Setting up cross-account backup Scheduling cross-account backup Performing on-demand cross-account backup Encryption keys and cross-account copies Restoring a backup from one AWS account to another Sharing a backup vault with a different AWS account Configuring your account as a destination account Security considerations for cross-account backup

Creating backup copies across AWS accounts

Using AWS Backup, you can back up to multiple AWS accounts on demand or automatically as part of a scheduled backup plan. Use a cross-account backup if you want to securely copy your backups to one or more AWS accounts in your organization for operational or security reasons. If your original backup is inadvertently deleted, you can copy the backup from its destination account to its source account, and then start the restore. Before you can do this, you must have two accounts that belong to the same organization in the AWS Organizations service. For more information, see Tutorial: Creating and configuring an organization in the Organizations User Guide.

In your destination account, you must create a backup vault. Then, you assign a customer managed key to encrypt backups in the destination account, and a resource-based access policy to allow AWS Backup to access the resources you would like to copy. In the source account, if your resources are encrypted with a customer managed key, you must share this customer managed key with the destination account. You can then create a backup plan and choose a destination account that is part of your organizational unit in AWS Organizations.

When you copy a backup to cross-account for the first time, AWS Backup copies the backup in full. In general, if a service supports incremental backups, subsequent copies of that backup in the same account are incremental. AWS Backup re-encrypts your copy using the customer managed key of your destination vault.

Requirements

Before you manage resources across multiple AWS accounts in AWS Backup, your accounts must belong to the same organization in the AWS Organizations service.
Most resources supported by AWS Backup support cross-account backup. For specifics, see Feature availability by resource.
Most AWS Regions support cross-account backup. For specifics, see Feature availability by AWS Region.
AWS Backup does not support cross-account copies for storage in cold tiers.

Setting up cross-account backup

What do you need to create cross-account backups?

A source account

The source account is the account where your production AWS resources and primary backups reside.

The source account user initiates the cross-account backup operation. The source account user or role must have appropriate API permissions to initiate the operation. Appropriate permissions might be the AWS managed policy AWSBackupFullAccess, which enables full access to AWS Backup operations, or a customer managed policy that allows actions such as ec2:ModifySnapshotAttribute. For more information about policy types, see AWS Backup Managed Policies.
A destination account

The destination account is the account where you would like to keep a copy of your backup. You can choose more than one destination account. The destination account must be in the same organization as the source account in AWS Organizations.

You must “Allow” the access policy backup:CopyIntoBackupVault for your destination backup vault. The absence of this policy will deny attempts to copy into the destination account.
A management account in AWS Organizations

The management account is the primary account in your organization, as defined by AWS Organizations, that you use to manage cross-account backup across your AWS accounts. To use cross-account backup, you also must enable service trust. After enabling service trust, you can use any account in the organization as a destination account. From your destination account, you can choose which vaults to use for cross-account backup.
Enable cross-account backup in the AWS Backup console

For information about security, see Security considerations for cross-account backup.

To use cross-account backup, you must enable the cross-account backup feature. Then, you must "Allow" the access policy backup:CopyIntoBackupVault into your destination backup vault.

Enable cross-account backup

Log in using your AWS Organizations management account credentials. Cross-account backup can only be enabled or disabled using these credentials.
Open the AWS Backup console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/backup.
In My account, choose Settings.
For Cross-account backup, choose Enable.
In Backup vaults, choose your destination vault.

For cross-account copy, the source vault and the destination vault are in different accounts. Switch to the account which owns the destination account, as necessary.
In the Access policy section, "Allow" backup:CopyIntoBackupVault. For an example, choose Add permissions and then Allow access to a Backup vault from organization. Any cross-account action other than backup:CopyIntoBackupVault will be rejected.
Now, any account in your organization can share the contents of their backup vault with any other account in your organization. For more information, see Sharing a backup vault with a different AWS account. To limit which accounts can receive the contents of other accounts' backup vaults, see Configuring your account as a destination account.

Scheduling cross-account backup

You can use a scheduled backup plan to copy backups across AWS accounts.

To copy a backup using a scheduled backup plan

Open the AWS Backup console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/backup.
In My account, choose Backup plans, and then choose Create Backup plan.
On the Create Backup plan page, choose Build a new plan.
For Backup plan name, enter a name for your backup plan.
In the Backup rule configuration section, add a backup rule that defines a backup schedule, backup window, and lifecycle rules. You can add more backup rules later.

For Rule name, enter a name for your rule.
In the Schedule section under Frequency, choose how often you want the backup to be taken.
For Backup window, choose Use backup window defaults (recommended). You can customize the backup window.
For Backup vault, choose a vault from the list. Recovery points for this backup will be saved in this vault. You can create a new backup vault.
In the Generate copy - optional section, enter the following values:
Destination Region

Choose the destination AWS Region for your backup copy. Your backup will be copied to this Region. You can add a new copy rule per copy to a new destination.

Copy to another account's vault

Toggle to choose this option. The option turns blue when selected. The External vault ARN option will appear.

External vault ARN
Enter the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the destination account. The ARN is a string that contains the account ID and its AWS Region. AWS Backup will copy the backup to the destination account's vault. The Destination region list automatically updates to the Region in the external vault ARN.

For Allow Backup vault access, choose Allow. Then choose Allow in the wizard that opens.

AWS Backup needs permissions to access the external account to copy backup to the specified value. The wizard shows the following example policy that provides this access.
```
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "Allow account to copy into backup vault",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "backup:CopyIntoBackupVault",
      "Resource": "*",
      "Principal": {
        "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::account-id:root"
      }
    }
  ]
}
```
Transition to cold storage

Choose when to transition the backup copy to cold storage and when to expire (delete) the copy. Backups transitioned to cold storage must be stored in cold storage for a minimum of 90 days. This value cannot be changed after a copy has transitioned to cold storage.

To see the list of resources that you can transition to cold storage, see the "Lifecycle to cold storage" section of the Feature availability by resource table. The cold storage expression is ignored for other resources.

Expire specifies the number of days after creation that the copy is deleted. This value must be greater than 90 days beyond the Transition to cold storage value.

Note
When backups expire and are marked for deletion as part of your lifecycle policy, AWS Backup deletes the backups at a randomly chosen point over the following 8 hours. This window helps ensure consistent performance.
Choose Tags added to recovery points to add tags to your recovery points.
For Advanced backup settings, choose Windows VSS to enable application-aware snapshots for the selected third-party software running on EC2.
Choose Create plan.

Performing on-demand cross-account backup

You can copy a backup to a different AWS account on demand.

To copy a backup on-demand

Open the AWS Backup console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/backup.
For My account, choose Backup vault to see all your backup vaults listed. You can filter by the backup vault name or tag.
Choose the Recovery point ID of the backup you want to copy.
Choose Copy.
Expand Backup details to see information about the recovery point you are copying.
In the Copy configuration section, choose an option from the Destination region list.
Choose Copy to another account's vault. The option turns blue when selected.
Enter the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the destination account. The ARN is a string that contains the account ID and its AWS Region. AWS Backup will copy the backup to the destination account's vault. The Destination region list automatically updates to the Region in the external vault ARN.

For Allow Backup vault access, choose Allow. Then choose Allow in the wizard that opens.

To create the copy, AWS Backup needs permissions to access the source account. The wizard shows an example policy that provides this access. This policy is shown following.


{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "Allow account to copy into backup vault",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "backup:CopyIntoBackupVault",
      "Resource": "*",
      "Principal": {
        "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::account-id:root"
      }
    }
  ]
}

For Transition to cold storage, choose when to transition the backup copy to cold storage and when to expire (delete) the copy. Backups transitioned to cold storage must be stored in cold storage for a minimum of 90 days. This value cannot be changed after a copy has transitioned to cold storage.

To see the list of resources that you can transition to cold storage, see the "Lifecycle to cold storage" section of the Feature availability by resource table. The cold storage expression is ignored for other resources.

Expire specifies the number of days after creation that the copy is deleted. This value must be greater than 90 days beyond the Transition to cold storage value.
For IAM role, specify the IAM role (such as the default role) that has the permissions to make your backup available for copying. The act of copying is performed by your destination account's service linked role.
Choose Copy. Depending on the size of the resource you are copying, this process could take several hours to complete. When the copy job completes, you will see the copy in the Copy jobs tab in the Jobs menu.

Encryption keys and cross-account copies

The cross-account copy encryption key depends on resource type. Resources which have Full AWS Backup management use the encryption key of the source backup vault. Customer managed KMS keys can be used for cross-account copy encryption of these resource types.

Resource types that aren't fully managed by AWS Backup have the same source KMS key and resource KMS key. Cross-account copy with AWS managed KMS keys is not supported for these types of resources that aren't fully managed by AWS Backup.

For additional help troubleshooting cross-account copy failures, please see the AWS Knowledge Center.

During a cross-account copy, the source account KMS key policy must allow the destination account on the KMS key policy.

Restoring a backup from one AWS account to another

AWS Backup does not support recovering resources from one AWS account to another. However, you can copy a backup from one account to a different account and then restore it in that account. For example, you can't restore a backup from account A to account B, but you can copy a backup from account A to account B, and then restore it in account B.

Restoring a backup from one account to another is a two-step process.

To restore a backup from one account to another

Copy the backup from the source AWS account to the account you want to restore to. For instructions, see Setting up cross-account backup.
Use the appropriate instructions for your resource to restore the backup.

AWS Backup allows you to share a backup vault with one or multiple accounts, or your entire organization in AWS Organizations. You can share a destination backup vault with a source AWS Account, user, or IAM role.

To share a destination Backup vault

Choose AWS Backup, and then choose Backup vaults.
Choose the name of the backup vault that you want to share.
In the Access policy pane, choose the Add permissions dropdown.
Choose Allow account level access to a Backup vault. Or, you can choose to allow organization-level or role-level access.
Enter the AccountID of the account you'd like to share with this destination backup vault.
Choose Save policy.

You can use IAM policies to share your backup vault.

The following policy shares a backup vault with account number 4444555566666 and the IAM role SomeRole in account number 111122223333.


{
  "Version":"2012-10-17",
  "Statement":[
    {
      "Effect":"Allow",
      "Principal":{
        "AWS":[
          "arn:aws:iam::444455556666:root",
          "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/SomeRole"
        ]
      },
      "Action":"backup:CopyIntoBackupVault",
      "Resource":"*"
    }
  ]
}

The following policy shares a backup vault with organizational units using their PrincipalOrgPaths.


{
  "Version":"2012-10-17",
  "Statement":[
    {
      "Effect":"Allow",
      "Principal":"*",
      "Action":"backup:CopyIntoBackupVault",
      "Resource":"*",
      "Condition":{
        "ForAnyValue:StringLike":{
          "aws:PrincipalOrgPaths":[
            "o-a1b2c3d4e5/r-f6g7h8i9j0example/ou-def0-awsbbbbb/",
            "o-a1b2c3d4e5/r-f6g7h8i9j0example/ou-def0-awsbbbbb/ou-jkl0-awsddddd/*"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

The following policy shares a backup vault with the organization with PrincipalOrgID "o-a1b2c3d4e5".


{
  "Version":"2012-10-17",
  "Statement":[
    {
      "Effect":"Allow",
      "Principal":"*",
      "Action":"backup:CopyIntoBackupVault",
      "Resource":"*",
      "Condition":{
        "StringEquals":{
          "aws:PrincipalOrgID":[
            "o-a1b2c3d4e5"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Configuring your account as a destination account

When you first enable cross-account backups using your AWS Organizations management account, any user of a member account can configure their account to be a destination account. We recommend setting one or more of the following service control policies (SCPs) in AWS Organizations to limit your destination accounts. To learn more about attaching service control policies to AWS Organizations nodes, see Attaching and detaching service control policies.

Limit destination accounts using tags

When attached to an AWS Organizations root, OU, or individual account, this policy limits copies destinations from that root, OU, or account to only those accounts with backup vaults you’ve tagged DestinationBackupVault. The permission "backup:CopyIntoBackupVault" controls how a backup vault behaves and, in this case, which destination backup vaults are valid. Use this policy, along with the corresponding tag applied to approved destination vaults, to control the destinations of cross-account copies to only approved accounts and backup vaults.


{
  "Version":"2012-10-17",
  "Statement":[
    {
      "Effect":"Deny",
      "Action":"backup:CopyIntoBackupVault",
      "Resource":"*",
      "Condition":{
        "Null":{
          "aws:ResourceTag/DestinationBackupVault":"true"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Limit destination accounts using account numbers and vault names

When attached to an AWS Organizations root, OU, or individual account, this policy limits copies originating from that root, OU, or account to only two destination accounts. The permission "backup:CopyFromBackupVault" controls how a recovery point in the backup vault behaves, and, in this case, the destinations where you can copy that recovery point to. The source vault will only permit copies to the first destination account (112233445566) if one or more destination backup vault names begin with cab-. The source vault will only permit copies to the second destination account (123456789012) if the destination is the single backup vault named fort-knox.


{
  "Version":"2012-10-17",
  "Statement":[
    {
      "Effect":"Deny",
      "Action":"backup:CopyFromBackupVault",
      "Resource":"arn:aws:ec2:*:snapshot/*",
      "Condition":{
        "ForAllValues:ArnNotLike":{
          "backup:CopyTargets":[
            "arn:aws:backup:*:112233445566:backup-vault:cab-*",
            "arn:aws:backup:us-west-1:123456789012:backup-vault:fort-knox"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Limit destination accounts using organizational units in AWS Organizations

When attached to an AWS Organizations root or OU that contains your source account, or when attached to your source account, the following policy limits the destination accounts to those accounts within the two specified OUs.


{
  "Version":"2012-10-17",
  "Statement":[
    {
      "Effect":"Deny",
      "Action":"backup:CopyFromBackupVault",
      "Resource":"*",
      "Condition":{
        "ForAllValues:StringNotLike":{
          "backup:CopyTargetOrgPaths":[
            "o-a1b2c3d4e5/r-f6g7h8i9j0example/ou-def0-awsbbbbb/",
            "o-a1b2c3d4e5/r-f6g7h8i9j0example/ou-def0-awsbbbbb/ou-jkl0-awsddddd/*"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Security considerations for cross-account backup

Be aware of the following when using performing cross-account backups in AWS Backup:

The destination vault cannot be the default vault. This is because the default vault is encrypted with a key that cannot be shared with other accounts.
Cross-account backups might still run for up to 15 minutes after you disable cross-account backup. This is due to eventual consistency, and might result in some cross-account jobs starting or completing even after you disable cross-account backup.
If the destination account leaves the organization at a later date, that account will retain the backups. To avoid potential data leakage, place a deny permission on the organizations:LeaveOrganization permission in a service control policy (SCP) attached to the destination account. For detailed information about SCPs, see Removing a member account from your organization in the Organizations User Guide.
If you delete a copy job role during a cross-account copy, AWS Backup can't unshare snapshots from the source account when the copy job completes. In this case, the backup job finishes, but the copy job status shows as Failed to unshare snapshot.

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Document Conventions

Cross-Region backup

Copy tags onto backups