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Backup Process for Amazon EC2 Instances

The backup operation for Amazon EC2 instances includes the following stages:

  1. For each instance, create an AMI.

    This operation creates crash-consistent snapshots of instance volumes.

  2. Create volumes from the snapshots.

  3. Attach volumes to the VSA proxy.

    For Windows instances, up to 21 volumes can be attached to the VSA proxy during backups, occupying device slots xvd[f-z], xvda[b-z]. This limit includes any volumes already attached to the proxy. If EBS is attached to slot xvdf, only 20 volumes can be attached.

    For Linux instances, up to 40 volumes can be attached to the VSA proxy during backups, occupying device slots /dev/sd[f-z], /dev/xvda[a-z].

  4. Back up the volumes using CBT (Changed Block Tracking) for incremental changes and to direct data through the MediaAgent for the storage policy associated with the backup.

  5. Unmount, detach, delete the snapshots, and deregister the AMI.

    The snapshots created for VMs that were deleted or removed from the subclient must be cleaned up manually.

  6. Delete the AMI.

    If CBT is enabled, the most recent AMI (tagged by CV_CBT_Snap) is retained after every backup operation.

    Note

    Storage blocks on EBS volumes that are restored from snapshots must be initialized before the block is accessed. This action can increase the time required to read and write data for the volumes, and significantly increase the time required for backups and restores. Amazon is working to resolve this issue. For more information, see Initializing Amazon EBS Volumes.

For a list of operational outcomes for HotAdd backups and EBS Direct API backups, see:

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