This is an archive version of the document. To get the most up-to-date information, see the current version.

Performing Backup

With Veeam Backup for AWS, you can protect data in the following ways:

  • Create cloud-native snapshots of EC2 and RDS instances

A cloud-native snapshot of a EC2 instance includes point-in-time snapshots of EBS volumes attached to the processed instance. Snapshots of EBS volumes (also referred to as EBS snapshots) are taken using native AWS capabilities.

A cloud-native snapshot of an RDS instance includes a storage volume snapshot of the instance. Snapshots of RDS instances (also referred to as DB instance snapshots) are taken using native AWS capabilities.

  • Replicate cloud-native snapshots to a remote site

By default, cloud-native snapshots are stored only in the AWS Region where the processed instance resides. For enhanced data safety, you can instruct Veeam Backup for AWS to create copies of cloud-native snapshots and store them in any other AWS Region within any AWS account. You can also combine the snapshot replication functionality with various data recovery options to migrate instance data between AWS Regions and AWS accounts.

  • Create image-level backups of EC2 instances

In addition to cloud-native snapshots, you can protect your EC2 instances with image-level backups. An image-level backup captures the whole image of the processed EC2 instance (including instance configuration, OS data, application data and so on) at a specific point in time. The backup is saved to a backup repository in the native Veeam format.

  • Create backups and backup copies of your EFS file systems

An Amazon EFS file system backup captures the whole image of the EFS file system (including file system configuration, files, directories and so on) at a specific point of time. EFS backups are taken using native AWS capabilities.

By default, EFS backups are stored only in the AWS Region where the processed file system resides. For enhanced data safety, you can instruct Veeam Backup for AWS to create copies of these backups and store them in any other AWS Region within the same AWS account. You can also combine the backup copy functionality with various data recovery options to migrate file system data between AWS Regions.

  • Create backups of your VPC configuration

An Amazon VPC configuration backup captures the whole image of a VPC configuration of an AWS account (including multiple VPC configuration settings and components) at a specific point in time. By default, the VPC configuration backup is stored in the Veeam Backup for AWS database. For enhanced data safety, you can instruct Veeam Backup for AWS to create copies of Amazon VPC configuration backups and store them in a backup repository.

Important

Veeam Backup for AWS does not support backup of the following VPC configuration components: VPC Traffic Mirroring, AWS Network Firewall, VPC Flow Logs, carrier gateways, customer IP pools, Gateway Load Balancers, Gateway Load Balancer endpoints and VPC endpoint services for Gateway Load Balancer endpoints.

To schedule data protection tasks to run automatically, create backup policies. You will be able to run the backup policies on demand and manually perform backup of EC2 instances, RDS instances and EFS file systems. To learn how to perform backup manually, see sections Creating EC2 Snapshots Manually, Creating RDS Snapshots Manually, Creating EFS Backups Manually.

Tip

You can perform advanced data protection operations with image-level backups from the Veeam Backup & Replication console. For details, see the External Repository section in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.