Backup policies are rules that define the schedule for automatic backups. You can create a backup policy and apply it to one or more backup sets. After you configure the AWS S3 buckets for backup, the data from the buckets is backed up according to the schedule set in the backup policy.
A backup policy for an AWS S3 bucket defines the following:
Backup schedule for the AWS S3 bucket
Retention period of historical recovery points.
Best practices for creating a backup policy
You can create as many backup policies as you want, depending on the number of AWS S3 buckets and the frequency at which data changes in these buckets. For example, for an AWS S3 bucket that change frequently, you can create a backup policy, and define a schedule for a weekly backup for a longer duration, along with short-burst backups every second day.
The backup policy defines the backup schedules of AWS S3 buckets. The schedule that you set must be according to the volume and frequency of data change in the AWS S3 buckets. If you expect a large dataset during backups, you can schedule backups to run during off-peak hours (such as weekends or after a workday).
You can consider the criticality of data and the frequency at which the data changes and is restored while configuring the retention policy. The important factors to consider while configuring retention are:
Storage costs
Type of data
About retention
Retention defines the rules for retaining your backups (recovery point) within the storage. Use the retention period to define the duration for which you want to retain your historical backups.
The objective of retention is to keep important data for future access, depending on how critical it is. Retention also ensures that backups that are no longer required are cleaned from your storage periodically, resulting in less storage utilization and costs.
For more information, see About Retention for Backup Policies.
❗ Important
To access AWS S3 backup policies, navigate to Policies > S3 in the AWS Workloads Management Console. The steps differ from those for EC2 and other workloads.
Create a new backup policy
Log in to the AWS Workloads Management Console.
On the top navigation bar, select Policies.
Click S3 in the left pane to view AWS S3 backup policies.
Click New Backup Policy.
You can also click the Customize Table Columns icon to get a list of all the columns on the page.
Select the checkbox to display the column.
Clear the checkbox to hide a column on the S3 Backup Policies table. Removing unnecessary columns will make the UI more spacious.
Move a column to change the order. The change is reflected in the Backup Policies table.
The column configuration persists across sessions in the same browser.
📝 Note
You can resize a column on the Backup Policies table by dragging it to the desired location.
Step 1: General
In the Overview section, enter the following details, and then click Next.
Field | Description |
Name | Name of the backup policy. |
Description (optional) | Description of the backup policy. |
Step 2: Backup Schedule
In the Backup Schedule section, enter the following information and click Next.
Field | Description |
Backup Frequency
| Select the days on which you want the backups to run |
Start At (server Timezone)
| The time when you want backups to start. |
Backup Window (Hrs)
| The duration after which you want backup operations to stop.
For example, if you set Start At to 9 AM and you set the Backup Window to 2 hours, backups of your AWS S3 buckets start at 9 AM and stop at 11 AM, even if they do not complete. |
Add Schedule
| Click this button to create as many schedules as you want. |
Remove icon (X)
| The remove icon is enabled if you have added more than one schedule. If you have added only one schedule, it cannot be removed. |
Ignore backup window for first backup
| The option to ignore the specified backup duration for the first backup job. You can disable this option to enforce backup duration for the first backup job. |
Timezone | Select the timezone. |
Step 3: Retention
In the Retention tab, enter the duration for which the daily, monthly, weekly, and yearly recovery points should be retained. Click Finish.
Field | Description |
Daily | Enter the duration (in days) you want to retain the archived data. Daily snapshots must be retained for at least 365 days. |
Monthly | Enter the duration (in months) you want to retain the archived data. Monthly retention settings can be defined as per your needs. |
Weekly | Enter the duration (in weeks) you want to retain the archived data. Weekly retention settings can be defined as per your needs. |
Yearly | Enter the duration (in year) you want to retain the archived data. Yearly retention settings can be defined as per your needs. |
Data Lock | Enable the Data Lock for the backup policy. Data Lock prevents your backup recovery points from accidental or malicious deletion or modification. For more information about Data Lock, refer to Data Lock for preventing malicious or accidental deletion of recovery points. 📝 Note Once you apply Data Lock to the backup policy, you cannot:
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