Backing up Amazon EC2 data

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Use a backup job to back up data in an Amazon EC2 instance.

Before you begin

Complete the following steps:
  1. Ensure that the accounts to be backed up are added to IBM Storage® Protect Plus. For more instructions, see Adding an Amazon EC2 account.
  2. Ensure that one or more SLA policies are configured for the EC2 instances. For more instructions, see Creating an SLA policy for Amazon EC2 instances.
  3. Ensure that IBM Storage Protect Plus roles and resource groups are assigned to the user who is setting up the backup job. For more information about assigning roles, see Managing user access.
  4. If an account is associated with multiple SLA policies, ensure that the policies are not scheduled to run concurrently. Either schedule the SLA policies to run with a significant amount of time between them, or combine them into a single SLA policy.

Procedure

To define an EC2 backup job, complete the following steps:
  1. In the navigation panel, click Manage Protection > Virtualized Systems > Amazon EC2.
  2. Select the instances to back up in the Amazon EC2 Backup pane by taking one of the following actions:
    • To select all instances that are associated with an EC2 account, select the check box for the account. Any instances that are added to this account are automatically assigned to the SLA policy that you choose.
    • To select instances by region or specific instances, click the account name and navigate to the region or instance. The navigation is in the order account > region > instance. If an instance does not have an assigned name, the instance ID is shown as the instance name.
    To search for available instances, use the search function and toggle the displayed instances by using the View filter. Available options are Instances and Tags.
  3. Click Select SLA Policy to add one or more SLA policies that meet your backup criteria to the job definition from the SLA Policy Status table.
  4. Optional: To configure additional options for the SLA policies that you have added to the definition, in the Policy Options column of the SLA Policy Status table, click the clipboard icon clipboard icon for an SLA policy and set the following options.
    If the job is already configured, click the icon to edit the configuration.
    Pre-scripts and Post-scripts

    Run a pre-script or a post-script. Pre-scripts and post-scripts are scripts that can be run before or after a job runs. Windows™-based machines support batch and PowerShell scripts while Linux®-based machines support shell scripts.

    In the Pre-script or Post-script section, select an uploaded script and a script server where the script will run. Scripts and script servers are configured by using the System Configuration > Script page.

    To continue running the job if the script that is associated with the job fails, select Continue job/task on script error.

    When this option is enabled, if a pre-script or post-script completes processing with a non-zero return code, the backup or restore operation is attempted and the pre-script task status is reported as COMPLETED. If a post-script completes processing with a non-zero return code, the post-script task status is reported as COMPLETED.

    When this option is disabled, the backup or restore is not attempted, and the pre-script or post-script task status is reported as FAILED.

    Run inventory before backup
    Run an inventory job and capture the latest data of the selected instances before starting the backup job.
    Exclude Resources

    Exclude specific instances from the backup job by using single or multiple exclusion patterns. Resources can be excluded by using an exact match or with wildcard asterisks specified before the pattern (*test) or after the pattern (test*).

    Multiple asterisk wildcards are also supported in a single pattern. Patterns support standard alphanumeric characters as well as the following special characters: - _ and *.

    Separate multiple filters with a semicolon.

    Exclude Resources by Tag
    Exclude specific resources based on associated VM tags from the backup job. Resources can be excluded through an exact match or with wildcard asterisks specified before the pattern (*test) or after the pattern (test*). Multiple asterisk wildcards are also supported in a single pattern. Patterns support standard alphanumeric characters as well as the following special characters: - _ and *. Multiple filters may be separated with a semicolon.
    Force Full Backup of Resources
    This option is not used for EC2 backup operations.
  5. Click Save to create the job definition.

    The job will run as defined by the SLA policies that you selected. To run the job immediately, click Jobs and Operations > Schedule. Select the job and click Actions > Start.

    Tip: When the job for the selected SLA policy runs, all instances that are associated with that SLA policy are included in the backup operation. To back up only selected instances, you can run an on-demand job. An on-demand job runs the backup operation immediately.
    • To run an on-demand backup job for a single instance, select the instance and click Run. If the resource is not associated with an SLA policy, the Run button is not available.
    • To run an on-demand backup job for one or more instances, click Create job, select Ad hoc backup, and follow the instructions in Running an ad hoc backup job.

What to do next

After you define an EC2 backup job, create an EC2 restore job definition.