Data backup

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.

For more information about Cloud Backup vaults, see Vault types.

Key advantages

• Simple configuration

  You can deploy a lightweight backup client on an on-premises physical server, a virtual machine, or an ECS instance. No specialized hardware is required. Scheduled backup policies are intuitive and easy to configure.

• Excellent backup performance

  Cloud Backup supports multiple clients performing concurrent backups on a single file system, significantly improving backup efficiency.

• Source-side deduplication and compression

  The Cloud Backup client compresses and deduplicates file data at the source. In scenarios where on-premises systems are backed up to the cloud, this reduces bandwidth consumption and backup storage usage.

• Backup locking to prevent accidental or malicious deletion

  Cloud Backup provides vault-level backup locking. Locked backup data cannot be deleted by any account or method before the configured retention period expires.

• Cross-region or cross-account backup

  The Cross-region backup feature enables you to quickly replicate critical data to different regions or accounts, providing multi-layer disaster recovery protection across regions and accounts.

How it works

• First, install and activate the Cloud Backup client on an on-premises physical server, a virtual machine, or an ECS instance. Then, log on to the Cloud Backup console and add a CPFS data source. You can then use the client to back up specified files in the target file system.

• When a backup job runs, the Cloud Backup client scans the specified file system directories, identifies the files to back up, performs data reduction operations such as deduplication and compression, and then uploads the incremental data to the backup vault. If multiple clients are installed, they can back up CPFS data in parallel to improve backup performance.

• Cloud Backup uses a forever-incremental backup mechanism. After the initial full backup, each subsequent backup uploads only the data that has changed since the previous backup and synthesizes a complete full backup in the cloud, minimizing network and storage consumption.

• Deleting any backup removes only the data slices unique to that backup without affecting other backups.

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

  • Deleting an intermediate backup does not affect incremental backups or restoration after that backup point. This is because file backups use forever-incremental backup, where the first backup is a full backup and each subsequent backup uploads only data that has changed since the last backup.

• In scenarios where on-premises systems are backed up to the cloud, Cloud Backup supports connections to Alibaba Cloud through the Internet, VPN, or Express Connect. For backups over the Internet, the server with the installed client only needs Internet access; it does not need to expose its IP address to the Internet.

Workflow

The workflow for backing up CPFS by using the Cloud Backup console is as follows:

1. Activate Cloud Backup

   Activating Cloud Backup is free of charge. Cloud Backup charges storage capacity fees. For billing details, see Billing methods and billable items.

2. Install a Cloud Backup client

   The backup client establishes communication and management services between backup nodes (physical servers, virtual machines, or ECS instances) and Cloud Backup.

3. Add a data source

   Add CPFS as a data source in the Cloud Backup console.

4. Back up data

   Create a backup plan and configure the backup vault, backup path, backup schedule, backup retention period, and other settings. Cloud Backup starts the plan and continuously backs up the file system based on the schedule.

   Important

   • The first backup job after a backup plan is created performs a full backup. Subsequent backups are incremental by default.

   • If the selected region supports backup policies, you can only configure backup plans by associating a backup policy. Cloud Backup backs up the file system periodically based on the associated 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 how to create a backup policy, see Create a backup policy.

5. Restore data

   When files in the file system are lost or corrupted, you can use a historical backup to restore all files or files that meet specific conditions. You can restore data to the source CPFS file system or to a new CPFS file system.

Billing

CPFS backup primarily incurs the following fees:

• Storage capacity fees: Calculated based on the actual capacity consumed in the Cloud Backup vault by the backup data.

  You can view detailed vault data on the Overview page of the Cloud Backup console. For more information, see Pricing.

In addition, other fees may apply under specific backup configurations or operations. For example, restoring data from a Cloud Backup vault to an on-premises file system over the Internet incurs outbound Internet traffic fees. For more information, see Billing methods and billable items.