Posted On: Nov 16, 2023

Customers can now use default policies to backup all EC2 instances and EBS volumes in their account with a single API call via Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager. Default policies work in conjunction with customers’ existing backup mechanisms to only create EBS-backed AMIs and EBS Snapshots of instances and volumes with no recent backups. This helps ensure customers have comprehensive backup protection without creating duplicate backups or increasing management overhead and cost. This feature is now available in Amazon Web Services China (Beijing) Region, operated by Sinnet and Amazon Web Services China (Ningxia) Region, operated by NWCD.

Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager provides an automated, policy-based lifecycle management solution for EBS Snapshots and EBS-backed Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). Now, customers can use Data Lifecycle Manager default policies that will target all instances and/or volumes in a region, and will automate the creation and retention of backups for resources which aren’t recently backed-up. Customers can choose to exclude non-critical workloads by specifying exclusion parameters such as volume type, resource tags, and boot volumes. The feature can also be enabled easily with a single click in EC2 Console.

There is no cost associated with creating and managing these policies. Customers only pay for the storage cost associated with any EBS Snapshots that are created.

This feature is now available through the Management Console, Amazon CloudFormation, Amazon SDKs, or the Amazon Command Line Interface (CLI). For more information on using this, visit our documentation.