AWS Automated Backups

• AWS automated backups are provided for
  • RDS
  • ElastiCache – Redis only
  • Redshift
• AWS does not perform automated backups for EC2 EBS volumes and needs to be manually scripted
• AWS Data LifeCycle Manager helps automated EC2 EBS volume snapshots
• AWS stores the backups and snapshots in S3

RDS Backups

• RDS supports automated backups as well as manual snapshots
• Automated Backups
  • enable point-in-time recovery of the DB Instance
  • perform a full daily backup and captures transaction logs (as updates to your DB instance are made
  • are performed during the defined preferred backup window and is retained for user-specified period of time called the retention period (default 1 day with a max of 35 days)
  • When a point-in-time recovery is initiated, transaction logs are applied to the most appropriate daily backup in order to restore the DB instance to the specific requested time.
  • allows a point-in-time restore and an ability to specify any second during the retention period, up to the Latest Restorable Time
  • are deleted when the DB instance is deleted
• Snapshots
  • are user-initiated and enable to back up the DB instance in a known state as frequently as needed, and then restored to that specific state at any time.
  • can be created with the AWS Management Console or by using the CreateDBSnapshot API call.
  • are not deleted when the DB instance is deleted
• Automated backups and snapshots can result in a performance hit, if Multi-AZ is not enabled

ElastiCache Automated Backups

• ElastiCache supports Automated backups for Redis cluster only
• ElastiCache creates a backup of the cluster on a daily basis
• Snapshot will degrade performance, so should be performed during least bust part of the day
• Backups are performed during the Backup period and retained for backup retention limit defined, with a maximum of 35 days
• ElastiCache also allows manual snapshots of the cluster

Redshift Automated Backups

• Amazon Redshift enables automated backups, by default
• Redshift replicates all the data within your data warehouse cluster when it is loaded and also continuously backs up the data to S3
• Redshift retains backups for 1 day which can be extended to max 35 days
• Redshift only backs up data that has changed and are incremental so most snapshots use up a small amount of storage
• Redshift also allows manual snapshots of the data warehouse

EC2 EBS Backups

• EBS does not provide automated backups
• EBS volume snapshots can now be automated using Data Lifecycle manager
• EBS snapshots can be created by using the AWS Management Console, the command line interface (CLI), or the APIs
• Backups degrade performance
• Stored on S3
• EBS Snapshots are incremental and block-based, and they consume space only for changed data after the initial snapshot is created
• Data can be restored from snapshots by created a volume from the snapshot
• EBS snapshots are region specific and can be copied between AWS regions

AWS Certification Exam Practice Questions

• Questions are collected from Internet and the answers are marked as per my knowledge and understanding (which might differ with yours).
• AWS services are updated everyday and both the answers and questions might be outdated soon, so research accordingly.
• AWS exam questions are not updated to keep up the pace with AWS updates, so even if the underlying feature has changed the question might not be updated
• Open to further feedback, discussion and correction.

1. Which two AWS services provide out-of-the-box user configurable automatic backup-as-a-service and backup rotation options? Choose 2 answers
   1. Amazon S3
   2. Amazon RDS
   3. Amazon EBS
   4. Amazon Redshift
2. You have been asked to automate many routine systems administrator backup and recovery activities. Your current plan is to leverage AWS-managed solutions as much as possible and automate the rest with the AWS CLI and scripts. Which task would be best accomplished with a script?
   1. Creating daily EBS snapshots with a monthly rotation of snapshots
   2. Creating daily RDS snapshots with a monthly rotation of snapshots
   3. Automatically detect and stop unused or underutilized EC2 instances
   4. Automatically add Auto Scaled EC2 instances to an Amazon Elastic Load Balancer