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.

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). 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 plan that the backup rules will apply to, you need to create a selection of resources:

  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 dialog window, specify the name of resource selection and select resources.

    • In the Name field, specify the selection name. The name may contain Latin letters, digits, _, - and . symbols.

    • Different types of resources can be added to the same selection. To add instances, open the Instances tab, and to add volumes, open the Volumes tab.

    • Select the resources to be added to the selection. You can search by resource ID and name to find the required resource. To speed up the search, filter instances by VPC.

    • After selecting the required resources, click Add. The resources will be added to the Selected resources. If a resource was added by mistake, it can be removed from the list.

  5. Once all the required instances and volumes have been added to the selection, click Create.

Modify the selection#

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:

      • Open the Instances tab to add instances or open the Volumes tab to add volumes.

      • Select the resources to be included in the selection.

      • After selecting the required resources, click Add.

    • To remove resources:

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

      • To exclude resources from the selection, click Remove.

  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 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 have Backup Operator or Backup Administrator privileges, 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 have Backup Operator or Backup Administrator privileges, but has volume creation privileges, 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 Backup Administrator 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

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.