Default policy for EBS snapshots

To create a default policy for EBS snapshots

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/ec2/.

2. In the navigation panel, choose Lifecycle Manager and then choose Create lifecycle policy.

3. For Policy type, choose Default policy and then choose EBS snapshot policy.

4. For Description, enter a brief description for the policy.

5. For IAM role, choose the IAM role that has permissions to manage snapshots.

   We recommend that you choose Default to use the default IAM role provided by Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager. However, you can also use a custom IAM role that you previously created.

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6. For Creation frequency, specify how often you want the policy to run and create snapshots of your volumes.

   The frequency that you specify also determines which volumes are backed up. The policy will only back up volumes that have not been backed up by any other means within the specified frequency. For example, if you specify a creation frequency of 3 days, the policy will only create snapshots of volumes that have not been backed up within the last 3 days.

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7. For Retention period, specify how long you want the policy to retain the snapshots that it creates. When a snapshot reaches the retention threshold, it is automatically deleted. The retention period must be greater than or equal to the creation frequency.

8. (Optional) Configure the Exclusion parameters to exclude specific volumes from the scheduled backups. Excluded volumes will not be backed up when the policy runs.

   1. To exclude boot volumes, select Exclude boot volumes. If you exclude boot volumes, only data (non-boot) volumes will be backed up by the policy. In other words, it will not create snapshots of volumes that are attached to instances as a boot volume.

   2. To exclude specific volume types, choose Exclude specific volume types, and then select the volume types to exclude. Only volumes of the remaining types will be backed up by the policy.

   3. To exclude volumes that have specific tags, choose Add tag, and then specify the tag keys and values. The policy will not create snapshots of volumes that have any of the specified tags.

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9. (Optional) In the Advanced settings, specify additional actions that the policy should perform.

   1. To copy assigned tags from the source volumes to their snapshots, select Copy tags from volumes.

   2. With Extend deletion disabled:

      • If a source volume is deleted, Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager continues to delete previously created snapshots up to, but not including, the last one based on the retention period. If you want Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager to delete all snapshots, including the last one, select Extend deletion.

      • If a policy is deleted or enters the error or disabled state, Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager stops deleting snapshots. If you want Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager to continue deleting snapshots, including the last one, select Extend deletion.

      Note

      If you enable extend deletion, you override both behaviors described above simultaneously.

   3. To copy snapshots created by the policy to other Regions, select Create cross-Region copy and then select up to 3 destination Regions.

      • If the source snapshot is encrypted, or if encryption by default is enabled for the destination Region, the copied snapshots are encrypted using the default KMS key for EBS encryption in the destination Region.

      • If the source snapshot is unencrypted and encryption by default is disabled for the destination Region, the copied snapshots are unencrypted.

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10. (Optional) To add a tag to the policy, choose Add tag and then specify the tag key and value pair.

11. Choose Create default policy.

    Note

    If you get the Role with name AWSDataLifecycleManagerDefaultRole already exists error, see Troubleshooting for more information.