backup vaults and archive vaults-Cloud Backup(Cloud Backup)-阿里云帮助中心

Cloud Backup provides two vault types: backup vaults for operational recovery and archive vaults for long-term retention. Together, they cover all data storage scenarios, from hot to cold.

Background

Cloud Backup provides backup, disaster recovery, and policy-based archive management for a wide range of data sources. These include cloud services such as ECS databases, CPFS, NAS, OSS, and Tablestore, as well as on-premises resources like files, databases, and virtual machines. All backup and archived data is stored in Alibaba Cloud within Cloud Backup vaults.

Backup vaults

A backup vault stores backup data and uses a tiered storage architecture with a Standard tier and an Archive tier to balance access performance and storage costs.

Backup vault types

Choose a backup vault type based on your data source:

Vault type	Description
General Backup Vault	ECS file backups, OSS backups, on-premises NAS backups, Alibaba Cloud NAS backups, CPFS backups, Tablestore backups, local file backups, SAP HANA backups, and VMware backups.
Replication Target Vault (formerly mirror vault)	Stores backup data replicated from other regions or other Alibaba Cloud accounts. Use this vault type as the destination for backup replication.
Database Backup Vault	MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server databases.
OSS backup vault (30-day free trial)	These vaults store backup data for Alibaba Cloud OSS, NAS, and Tablestore during a 30-day free trial. After you convert to a paid subscription, the vault type changes to General Backup Vault. Backup data is automatically deleted after its retention period expires, the same as with a General Backup Vault. If you do not convert to a paid subscription before the free trial ends, the backup vault is retained for an additional 30 days. If you still do not convert within this grace period, the vault and all of its data are permanently deleted.
NAS backup vault (30-day free trial)
Tablestore backup vault (30-day free trial)
Container Backup Vault	Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) clusters.

Tiered storage

Standard tier: By default, backup data lands in the Standard tier after a backup completes. This tier supports fast access and restore, making it suitable for data that requires quick restoration or frequent verification for business continuity.
Archive tier: When you enable the automatic archiving feature, data transitions automatically from the Standard tier to the Archive tier based on a backup plan. This tier provides long-term, low-cost storage for rarely accessed data that must be retained long-term.

Archive vaults

Archive vaults store on-premises data archived to the cloud using a policy. Based on storage type, archive vaults come in two variants: Archive Storage Vaults and Cold Archive Vaults.

Note

Archive vaults are used only for archiving data from local NAS, HDFS, and S3-compatible storage.

Archive Storage Vault

An Archive Storage Vault provides highly durable, extremely low-cost storage. Before accessing data, you must restore it first, which takes about 5 minutes. Data retrieval incurs restoration fees. This vault type suits long-term retention scenarios such as archival records, medical images, scientific data, and film production assets. For pricing details, see Cloud Backup Pricing Details.

The system automatically selects the redundancy type based on regional support. In regions that support zone-redundant storage (ZRS), an Archive Storage Vault with ZRS is created by default. In other regions, an Archive Storage Vault with locally redundant storage (LRS) is created. You do not need to manually select the redundancy type.

Currently, the regions that support zone-redundant storage (ZRS) are China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Hangzhou) Finance, China (Shanghai) Finance, China (Shenzhen) Finance, China (Beijing) Finance (invitational preview), China (Beijing) Gov 1, Hong Kong (China), Japan (Tokyo), Singapore, Indonesia (Jakarta), Germany (Frankfurt), and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur).

Cold Archive Vault

A Cold Archive Vault provides highly durable storage at the lowest cost of all storage types. Before accessing data, you must restore it first, and data retrieval incurs restoration fees. This vault type suits extremely long-term retention of cold data, such as compliance data, raw data in big data and AI workloads, long-term media assets, and archived videos from the online education sector. For pricing details, see Cloud Backup Pricing Details.

Warning

Cold Archive Vaults only support locally redundant storage (LRS). Data is stored within a single, specific zone. If that zone becomes unavailable, the data is inaccessible. If your business requires higher availability, use storage types that support ZRS—such as backup vaults or Archive Storage Vaults—instead.

The system creates an LRS-based Cold Archive Vault by default.

Redundancy types

Cloud Backup uses two redundancy types for both backup vaults (Standard and Archive tiers) and archive vaults:

Zone-redundant storage (ZRS): Data is replicated across multiple zones within the same region. If one zone becomes unavailable, your data remains accessible.
Locally redundant storage (LRS): Data is replicated across multiple devices within a single zone. This ensures durability and availability in the event of hardware failure, but provides no protection against zone-level outages.

The system automatically selects the redundancy type based on regional support. In regions that support ZRS, a ZRS-enabled backup vault or archive vault is created by default. In other regions, an LRS-based backup vault or archive vault is created. You do not need to manually select the redundancy type.

Archive tier vs. archive vaults

The following table compares the Archive tier within a backup vault against standalone archive vault types to help you choose the right storage option.

Item	Archive tier	Archive Storage Vault	Cold Archive Vault
Applicable feature	Automatic archiving. When you enable this feature in a backup plan, data transitions from a backup vault's Standard tier to its Archive tier.	On-premises data archiving. Archives data from on-premises sources to an Archive Storage Vault.	On-premises data archiving. Archives data from on-premises sources to a Cold Archive Vault.
Type	An Infrequent Access storage tier within a backup vault.	A standalone vault type.	A standalone vault type.
Purpose	Reduces data protection costs by moving backup data from the Standard tier to the Archive tier for long-term retention.	Long-term, low-cost storage for cold data from on-premises environments that is rarely accessed but must be retained.	Long-term, lowest-cost storage for extremely cold data from on-premises environments that is almost never accessed but must be retained.
Data sources	Cloud services backed up by Cloud Backup, including ECS, OSS, NAS, CPFS, Tablestore, and databases.	On-premises sources: local NAS, HDFS, and S3-compatible storage.	On-premises sources: local NAS, HDFS, and S3-compatible storage.
Redundancy type	ZRS (in supported regions) or LRS. Automatically selected based on regional support.	ZRS (in supported regions) or LRS. Automatically selected based on regional support.	LRS only. Data is stored within a single zone.
Data restore time	Immediate restore available from the Standard tier. Restoring from the Archive tier requires rehydration first.	Approximately 5 minutes to restore before data is accessible.	Restore time varies. Data retrieval incurs restoration fees.
Billing	All archive storage types (Archive tier, Archive Storage Vault, and Cold Archive Vault) share the same billing logic: Charges are based on the storage capacity used. The minimum billable unit is 64 KB. Objects or files smaller than 64 KB are billed as 64 KB; objects or files 64 KB or larger are billed based on their actual size. You can view the detailed data size on the Overview page of the Cloud Backup console. Restoring data incurs restoration fees. A minimum retention period applies. Deleting data before this period expires incurs an early deletion fee. For pricing details, see Cloud Backup Pricing Details.

Billing

Using vaults incurs fees. For more information, see Billing methods and billable items.
Purchase resource plans to receive discounts. For more information, see Resource plan purchase guide.

View vaults

Method 1: Use the Storage Vaults page
1. Go to the Cloud Backup console - Storage Vaults page. In the top-left corner, select your target region.
2. On the Storage Vaults page, view the list of vaults and perform operations as needed.
  The Storage Vaults page displays all backup vaults and archive vaults in Cloud Backup. You can view detailed information for each vault, including its name, ID, type, number of backup plans, source data volume, vault data volume, and status.
Method 2: Use the Overview page of the Cloud Backup console
The Overview page displays the following key information:
- Backup Statistics: Number of backup policies, number of vaults, total vault usage (Standard tier/Archive tier), and number of file clients.
- Protected Resources: Count of protected resources by type (ECS files, OSS Buckets, Alibaba Cloud NAS, on-premises NAS, CPFS, Tablestore, etc.).
- Task Statistics: Count of backup/restore tasks by status (successful, failed, running), with time range filtering.
- Storage Data Volume: Bar chart showing data volume trends for general backup vaults, ECS instance backup snapshot capacity, database backup capacity, archive vaults, and other storage types.