Protecting EC2 Instances

To protect EC2 instances, Veeam Backup for AWS runs backup policies. A backup policy is a collection of settings that define the way backup operations are performed: what data to back up, where to store backups, when to start the backup process, how to retain restore points and so on.

Veeam Backup for AWS does not install agent software inside instances to back up EC2 instance data — it uses native AWS capabilities instead. During every backup session, Veeam Backup for AWS creates a cloud-native snapshot for each EC2 instance added to a backup policy. The cloud-native snapshot is further used to create a snapshot replica in another AWS Region or another AWS account and an image-level backup of the instance. For more information on how EC2 instance backup works, see EC2 Backup.

How To Protect EC2 Instances

To create an EC2 backup policy, perform the following steps:

Check limitations and prerequisites.
Specify IAM roles to access AWS services and resources.
[Optional] Add backup repositories to store backed-up data.
[Optional] Configure worker instance settings to launch workers while processing EC2 instance data.
[Optional] Configure global retention settings for obsolete snapshots and session records.
[Optional] Configure email notification settings for automated delivery of backup policy results and daily reports.
Complete the Add EC2 Policy wizard.