly.

     For weekly backup, you can specify the days of the week when it should be performed. Moreover, arbitrary schedule can be specified using cron-expressions.

   • Backup window — Backup starts by default within an hour after the time specified at the previous step. You can specify another backup window by selecting the User settings option.

   • Retention period for backups — You can choose the number of days, weeks, months or even years for how long the recovery points should be retained. In addition, you can enable unlimited retention period.

5. Click Create.

Modify a rule

To modify the rules in the backup plan:

1. Go to the Backup section Plans.

2. Click on the plan name in the resource table to go to its page.

3. Open the Rules tab, select the rule in the resource table and click on:bdg-light:Modify.

4. In the window opens, modify the necessary parameters of the rule:

   • Rule name — The name may contain Latin letters, digits, _, - and . symbols.

   • Vault — Vault cannot be selected yet — only default vault is available.

   • Backup frequency — Schedule according to which recovery points are created. As a rule, recovery points can be created at the specified time as frequently as follows:

     • every hour;

     • every 12 hours;

     • daily;

     • weekly.

     For weekly backup, you can specify the days of the week when it should be performed. Moreover, arbitrary schedule can be specified using cron-expressions.

   • Backup window — Backup starts by default within an hour after the time specified at the previous step. You can specify another backup window by selecting the User settings option.

   • Retention period for backups — You can choose the number of days, weeks, months or even years for how long the recovery points should be retained. In addition, you can enable unlimited retention period.

     Note

     If the retention period is changed, the new value is applied only to newly created backups.

5. Click on Save to apply the changes.

Delete a rule

Note

You cannot delete all the rules — the backup plan should contain at least one rule.

To delete an unnecessary rule from a backup plan:

1. Go to the Backup section Plans.

2. Click on the plan name in the resource table to go to its page.

3. Open the Rules tab and select the rule in the resource table.

4. Click Delete.

5. Confirm deletion.

If you want to delete additional rules, repeat the above steps.

Create a selection

To add resources to the backup schedule, create a selection of resources. A selection can contian different types of resources, but not less than one resource.

1. Go to the Backup section Plans.

2. Click on the plan name in the resource table to go to its page.

3. Open the Resources tab and click Create selection.

4. In the window that opens, specify the selection name. The name may contain Latin letters, digits, _, - and . symbols. To add instances to the selection, click Next.

5. Select the instances to be added to the selection. You can skip this step and proceed with adding volumes by clicking Next.

   To find the required instance, you can search by ID and name. To speed up the search, filter instances by VPC.

   To add a particular instance to the selection, click Add. The instance will be moved to the Selected resources block. To add all filtered instances to the selection, click Add all.

   If any instances were added by mistake, you can remove them from the list: just click Remove to remove a specific instance or Remove All to remove all instances.

   For the selected instance, you can specify which volumes should be excluded from the backup. To do this, in the Volumes field, click the edit icon and, in the drop-down list, uncheck the volumes you want to exclude. By default, all volumes will be included in the recovery point of the instance. To add individual volumes to the selection, click Next.

6. Select the volumes to be added to the selection. You can skip this step and proceed with the selection overview by clicking Next.

   To find the required volume, search it by ID and name.

   To add a particular volume to the selection, click Add. The volume will be moved to the Selected volumes block. To add all filtered volumes to the selection, click Add all.

   If any volumes were added by mistake, click Remove to remove a specific volume or Remove All to remove all volumes.

   To view all added resources, click Next.

7. Check that all necessary resources are added to the selection and click Create.

Modify the selection

Note

If a resource included in the selection was deleted, it will be automatically excluded from it.

If you want to add or exclude resources from a selection:

1. Go to the Backup section Plans.

2. Click on the plan name in the resource table to go to its page.

3. Open the Resources tab, select the resource selection in the table and click on Modify. Alternatively you can right-click the line with the required selection and select Modify.

4. In the dialog window, you can modify the name of the resource selection and add and/or exclude resources from the selection:

   • In the Name field, specify a new selection name, if necessary.

   • To add resources:

     • Go to the Instances step to add instances or go to the Volumes step to add volumes. To add a particular resource to the selection, click Add. To add all filtered resources to the selection, click Add all.

   • To change the volumes to be included in a recovery point of a specific instance:

     • Go to the Instances step and find the desired instance in the Selected instances block.

     • In the Volumes field, click the edit icon and, in the drop-down list, check or uncheck the volumes you want to include in, or exclude from, the backup, respectively.

   • To exclude resources from the selection:

     • Go to the relevant step (Instances or Volumes).

     • In the Selected resources, select resources that you no longer need to back up.

     • To exclude a particular resource, click Remove; to exclude all resources of a certain type, click Remove all.

5. Click on Save to apply the changes.

Delete selection

Note

When the selection is deleted, the resources that the selection contains and their recovery points are not deleted. They are just removed from the backup plan.

To delete the selection from the plan:

1. Go to the Backup section Plans.

2. Click on the plan name in the resource table to go to its page.

3. Open the Resources tab, select the resource selection in the table and click on Delete. Alternatively you can right-click the line with the required selection and select Delete.

4. In the dialog window, confirm the action.

Delete a plan

Note

Before deleting a plan, you should delete the resource selections related to it.

To delete a backup plan:

1. Go to the Backup section Plans.

2. Select the plan in the resource list and click on Delete. Alternatively you can right-click the line with the required plan and select Delete.

3. In the dialog window, confirm the action.

Note

A plan can be also deleted in the Information tab on its page.

Protected resources

In the Protected resources subsection the data on resources for which there are recovery points is shown.

Note

If a resource has been excluded from the backup plan, its recovery points can be obsolete.

To view what recovery points are there for a certain resource:

1. Go to the Backup section ** Protected resources**.

2. Click the ID of the desired resource to go to its page and open the Recovery points tab.

3. To find the desired backup, use search or table sorting by columns.

You can also create a resource from the selected recovery point In the Recovery points tab. The procedure is similar to creating a resource from the recovery point in the Recovery points subsection. Depending on the resource type, either the instance wizard or the volume wizard opens.

To create the resource from a backup:

1. Go to the Backup section ** Protected instances**.

2. Select the resource you want to recover and click on the resource ID to go to its page.

3. Open the Recovery points tab and select a backup in the table, for example, by the date of creation.

4. Click Create resource.

5. Check all the resource parameters and click Create.

Recovery points

Create a recovery point

You can back up an instance or volume upon request. The backup starts within a specified time interval after the request is sent. In case of instances, you can exclude any volumes, except for the system one, from the recovery point.

1. Go to Backup Recovery points and click Create.

2. In the dialog window, select the resource and set the required backup parameters:

   • Type — Select the resource type: instance or volume.

   • Resource — Select the particular resource from the drop-down list.

   • All volumes — (for instances only). Leave Yes if you want to include all volumes. Select No if you want to exclude some volumes, and uncheck the volumes you do not want to include in the recovery point.

   • Vault — Only default vault can be used.

   • Backup Window — Leave Default Settings unchanged to set the minimum backup window, which is 1 hour. Select Custom Settings to increase the backup window, and specify the time interval in hours or minutes.

   • Retention period — You can choose the number of days, weeks, months or even years for how long the recovery points should be retained. By default, the retention period is unlimited.

3. Click Create.

Create the resource from a recovery point

The resource creation procedure differs slightly depending on the resource type.

Create an instance from a backup

When a backup is created, a virtual machine image is created with the corresponding volume snapshots. You can create an instance from this image or create it directly from a backup.

Note

If the user does not belong to the BackupOperator or BackupAdministrator group, but has privileges to create an instance, then it can be created only by using images corresponding to backups.

Along with the backup, information on instance parameters is saved, such as instance type and placement, network settings, etc. When creating an instance directly from a backup, you do not need to redefine all these parameters, so we recommend using the method described in this section.

Note

If user data was specified in binary format using third-party tools, you can neither restore nor re-enter the data in the same format because the instance wizard does not support it.

1. Go to the Backup section Recover points.

2. Select the recovery point from which you want to create an instance. To make searching easier you can filter the backups, for example, by instance ID.

3. Click Create resource. The instance wizard will open at the Review step. If necessary, you can change the instance parameters by returning to the desired step.

4. Check all the instance parameters and click Create.

   Note

   If some parameters are not applicable to the new instance, for example, the instance type is no longer supported, then the instance wizard opens at the step where the missing parameters can be specified so you can enter other values.

You can also create an instance from a backup in the Protected Resources subsection.

Create a volume from a recovery point

When creating a recovery point of a volume, a snapshot is created. You can create a volume from this snapshot or directly from the recovery point.

Note

If the user does not belong to the BackupOperator or BackupAdministrator group, but has privileges to create volumes, then the user can only create the volume from snapshots corresponding to recovery points.

Along with the recovery point, information on backup parameters is saved, such as its type, availability zone and assigned tags. When creating a volume directly from a recovery point, you do not need to redefine these parameters, so we recommend using the method described in this section.

1. Go to the Backup section Recover points.

2. Select the recovery point from which you want to create a volume. To make searching easier you can filter the recovery points, for example, by volume ID.

3. Click Create resource. The volume wizard will open at the Parameters step. If necessary, you can change the parameters and add tags.

4. Check all the volume parameters and click Create volume.

You can also create a volume from a recovery point in the Protected Resources subsection.

Delete a backup

Recovery points are deleted automatically as soon as their retention period expires (when a finite period is specified). You can delete them manually before the expiration date, but we recommend to do this unless absolutely necessary. Manually deleted recovery points are retained for up to five days (see Backup deletion policy).

Note

You must have BackupAdministrator privileges to delete a recovery point.

For details, see the backup deletion policy.

1. Go to the Backup section Recover points.

2. Select the recovery point you want to delete. To make searching easier you can filter the backups, for example, by the resource ID.

3. Click on Delete and confirm the action.

4. If you need to delete other backups, follow steps 2 and 3 repeatedly.

Note

A backup can be also deleted in the Information tab on its page.

Jobs

Information on backup jobs is shown in the Jobs subsection. You can filter the job list by their completion date:

• during the last 24 hours;

• during the last 7 days;

• during the whole period.

Information on backup

The data on the main entities that are used by the backup service can be found in the corresponding subsections of the Backup section.

Subsection	Displayed data
Plans	Plan name Creation date Last runtime Next runtime
Protected resources	Resource ID Last backup Name tag Resource deletion status Resource type
Recovery points	Recovery point ID Resource ID The resource type for which the recovery point is created Backup status Consistency Creation date Information about whether all volumes are included in the recovery point
Jobs	Job ID Job status The resource ID for which the recovery point is created Job creation date The resource type for which the recovery point is being created

For details about a particular entity see the Information tab on its page. To open an entity page, select it in the relevant table and click on the name (in the case of a plan) or ID.

For rule parameters for a specific backup plan see the Rules tab on the plan page which provides the following information:

• Rule name.

• Target backup vault.

• Backup schedule (cron expression).

• Backup window size.

• Backup retention period.