Following on from my earlier post “BDRSuite’s AWS Backup & Recovery Solution for EC2 Instances“. I thought it would be pertinent to share 7 simple but yet impactful best practices when protecting your AWS EC2 environment, and how BDRSuite for AWS can help!
Let’s get into it!
1. Automate Backups:
Leverage AWS services like AWS Backup or utilize scripts to automate EC2 instance backups. This ensures that backups are taken at regular intervals without manual intervention. Implementing a solution like BDRSuite for AWS gives you easy access to scheduling automatic backups.
2. Lifecycle Policies:
Implement lifecycle policies for your backups to control how long they are retained. BDRSuite for AWS can allow you to implement flexible retention policies to save storage costs, however, consider the maximum time you may need to archive backups (perhaps governed by local compliance laws).
3. Chunk Backups
Chunk backup is a technology used in BDRSuite to provide efficient and faster backups by breaking down large files into smaller chunks and transferring only the changed chunks during subsequent backups. Other concepts such as change block tracking are the same as chunk backups with the overall purpose to reduce the amount of data that needs to be backed up, thus shortening the backup window.
4. Encryption your backups:
Always encrypt your backups, both in transit and at rest. This ensures data privacy and security. BDRSuite for AWS provides the ability to encrypt your backup so that no unauthorised party can restore precious and potentially sensitive data out of them.
5. Disk Downloads
You have the option to retrieve your virtual machine data as an image file and transfer it to a local location. Additionally, you can perform virtual machine migrations between different hypervisors (V2V) by obtaining the appropriate file format necessary for the target hypervisor. Backup data can be obtained in several virtual disk formats, such as VHD, VMDK, flat-VMDK file meaning moving between destinations and even different hypervisors is easy – however, remember there is a time penalty associated with converting to other file formats so needs to be considered
6. Document Restore Procedures:
Have a well-documented restoration process in place. Ensure your team knows how to restore data quickly in case of emergencies, this is also important when you lose a team member who may leave the organisation. If they were the only ones who knew how to recover data sets, then all of that IP and knowledge leaves the organisation with them.
7. Regularly Review and Update:
Regularly review and update your backup policies, procedures and documentation as your infrastructure evolves. This ensures when a recovery is needed, that you won’t hit a roadblock because of outdated policies or documentation.
In Closing:
By following these best practices, you can enhance the resilience of your data on AWS EC2, minimize downtime in case of failures, and ensure that your critical information remains safe and accessible when you need it most.
