Protecting EFS File Systems

With Veeam Backup for AWS, you can perform the following operations to protect EFS file systems:

Create cloud-native backups of EFS file systems and store them in any backup vault in the source AWS Region.

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.

Create backup copies of EFS file systems and store them in any AWS Region within the same AWS account.

By default, EFS backups are stored only in the AWS Region where the processed resources reside. 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.

To protect EFS file systems, 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 EFS file systems — it uses native AWS capabilities instead. During every backup session, Veeam Backup for AWS creates a cloud-native backup for each file system added to a backup policy. The cloud-native backup is further used to create a backup copy in another AWS Region.

EFS Indexing

Veeam Backup for AWS allows you to perform indexing of the processed EFS file systems — that is, to perform EFS file-level recovery operations without specifying the exact paths to the necessary files and to restore files using different restore points during one restore session. While performing EFS indexing of a file system, Veeam Backup for AWS creates a catalog of all files and directories (an index) and saves the index to a backup repository. This index is further used to reproduce the file system structure and to enable browsing and searching for specific files within an EFS backup. For more information on how EFS file systems backup works, see EFS Backup.

To allow Veeam Backup for AWS to perform indexing of the processed EFS file systems, this functionality must be enabled in the backup policy settings.

How To Protect EFS File Systems

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