Protects your services by ensuring the security and consistency of your data

Cloud Backup and Recovery (CBR) enables you to back up Elastic Cloud Servers (ECSs), Bare Metal Servers (BMSs), Elastic Volume Service (EVS) disks, and SFS Turbo file systems with ease. If there is a virus intrusion, accidental deletion, or software or hardware fault, you can restore data to any point in the past when the data was backed up.

CBR consists of backups, vaults, and policies.

Backup

A backup is a copy of the original data that is backed up. A backup is used to restore the original data. CBR backups are classified into the following types:

• Cloud disk backup provides snapshot-based data protection for EVS disks.
• Cloud server backup uses the consistency snapshot technology for disks to protect data of ECSs and BMSs. In addition, the backups of servers without databases deployed are common server backups, and the backups of servers deployed with databases are application-consistent backups.
• common server backups, and the backups of servers deployed with databases are application-consistent backups.

Vault

CBR uses vaults to store backups. Before creating a backup, you need to create at least one vault and associate the server or disk to be backed up with the vault. Then the backup of the server or disk will be stored in the associated vault.

Backups of different types of backup objects must be stored in different types of vaults accordingly.

Policy

• Backup policies: To perform automatic backups, configure a backup policy by setting the execution time of backup tasks, backup cycle, and retention rules, and then apply the policy to a vault.

Differences Between the Backup Types

Table 1 Differences between the backup types

Item	Cloud Server Backup	Cloud Disk Backup	File System Backup
Backup or restoration objects	All disks (system and data disks) on a server	One or more specified disks (system or data disks)	SFS Turbo file systems
Recommended scenario	An entire cloud server needs to be protected.	Only data disks need to be backed up, because the system disk does not contain personal data.	Data in the SFS Turbo file systems needs to be protected.
Advantages	All disks on a server are backed up at the same time, ensuring data consistency.	Backup cost is reduced without compromising data security.	Backup data and original file systems are stored separately. You can use the backup data to create a new file system.

Backup Mechanism

A full backup is performed only for the first backup and backs up all used data blocks. All subsequent backups are incremental. An incremental backup backs up only the data changed since the last backup, which is storage- and time-efficient. When a backup is deleted, only the data blocks that are not depended on by other backups are deleted, so that other backups can still be used for restoration. Both full backup and incremental backup can restore data to the state at a given backup point in time.

CBR automatically creates snapshots during backup and retains the latest snapshot for each disk. If a disk already has a backup and a new backup is created, the system will automatically delete the old snapshot and save the latest one generated.

CBR stores backup data in OBS, enhancing backup data security.

Backup Options

CBR supports one-off backup and periodic backup. A one-off backup task is manually created by users and takes effect only once. Periodic backup tasks are automatically executed based on a user-defined backup policy.

Table 2 describes the two backup options.

Item	One-Off Backup	Periodic Backup
Backup policy	Not required	Required
Number of backup tasks	One manual backup task	Periodic tasks driven by a backup policy
Backup name	User-defined backup name, which defaults to manualbk_xxxx	System-assigned backup name, which defaults to autobk_xxxx
Backup mode	Full backup at the first time and incremental backup subsequently, by default	Full backup at the first time and incremental backup subsequently, by default
Application scenario	Executed before patching or upgrading the OS or upgrading an application on a resource. A one-off backup can be used to restore the resource to the original state in case the patching or upgrading fails.	Executed for routine maintenance of a resource. The latest backup can be used for restoration in case an unexpected failure or data loss occurs.

You can also use the two backup options together if needed. For example, associate all servers or file systems with a vault and then bind the vault to a backup policy to execute periodic backup for them, and manually perform one-off backups for the most important servers or file systems to further ensure data security. Figure 2 shows the intermixed use of the two backup options.

Figure 2 Intermixed use of the two backup options

How to Access CBR

You can access the CBR service through the management console or by calling HTTPS-based APIs.

• Management Console

The console is a web-based UI, where you can perform operations on CBR resources easily. Log in to the management console and select Cloud Backup and Recovery.

• Calling APIs

If you need to integrate the CBR service provided by the cloud system into a third-party system for secondary development, you can use an API to access the CBR service. For details, see the Cloud Backup and Recovery API Reference.