Creating RDS Snapshots Manually

Veeam Backup for AWS allows you to manually create snapshots of RDS resources. You can instruct Veeam Backup for AWS to store the created snapshots in the same AWS Regions where the processed DB instances and DB clusters reside, or in a different AWS Region or AWS account.

Note

Veeam Backup for AWS does not include snapshots created manually in the snapshot chain and does not apply the configured retention policy settings to these snapshots. This means that the snapshots are kept in your AWS environment unless you remove them manually, as described in section Managing Backed-Up RDS Data.

To manually create a cloud-native snapshot of a DB instance or an Aurora DB cluster, do the following:

  1. Navigate to Resources > RDS.
  2. Select the necessary instance and click Take Snapshot Now.

For an RDS resource to be displayed in the list of available instances, an AWS Region where the instance resides must be added to any of configured RDS backup policies, and the IAM role specified in the backup policy settings must have permissions to access the instance. For more information on required permissions, see RDS Backup IAM Role Permissions.

  1. Complete the Take Manual Snapshot wizard:
  1. At the Account step of the wizard, specify an IAM role whose permissions Veeam Backup for AWS will use to create the snapshot.

For an IAM role to be displayed in the list, it must be added to Veeam Backup for AWS as described in section Adding IAM Roles.

  1. At the Snapshot Mode step of the wizard, choose whether you want to store the snapshot in the same AWS Region where the processed RDS resource resides, or in another AWS Region or AWS account.
  2. [Applies if you have selected the New location option] At the Settings step of the wizard, choose an IAM role whose permissions will be used to copy and store the snapshot in the target AWS Region and specify whether to encrypt the copied snapshot.
  3. At the Tags step of the wizard, choose whether you want to assign AWS tags to the created snapshot.
  • To assign already existing AWS tags from the source DB instance and Aurora DB cluster, select the Copy tags from source RDS instance check box.

If you choose to copy tags from the source RDS resource, Veeam Backup for AWS will first create a snapshot of the DB instance or Aurora DB cluster and assign to the created snapshot AWS tags with Veeam metadata. Then, Veeam Backup for AWS will copy tags from the processed resource and assign the copied AWS tags to the snapshot.

  • To assign your own custom AWS tags, click Add and specify the tags explicitly. To do that, in the Add Custom Tag window, specify a key and a value for the new AWS tag, and then click Apply. Note that you cannot add more than 5 custom AWS tags.

If you choose to add custom tags to the created snapshots, Veeam Backup for AWS will assign the specified tags right after it creates a snapshot.

  1. At the Summary step of the wizard, review summary information and click Finish.

Creating RDS Snapshot Manually