Boost Your AWS Backup in 5 Minutes: Automate EBS Snapshots with CloudWatch

In the realm of cloud computing, AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS) plays a vital role in providing persistent block storage for Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) instances. These virtual servers, operating within AWS environments, rely heavily on EBS for running containerized applications, big data analytics, relational and non-relational databases, and many other use cases.

One of the key benefits of EBS is its ability to capture snapshots of your volumes, ensuring data protection and preventing potential data loss. This article will delve into the fundamentals of AWS EBS snapshots, including a practical example of how to automate your snapshots using CloudWatch. For more information on automating EBS snapshots, check out this article: https://t8tech.com/it/architecture/boost-your-aws-backup-game-automate-ebs-snapshots-in-5-minutes-with-cloudwatch/

Unlocking the Power of AWS Snapshots

AWS provides a range of features to optimize your cloud infrastructure, making it easier to manage your EBS volumes.

Flexible Backup Options

AWS snapshots offer incremental backups, significantly reducing your cloud storage costs. The snapshot creation process begins with a comprehensive backup of the entire EBS volume. Subsequent snapshots only capture the data that has changed since the initial backup, referencing the location of previous snapshots that contain the unchanged data. This process eliminates redundant data duplication across multiple snapshots.

When you decide to delete an outdated snapshot, AWS automatically updates the existing references, allowing you to remove backups from anywhere in the chain without compromising the functionality of others.

Streamlined Backup Automation

Automating your snapshots enables safe and efficient data backup, saving you time and effort. The Lifecycle Manager EBS service facilitates snapshot scheduling and management, making it easy to specify which volumes require backup, the frequency of snapshots, and the backup time.

Alternatively, you can leverage AWS Backup for a more comprehensive approach, especially when working with additional AWS services like Elastic File System (EFS), Relational Database Service (RDS), and AWS Storage Gateway. You can also automate EBS snapshots backup using the CLI, offering greater flexibility and control.

Convenient Snapshot Sharing

Although you cannot create new volumes in region A from a snapshot stored in region B, you can share snapshots across regions and subsequently create new volumes. This cross-regional snapshot sharing capability enables you to expand your operations across geographic locations, migrate data centers, and establish robust disaster recovery plans.

Moreover, you can distribute snapshots across multiple accounts, provided you have the necessary permissions. This feature is particularly useful for integrating with third-party services, collaborative projects, and open-source contributions. You can share both unencrypted and encrypted snapshots, as long as the recipient account has access to your Customer Managed Key (CMK).

Essential Considerations for EBS Snapshot Automation

EBS allows you to create cost-effective automated backups. However, to maximize the benefits of AWS, you need to be aware of the challenges associated with EBS automation:

• Scalability — frequent volume backups and managing a large number of volumes require significant time and resources. Automation enables you to tap into the scalability of the cloud, allowing you to rapidly expand your environment and adapt to changing demands.

• Dynamic Environment — since AWS automatically deploys and terminates instances, automation must be flexible to ensure snapshots remain up-to-date with the latest changes and reflect the dynamic nature of your environment.

• Reliability — ensure the reliability of automated backups when working with critical production volumes. Real-time error reporting systems can help you avoid potential pitfalls and ensure business continuity.

AWS CloudWatch Events Concepts

Before you start using CloudWatch to automate snapshots, it’s essential to understand the following concepts:

Events

AWS services generate events to indicate changes in their state. For example, Amazon EC2 generates an event when the instance state changes from pending to running. AWS CloudTrail generates events when you make API calls. You can also create custom application-level events and upload them to CloudWatch Events, or schedule event generation on a periodic basis to suit your needs.

Rules

The purpose of rules is to evaluate incoming events and direct them to targets for processing. A single rule can direct to multiple targets. Events are processed in parallel, but not in a specific order, allowing companies to search for and process only the relevant events. Rules can modify the JSON file sent to the target, either by directing only specific parts or by overwriting it with a constant, providing flexibility and customization options.

Objectives

Objectives are the resources you invoke when a rule is triggered. Objectives can include AWS Lambda functions, Amazon EC2 instances, Amazon ECS tasks, Kinesis streams, and many more. Objectives receive events in JSON format.

Simplified Amazon EBS Snapshots via CloudWatch Events

This example illustrates the creation of automated EBS volume snapshots using CloudWatch. It demonstrates how to generate snapshots at fixed intervals or specific times of the day using a cron expression.

Step 1: Define a Rule

Establish scheduled snapshots by creating a rule. You can specify the schedule using a rate expression or a cron expression. For more information, refer to Schedule Expressions for Rules

To create a rule:

1. Access the AWS console

2. Navigate to Events → Create Rule.

3. Configure the event source as follows:

• Select Schedule.

• Choose the desired snapshot frequency and specify the schedule period, such as every five minutes.

• Alternatively, define a cron expression, for instance, every 10 minutes from Sunday to Thursday.

4. Click “Add Target” and select “EC2 Create Snapshot API call” to create targets.

5. Specify the volume ID of the targeted Amazon EBS volume.

6. Grant targets the required access permissions by choosing “Create a new role for this specific resource”.

7. Select “Configure details”.

8. Assign a name and description to the rule.

9. Click “Create rule”.

Step 2: Validate the Rule

Verify your rule by viewing your first snapshot.

To confirm rules:

1. Access the AWS console.

2. Navigate to Elastic Block Store, Snapshots.

3. Confirm that the first snapshot appears in the list.

4. You can disable the rule to prevent additional snapshots when you are finished.

• Navigate to Events, Rules.

• Select Actions, Disable for the rule you want to disable.

• Click Disable when prompted to confirm.

Conclusion

Data protection is crucial in any business environment. AWS automation enables you to save time on recurring tasks and ensures that necessary tasks are completed. You can automate your EBS snapshots in various ways. The CloudWatch Events automation approach allows you to programmatically automate snapshots using Lambda functions.