Overview

Introduction

The local file backup feature of Cloud Backup is a data protection solution for file systems on servers in your data center. This solution backs up local file data to the cloud in a simple, secure, and reliable way. If data in your production system is accidentally deleted or attacked by ransomware, you can restore the data from a Cloud Backup vault.

Key benefits

• No local hardware required

  The Cloud Backup client migrates backup data from the local server directly to the cloud. You do not need to purchase separate hardware devices.

• Flexible backup policies

  Configure backup plans to run by the hour, day, month, week, or year, and specify the retention period for backup points.

• Source-side deduplication and compression

  The Cloud Backup client compresses and deduplicates your source data. This reduces bandwidth usage during the upload and lowers storage consumption in the cloud.

• Backup locking to prevent accidental or malicious deletion

  Cloud Backup provides a vault-based backup locking feature. This feature prevents backup data from being deleted by any account or method before the configured retention period expires.

• Multi-branch management and cross-account backup

  Cloud Backup supports backing up data from multiple branches in different regions. After you grant the required permissions, use Account A to back up the data of Account B for centralized enterprise data protection management.

How it works

• Install and activate the Cloud Backup file backup client on each server from which you want to back up files. The client needs to be installed only once on each server. It backs up the specified folders based on the configured backup plan.

• When a backup job runs, the Cloud Backup client scans the specified folders, identifies the files to back up, and performs data reduction operations such as data deduplication and compression. Then, the client uploads the incremental data to the cloud to complete the backup.

• Cloud Backup uses an incremental-forever backup mechanism. After the first full backup, each subsequent backup uploads only the data that has changed since the last backup. A complete full backup is then synthesized in the cloud to reduce network and storage consumption.

• When you delete a backup, only the data segments that are unique to that backup are deleted. Other backups are not affected.

  • Deleting a full backup does not affect subsequent data restoration. This is because deleting a full backup removes only the data segments exclusive to that backup. Data segments referenced by other backups are not deleted.

  • Deleting an intermediate backup does not affect the incremental backups and restorations from subsequent backup points. This is because file backup is an incremental-forever process. The first backup is a full backup, and each subsequent backup uploads only the data that has changed since the previous backup.

• Cloud Backup supports data backup to Alibaba Cloud over the Internet, a VPN, or a leased line. If you back up data over the Internet, the backup server only needs to access the Internet. You do not need to expose the server's IP address to the Internet.

Procedure

The following procedure shows how to use the Cloud Backup console to back up files from on-premises servers:

1. Activate Cloud Backup

   Activating the Cloud Backup service is free of charge. When you use Cloud Backup for backups, you are charged a software usage fee (File Backup software usage fee), a storage capacity fee, and other applicable fees. For billing details, see Billing methods and billable items.

2. Install a backup client

   The backup client establishes communication and management services between the on-premises server and Cloud Backup. After the client is installed, in the Clients list, the Client Status is displayed as Activated.

   On the server, you can view the installation path, logs, and running status of the backup client. For more information, see Where are Cloud Backup client logs stored?.

3. Back up local files

   Create a backup plan and configure the backup vault, backup directory, backup cycle, and retention period. Cloud Backup starts the plan and continuously backs up on-premises files as scheduled, saving them to Alibaba Cloud. You can browse the backed-up files at any time.

   Important

   • If the region that you select supports backup policies, you can configure a backup plan only by associating it with a backup policy. Cloud Backup periodically backs up on-premises files according to the backup policy.

   • In the left-side navigation pane of the console, click Policy Center to view the regions that support backup policies. For information about creating a backup policy, see Create a backup policy.

   • Previous-version backup plans have been fully upgraded to backup policies. If you are using a previous-version backup plan, create or select a backup policy and bind it to the plan when you edit the plan to complete the upgrade. After the upgrade, the backup history of the previous-version backup plan is retained. We strongly recommend that you use the same backup vault for the previous-version backup plan and the new backup policy so that you can view the backup history.

4. Restore on-premises files

   If local files become unavailable, you can restore them based on the backup points and points in time that have been created. You can restore backed-up files to the source path on the original on-premises server, a new path that you create in advance, an ECS instance in the cloud with a backup client installed, or a new on-premises server with a backup client installed.

   Important

   • To restore files to a new path on the original on-premises server, create the path first.

   • To restore files to an ECS instance in the cloud, first install a backup client on the ECS instance. Automated installation is available on the ECS File Backup Standard Edition page. If the client is used only for restoration, no software usage fee is charged. If the client is used for backup, the software usage fee and storage capacity fee are charged as usual.

   • To restore files to another on-premises server, first install a backup client on that server. For billing details, see Billing methods and billable items.

     • If the client is used only for restoration, no software usage fee is charged.

     • If the client is used for backup, the software usage fee and storage capacity fee are charged as usual.

     • If the client restores files over the Internet, an outbound Internet traffic fee is incurred.

Billing

What to do next

• Back up local files.

• FAQ about local backup.

• Learn about the best practices of Cloud Backup.