Step 3.3 Select EC2 Instances

In the Resources section of the Sources step of the wizard, specify the backup scope — select EC2 instances that Veeam Backup for AWS will back up:

Click Choose resources to protect.
In the Choose resource to protect window, choose whether you want to back up all EC2 instances from AWS Regions selected at step 3.2 of the wizard, or only specific EC2 instances.

If you select the All resources option, Veeam Backup for AWS will regularly check for new EC2 instances launched in the selected regions and automatically update the backup policy settings to include these instances into the backup scope.

If you select the Protect only following resources option, you must also specify the resources explicitly:

Use the Type drop-down list to choose whether you want to add individual EC2 instances or AWS tags to the backup scope.

If you select the Tag option, Veeam Backup for AWS will back up only those EC2 instances that reside in the selected regions under specific AWS tags.

Use the search field of the Name or ID drop-down list to find the necessary resource, and then click Protect to add the resource to the backup scope.

For a resource to be displayed in the list of available resources, it must reside in an AWS Region that has ever been specified in any backup policy. Otherwise, the only option to discover the available resources is to click Browse to select specific resources from the global list and to wait for Veeam Backup for AWS to populate the resource list.

Tip

You can simultaneously add multiple resources to the backup scope. To do that, click Browse to select specific resources from the global list, select check boxes next to the necessary EC2 instances or AWS tags in the list of available resources, and then click Protect.

If the list does not show the resources that you want to back up, click Rescan to launch the data collection process. As soon as the process is over, Veeam Backup for AWS will update the resource list.

If you add an AWS tag to the backup scope, Veeam Backup for AWS will regularly check for new EC2 instances assigned the added AWS tag and automatically update the backup policy settings to include these instances in the scope. However, this applies only to EC2 instances from the regions selected at step 3.2 of the wizard. If you select a tag assigned to EC2 instances from other regions, these instances will not be protected by the backup policy. To work around the issue, either go back to step 3.2 and add the missing regions, or create a new backup policy.

To save changes made to the backup policy settings, click Apply.

Tip

As an alternative to selecting the Protect only following resources option and specifying the resources explicitly, you can select the All resources option and exclude a number of resources from the backup scope. To do that, click Choose resources to exclude and specify the instances or tags that you do not want to protect — the procedure is the same as described for including resources in the backup scope.

Note that if a resource appears both in the list of included and excluded resources, Veeam Backup for AWS will still not process the resource because the list of excluded resources has a higher priority.