Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon EC2 backup with the Amazon VSS solution - Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon EC2
Snapshot prerequisitesCreate Amazon VSS solution based EBS snapshots
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Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon EC2 backup with the Amazon VSS solution

You can use the Amazon VSS solution to create snapshots of the volumes attached to your EC2 instance, including data from your Microsoft SQL Server database. The Amazon VSS solution uses Amazon managed command documents with the Amazon Systems Manager Run Command. The snapshot process uses the Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to create EBS volume-level backups without requiring you to shut down or pause your SQL Server application or disconnect active connections.

There is no additional cost to use the Amazon VSS solution to create EBS snapshots. You only pay for EBS snapshots created by the backup process. For more information, see How am I billed for my Amazon EBS snapshots?

To restore your SQL Server databases from Amazon VSS solution based EBS snapshots, see Use an automation runbook to restore your database from Amazon VSS solution snapshots.

Amazon VSS solution based snapshot prerequisites

To start backing up your SQL Server databases with Amazon VSS solution based EBS snapshots, you must meet all of the prerequisites.

  • Your instance must satisfy the system requirements, and have the appropriate IAM permissions attached to your instance profile role. If you use Systems Manager to run the recommended command document (AWSEC2-VssInstallAndSnapshot), you can skip the component install prerequisite. That command document automatically installs the VSS components as needed on your instance.

    For more information, see Prerequisites to create Windows VSS based EBS snapshots in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

  • To enable the restore process for your SQL Server database, you must set your database to full recovery mode before you take the snapshot. To configure recovery mode, see View or change the recovery model of a database (SQL Server) on the Microsoft Learn website.

Create Amazon VSS solution based EBS snapshots

To create EBS snapshots that you can use to restore your database instance, see Use Systems Manager command documents to create VSS based snapshots. We recommend that you run the AWSEC2-VssInstallAndSnapshot command document, which automatically installs the VSS components as needed on your instance.

Note

To ensure that you can use the Amazon VSS solution snapshots to restore your database, set the SaveVssMetadata parameter to True for your command document before you run it.