Backup and tag copy
You can copy backups to multiple AWS accounts or AWS Regions on demand or automatically as part of a scheduled backup plan for most resource types, though backups in cold storage or archive tiers cannot be copied. See Feature availability by resource and Encryption for a backup copy to a different account or AWS Region for details.
Some resource types have both continuous backup capability and cross-Region and cross-account copy available. When a cross-Region or cross-account copy of a continuous backup is made, the copied recovery point (backup) becomes a snapshot (periodic) backup (not available for all resource types that support both backup types). Depending on the resource type, the snapshots may be an incremental copy or a full copy. PITR (Point-in-Time Restore) is not available for these copies.
Important
Copies retain their source configuration, including creation dates and retention period. The creation date refers to when the source was created, not when the copy was created. You can override the retention period.
The configuration of the source backup being copied overrides its
copy’s expiration setting if the copy retention period is set to Always
in the AWS Backup console (or DeleteAfterDays value is set to -1 in the API
request); that is, a copy with a retention setting set to never expire will
retain its source recovery point's expiration date.
If you want your backup copies to never expire, either set your source backups to never expire or specify your copy to expire 100 years after its creation.
Copy job retry
AWS Backup implements the following retry strategy for copy jobs: If AWS Backup
encounters any system errors, the copy job enters a retry phase that lasts for 2 hours.
During this time, the copy job status remains in the CREATED state while the system
periodically attempts to initiate the job. If the job successfully starts within this
window, it transitions to the RUNNING state.
If issues persist beyond the 2-hour retry period, the AWS Backup service team is automatically alerted. The team then investigates and addresses any underlying problems. After the issue is resolved, they manually retry the copy request, ensuring that the copy jobs are completed as requested.
The copy job retry process differs from backup job retry process, which uses a defined start window with regular retry attempts until either success or expiration. The copy job mechanism provides an additional layer of reliability by incorporating direct service team intervention for persistent issues.
Copy job concurrency
Only one backup or copy job can run at a time for a given resource. Additional
copy jobs for the same resource remain in CREATED status until the running
job completes. For more information about concurrency limits, see AWS Backup quotas.
Copy jobs for large resources can take several hours to complete, which can
result in additional copy jobs waiting in CREATED status. For resource types
that support incremental copies, a short retention period can lead to situations where
the only recovery point in the destination vault expires. If no recovery point exists in the destination
vault, then the next copy must be a full copy instead of an incremental copy. To avoid this,
set the copy retention period to at least one week. For more information, see Metering, costs, and billing. To determine which resource types support
incremental copies, see Feature availability by resource.
If copy jobs continue to queue in CREATED status for the same resource,
reduce the copy frequency.
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