Create a backup plan - AWS Backup
Create backup plans using the AWS Backup consoleCreate backup plans using the AWS CLI

Create a backup plan

You can create a backup plan using the AWS Backup console, API, CLI, SDK, or an AWS CloudFormation template.

Topics

Create backup plans using the AWS Backup console

Open the AWS Backup console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/backup. From the dashboard, choose Manage Backup plans. Or, using the navigation pane, choose Backup plans and choose Create Backup plan.

Start options

You have three choices for your new backup plan:

In this procedure, we build a new plan. Each part of the configuration has a link to an expanded section further on the page to where you can navigate for more detail.

  1. Enter a plan name in Backup plan name. You can't change the name of a plan after it is created.

    If you try to create a backup plan that is identical to an existing plan, you receive an AlreadyExistsException error.

  2. Optionally, you can add tags to your backup plan.

  3. Backup rule configuration: In the backup rule configuration section, you will set the backup schedule, window, and lifecycle.

  4. Schedule:

    1. Enter a backup rule name in the text field.

    2. In the backup vault menu, choose Default or choose Create new Backup vault to create a vault.

    3. In the backup frequency menu, choose how often you want this plan to create a backup.

  5. Backup window:

    1. Start time defaults to 12:30 AM (00:30 in 24hr time) in your system’s local timezone.

    2. Start within defaults to 8 hours. You can change this to specify a window of time for the backup to start.

    3. Complete within defaults to 7 days. Ensure that there is enough time for the backup up to complete even if the job starts at the end of the start window.

  6. Continuous backups and point-in-time recovery (PITR): You can select Enable continuous backups for point-in-time recovery (PITR). To verify which resources are supported for this type of backup, see the Feature availability by resource matrix.

  7. Lifecycle

    1. Cold storage: Select this box to let eligible resource types transition to cold storage in accordance with the timetable you specify in the total retention period. To use cold storage, you must have a total retention period of 90 days or greater.

    2. Cold storage for Amazon EBS is Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive. Snapshots transitioned to archive storage tier will display in the console as cold tier. If cold storage is enabled, and if your backup frequency is monthly or less often, you can have your backup plan transition EBS snapshots.

    3. The total retention period is the number of days that you store your resource in AWS Backup. It is the total number of days of warm storage plus cold storage.

  8. (Optional) You can opt in to have a backup index created with each periodic backup of a supported resource type (continuous backups will have daily indexes created). Only recovery points (backups) that have an associated index can be included in a backup search.

    For example, each time your backup plan creates an S3 backup, you can have a backup index for that backup created, also. This will allow that particular backup to be included in a future search.

    Place a check next to the resource type(s) for which you want to have indexes created.

  9. (Optional) Use Copy to destination to create a cross-Region copy of eligible resources if you want to store a copy of a backup in a different AWS Region.

  10. (Optional) Tags added to recovery points.

  11. When all sections are set to your specifications, choose Save Backup rule.

Create backup plans using the AWS CLI

You can also define your backup plan in a JSON document and provide it using the AWS Backup console or AWS CLI. The following JSON document contains a sample backup plan that creates a daily backup at 1:00 Pacific time (the local time adjusts to daylight, standard, or summer time conditions if applicable). It automatically deletes a backup after one year.

{
  "BackupPlan":{
    "BackupPlanName":"test-plan",
    "Rules":[
      {
        "RuleName":"test-rule",
        "TargetBackupVaultName":"test-vault",
        "ScheduleExpression":"cron(0 1 ? * * *)",
        "ScheduleExpressionTimezone":"America/Los_Angeles",
        "StartWindowMinutes":integer, // Value is in minutes
        "CompletionWindowMinutes":integer, // Value is in minutes
        "IndexActions": [ 
               { 
                  "ResourceTypes": [ "string" ]
               }
            ],
        "Lifecycle":{
          "DeleteAfterDays":integer, // Value is in days
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

You can store your JSON document with a name you choose. The following CLI command shows create-backup-plan with a JSON named test-backup-plan.json:

aws backup create-backup-plan --cli-input-json file://PATH-TO-FILE/test-backup-plan.json

Note that while some systems number the days of the week from 0 to 6, we number them from 1 to 7. For more information, see Cron and rate expressions. For more information about timezones, see TimeZone in the Amazon Location Service API reference.