Backing up and Restoring Data on AWS

A snapshot represents a state of an instance or disk at a point in time. You can use a snapshot of an instance or a disk to backup or restore information in case of failures.

Creating a Snapshot of a Volume on AWS

In AWS, you can create a snapshot of a volume.

To create a snapshot on AWS:

  1. On the EC2 Dashboard screen, click Volumes under the Elastic Block Store section.

    The screen with all the volumes appears.

  2. Right click on the required volume and select Actions > Create Snapshot.

    The Create Snapshot screen for the selected volume appears.

  3. Enter the required description for the snapshot in the Description text box.

  4. Select Add tag to add a tag.

  5. Enter the tag in the Key and Value text boxes.

  6. Click Add Tag to add additional tags.

  7. Click Create Snapshot.

    A message Create Snapshot Request Succeeded appears, along with the snapshot ID.

    • Ensure that you note the snapshot ID.

    • Ensure that the status of the snapshot is completed.

Restoring a Snapshot on AWS

On AWS, you can restore data by creating a volume of a snapshot. You then attach the volume to an EC2 instance.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that the status of the instance is Stopped.

  • Ensure that you detach an existing volume on the instance.

Restoring a Snapshot

To restore a snapshot on AWS:

  1. On the EC2 Dashboard screen, click Snapshots under the Elastic Block Store section.

    The screen with all the snapshots appears.

  2. Right-click on the required snapshot and select Create Volume.

    The Create Volume screen form appears.

  3. Select the type of volume from the Volume Type drop-down list.

  4. Enter the size of the volume in the Size (GiB) textbox.

  5. Select the availability zone from the Availability Zone* drop-down list.

  6. Click Add Tag to add tags.

  7. Click Create Volume.

    A message Create Volume Request Succeeded along with the volume id appears. The volume with the snapshot is created.

    Ensure that you note the volume id.

  8. Under the EBS section, click Volume.

    The screen displaying all the volumes appears.

  9. Right-click on the volume that is created.

    The pop-up menu appears.

  10. Select Attach Volume.

    The Attach Volume dialog box appears.

  11. Enter the Instance ID or name of the instance in the Instance text box.

  12. Enter /dev/xvda in the Device text box.

  13. Click Attach to add the volume to an instance.

    The snapshot is added to the EC2 instance as a volume.