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EBS Snapshots and Lifecycle Management

Amazon EBS

EBS snapshots are point-in-time backups of EBS volumes that provide data protection, disaster recovery, and operational flexibility through incremental backup technology.

EBS Snapshots Overview​

  • Point-in-Time Backups: Capture exact state of EBS volume at specific moment
  • Incremental Storage: Only save blocks that changed since most recent snapshot
  • Multi-AZ Redundancy: Stored redundantly across multiple Availability Zones using Amazon S3
  • Volume Creation: Create multiple new volumes from single snapshot
  • Exact Replication: New volumes are exact copies of original volume at snapshot time
Data Lifecycle Manager Workflow

Core Benefits​

Data Protection and Recovery: Snapshots enable fast data recovery from corruption, accidental deletion, or system failures using point-in-time backups.

Operational Flexibility: Snapshots enable operations like cross-Region data migration, volume resizing, volume cloning, and sharing data across AWS accounts.

Cost Effective: Snapshots use incremental backup technology, storing only changed blocks after the initial backup, reducing storage costs and backup time.

AWS Shared Responsibility​

As the customer, you are responsible for:

  • Scheduling and managing regular EBS snapshots as part of backup strategy
  • Monitoring snapshot costs and deleting unnecessary snapshots
  • Ensuring sensitive data within snapshots is encrypted
  • Verifying snapshot integrity and testing restoration procedures regularly

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager​

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager automates EBS snapshot creation, retention, and deletion, providing consistent backup policies for large-scale deployments.

Key Automation Features:

  • Schedule snapshots during off-peak hours to minimize performance impact
  • Automatically delete outdated backups to control storage costs
  • Maintain compliance requirements through consistent backup policies
  • Reduce manual effort and human error in backup management

Data Lifecycle Manager Workflow​

Create EBS Snapshots Policy: Use Amazon EC2 console, API calls, AWS CLI, SDKs, or AWS CloudFormation to define backup policies.

Select Target Resource Type: Choose either EBS volume or EC2 instance as the target for snapshots.

Exclude Volumes: Narrow down data inclusion by excluding root volumes or data volumes as needed.

Set Custom Schedules: Automate creation, retention, and deletion of snapshots with flexible scheduling options.

Apply Additional Actions: Configure snapshot tags, archiving, fast snapshot restore, cross-Region copying, and cross-account sharing.

Benefits: EBS snapshots with Data Lifecycle Manager provide automated data protection, cost optimization, and operational efficiency for enterprise backup strategies.

Use case: Essential for production workloads requiring regular backups, disaster recovery capabilities, and compliance with data retention policies.

Additional Resources​