Feature overview
This topic describes the archive feature of Cloud Backup, including its advantages, how it works, procedures, and billing.
Introduction
The archive feature of Alibaba Cloud Cloud Backup is a highly efficient and low-cost data protection solution for your local NAS, HDFS, and S3-compatible storage. Cloud Backup supports common protocols such as NFS and CIFS/SMB, S3-compatible storage, and big data storage such as HDFS. Cloud Backup provides intelligent analysis to display data characteristics from multiple dimensions, create targeted archive plans, and predict archiving effectiveness. You can efficiently archive large volumes of files to archive vaults in the cloud. The feature offers simple configuration, excellent performance, and low cost. With Cloud Backup, you can use the global search feature to quickly find and retrieve archived objects for local use.
Key advantages
Low cost
Data is stored in Cloud Backup archive vaults and cold archive vaults on Alibaba Cloud at an extremely low cost.
Fully automated
You can configure a policy once and it runs automatically. The archive vaults in the cloud are fully managed. This saves significant operations and maintenance (O&M) effort compared to traditional tape archiving solutions.
Intelligent analysis
Cloud Backup displays data characteristics from multiple dimensions, helps you create targeted archive plans, and predicts archiving effectiveness.
Global search
Cloud Backup supports high-speed, multi-dimensional search by file path, file name, size, date, and full text. This allows for fast file management and retrieval.
How it works
First, install and activate the Cloud Backup client on one or more local servers. Then, log on to the Cloud Backup console to add a NAS, HDFS, or S3-compatible storage data source. Finally, select an installed Cloud Backup client to archive specified folders and files on the target NAS or HDFS.
When an archive task runs, the Cloud Backup client group scans the specified folders, identifies the files to be archived, and uploads the incremental data to the cloud. Cloud Backup creates an index for the metadata of files or folders archived to the cloud. You can use the global search feature in the Cloud Backup console to quickly find files in the archive vault.
Cloud Backup supports archiving data to Alibaba Cloud over the Internet, a VPN, or a leased line. For archiving over the Internet, the server where the Cloud Backup client is installed only needs to access the Internet. The server's IP address does not need to be exposed to the Internet.
Procedure
To archive data in the Cloud Backup console, perform the following steps:
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Activating Cloud Backup is free. You are charged for archive vault rental fees and storage capacity. For more information, see Billing methods and billable items.
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Install the Cloud Backup client on your on-premises server to archive data.
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Add a data source so that Cloud Backup can discover the on-premises NAS file system, HDFS file system, or S3-Compatible Storage bucket that you want to archive.
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Archive data and Analyze a data source
Create an archive plan to configure settings such as the archive vault, archive rules, archive interval, and archive path. Cloud Backup runs the plan to continuously archive data. You can also use visual analytics to view statistics about the data source and set archive filters based on the results.
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Search for and retrieve files from a data source or an archive vault.
Billing
The archive feature of Cloud Backup incurs the following two main types of fees:
Repository subscription fee
This fee is based on the data volume of your archive vault. Each archive vault or cold archive vault includes a specific amount of free capacity. For more information, see Pricing.
Storage capacity fee
This fee is calculated based on the actual storage capacity that your archived data consumes in the Cloud Backup archive vault. Files in an archive vault or cold archive vault have a minimum billable size. Files smaller than 64 KB are billed as 64 KB. Files that are 64 KB or larger are billed based on their actual size. You can view detailed data on the Overview page of the Cloud Backup console. For more information, see Pricing.
In addition, Cloud Backup charges the following fees in specific configurations or operations:
Capacity Underutilization Fee
If data in an archive vault is deleted or overwritten before it has been stored for 60 days, or if data in a cold archive vault is deleted or overwritten before it has been stored for 180 days, a one-time fee is charged for the remaining storage duration.
Data retrieval fee
A fee is charged based on the amount of data that you retrieve from an archive vault to a local server.
Outbound traffic fee
When you retrieve data to a local server over the Internet, you also incur outbound traffic fees.
What to do next
View the frequently asked questions (FAQ). For more information, see Local backup FAQ.
Learn about the best practices for Cloud Backup. For more information, see Best practices.