AWS Automated Backups

AWS Automated Backups

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

9 thoughts on “AWS Automated Backups

  1. what is the answer for this Bhai

    You are tasked with moving a legacy application from a virtual machine running Inside your
    datacenter to an Amazon VPC Unfortunately this app requires access to a number of onpremises
    services and no one who configured the app still works for your company. Even
    worse there’s no documentation for it. What will allow the application running inside the
    VPC to reach back and access its internal dependencies without being reconfigured?
    (Choose 3 answers)
    A. An AWS Direct Connect link between the VPC and the network housing the internal
    services.
    B. An Internet Gateway to allow a VPN connection.
    C. An Elastic IP address on the VPC instance
    D. An IP address space that does not conflict with the one on-premises
    E. Entries in Amazon Route 53 that allow the Instance to resolve its dependencies’ IP
    addresses
    F. A VM Import of the current virtual machine

    1. Would select A, D and F.
      #A as AWS Direct Connect or a VPN connection is needed to connect AWS and On Premises network.
      #D IP address space should not conflict
      #F As no one has the information to setup the application, you need a VM import of the current virtual machine

      #B is incorrect as IGW is not required VGW and CGW is required
      #C is not required as public IP address or even the private subnets can communicate.
      #E Route 53 is not required as it is able to handle internally to resolve the Ips.

  2. Thank you very much.

    Can you please help with the below:
    Out of the stripping options available for the EBS volumes, which one has the following
    disadvantage : ‘Doubles the amount of I/O required from the instance to EBS compared to
    RAID 0, because you’re mirroring all writes to a pair of volumes, limiting how much you can
    stripe.’ ?
    A. Raid 0
    B. RAID 1+0 (RAID 10)
    C. Raid 1
    D. Raid
    I think B.Please your thougts

    1. Whats the last option #D ?
      But RAID 1+0, should be the answer as it is the only solution which will allow you to stripe and mirror.

  3. I think you are correct as it says a “pair of volumes” – and it is 2 drives for each volume which takes 4 drives that are mirrored, then stripped – I would say RAID 1, but it involves no striping and it is not a pair of volumes, it is a pair of disks that make up one volume. Also keep in mind, I saw a question where RAID 5 was the answer as it is slower than raid zero as it has to write parity data and is bad for writes – not good for DB’s – RAID 10 (1+0) is great for DB’s as it is still high performance. But the way the question is asked, even if the last option was raid 5 (does not mirror), I think it HAS to be B – just think of it as raid zero vs. Raid 1+0 only. It is still high performance for a reads, but not as good as zero as it MUST stripe.

  4. Hi Jayendra,

    EC2 EBS Backups – This section needs a minor refresh. With the release of DLM (Data Lifecycle Manager) it’s not possible to automate the backups of EBS volumes. Thanks for all the hardwork you do!

    Regards,
    Jaypal

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