Protecting Amazon FSx for Windows File Server Using AWS Backup

3.1 — Configure the services used with AWS Backup

• Sign in to the AWS Management Console, and open the AWS Backup console.
• In the navigation pane on the left, under the My account section, choose Settings.
• On the Service opt-in page, choose the Configure resources button.
  
  

• On the Configure resources page, use the toggle switches to enable or disable the services used with AWS Backup. Choose Confirm when your services are configured.
  • AWS resources that you're backing up should be in the Region that you're using for this tutorial. Your resources must all be in the same AWS Region. This tutorial uses the US East (N. Virginia) Region (us-east-1).
    
    

3.2 — Configure a backup plan for an Amazon FSx for Windows file system

• In the AWS Backup console, under My account, select Backup plans in the left navigation pane, and then choose the Create Backup plan button.

• 3.2.1 — Configure a backup plan for an Amazon FSx for Windows file system (continued)
  • AWS Backup provides three ways to get started using the AWS Backup console:
    • Start from an existing plan: You can create a new backup plan based on the configurations in an existing plan. Be aware that backup plans created by AWS Backup are based on backup best practices and common backup policy configurations available in the AWS Backup Developer Guide. When you select an existing backup plan to start from, the configurations from that backup plan are automatically populated for your new backup plan. You can then change any of these configurations according to your backup requirements.
    • Build a new plan from scratch: You can create a new backup plan by specifying each of the backup configuration details, as described in the next section. You can choose from the recommended default configurations.
    • Define a plan using JSON: You can modify the JSON expression of an existing backup plan or create a new expression.
  • Backup plan name - You must provide a unique backup plan name. If you try to create a backup plan that is identical to an existing plan, you get an AlreadyExistsException error.
    
    

• 3.2.2 — Configure a backup plan for an Amazon FSx for Windows file system (continued)
  • Backup rule name - Backup plans are composed of one or more backup rules. Backup rule names are case sensitive and must contain from 1 to 63 alphanumeric characters or hyphens.
  • In the Backup vault section, you can select the default vault or one of the pre-existing vaults. Backups created by a backup rule are organized in the backup vault that you specify in the backup rule. You can use backup vaults to set the AWS KMS encryption key that is used to encrypt backups in the backup vault and to control access to the backups in the backup vault. You can also add tags to backup vaults to help you organize them. If you don't want to use the default vault, you can create your own.
  • Create new Backup vault - Instead of using the default backup vault that is automatically created for you in the AWS Backup console, you can create specific backup vaults to save and organize groups of backups in the same vault. To create a new backup vault, refer to step 3.3.
  • In the Backup Frequency section, choose Daily. The backup frequency determines how often a backup is created. You can choose a frequency of every 12 hours, daily, weekly, or monthly. When selecting weekly, you can specify which days of the week you want backups to be taken. When selecting monthly, you can choose a specific day of the month.
  • In the Backup window section, select Use backup window defaults, which initiates the backup job at 5 AM UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) and lasts 8 hours. If you would like to customize the backup frequency, refer to the documentation for more information.
  • In the Transition to cold storage section, enter 7 as the number of days you want to retain the backups in warm storage.
  • In the Retention period section, select Days and enter 100 as the number of days that you want to retain the backups in cold storage. Backups that are transitioned to cold storage must be stored in cold storage for a minimum of 90 days.
    
    

• 3.2.3 — Configure a backup plan for an Amazon FSx for Windows file system (continued)
  • In the Copy to destination section, leave it as the default, since this tutorial covers backups within the same AWS Region. As part of your backup plan, you can optionally create a backup copy in another AWS Region. Using AWS Backup, you can copy backups to multiple AWS Regions on-demand, or automatically as part of a scheduled backup plan. Cross-region replication is particularly valuable if you have business continuity or compliance requirements to store backups a minimum distance away from your production data. When you define a backup copy, you configure the following options:
    • Destination Region: The destination Region for the backup copy
    • (Advanced Settings) Backup Vault: The destination backup vault for the copy.
    • (Advanced Settings) IAM Role: The IAM role that AWS Backup uses when creating the copy. The role must also have AWS Backup listed as a trusted entity, which enables AWS Backup to assume the role. If you choose Default and the AWS Backup default role is not present in your account, a role is created for you with the correct permissions.
    • (Advanced Settings) Lifecycle: Specifies when to expire (delete) the copy.
    • Note: Cross-region copy incurs additional data transfer costs. You can refer to AWS Backup pricing for more details.
  • Tags added to recovery points: The tags that you list here are automatically added to backups when they are created.
  • Advanced backup settings: Enables application-consistent backups for third-party applications that are running on Amazon EC2 instances. Currently, AWS Backup supports Windows VSS backups. This is only applicable for EC2 Instances running SQL Server or Exchange databases. You can refer to the documentation for more details.
  • Then, choose the Create plan button. Once the plan is created, tags and resources can be added to the backup plan.
    
    

3.3 — Create a backup vault

• When using AWS Backup Vaults for the first time in the console, a default vault will be created, but we will create a new one for this tutorial.
• In the AWS Backup console, in the left navigation pane under My account, select Backup vaults.
• Choose Create backup vault.
• Enter a name for your backup vault. You can name your vault to reflect what you will store in it, which will also make it easier to search for the backups you need. For example, you could name it WebappBackups.
• Select an AWS KMS key. You can use either a key that you already created, or select the default AWS Backup KMS key.
  
  

3.3.1 — Create a backup vault (continued)

• Optionally, add tags that will help you search for and identify your backup vault.

3.4 — Assign resources to the backup plan

• When you assign a resource to a backup plan, that resource is backed up automatically according to the backup plan. The backups for that resource are managed according to the backup plan. You can assign resources using tags or resource IDs. Using tags to assign resources is a simple and scalable way to back up multiple resources.
• Select the created backup plan and choose the Assign resources button.
  

3.4.1 — Assign resources to the backup plan (continued)

• Resource assignment name: Provide a resource assignment name.
• IAM role: When creating a tag-based backup plan, if you choose a role other than Default role, make sure that it has the necessary permissions to back up all tagged resources. AWS Backup tries to process all resources with the selected tags. If it encounters a resource that it doesn't have permission to access, the backup plan fails.
  
  

• 3.4.2 — Assign resources to the backup plan (continued)
  • Define resource selection – You can select Include all resource types. This option will select all resources and it can be further refined to only include a subset with key value pair selection in the step below.
  • Refine selection using tags – This feature allows you to refine your current selection to include a subset of your resources using tags.
  • Select Assign resources – The backup plan will then have the resources assigned to it.

Navigate to the AWS Backup console and select Jobs in the left navigation pane. Once there, you will be able to see your Backup jobs.

A backup, or recovery point, represents the content of a resource, such as an Amazon FSx file system or Amazon RDS database, at a specified time. Recovery point is a term that refers generally to the different backups in AWS services, such as Amazon EBS snapshots and Amazon RDS backups. In AWS Backup, recovery points are saved in backup vaults, which you can organize according to your business needs. Each recovery point has a unique ID.