AWS Cloud Protection Manager Part 3: Backup and Restore

Backup

Backups are created according to the schedule specified in the backup policy. We discussed how to configure backup policies in the previous blog post of the series. The list of backups you see on the Backup Monitor tab are your restore points. Backups that are older then the specified retention policy will be purged from the list and you will not see them there, unless you move them to “Freezer”.

It is important to understand that apart from volume snapshots, for each backed up instance CPM also creates an AMI. Those who has hands-on experience with AWS may already know, that AMIs is the only way to create clones of Windows EC2 instances in AWS. If you go to AWS console and try to find a clone action under the instance Action menu, you won’t find any. You will have “Create Image” instead. It creates an AMI, from which you can then spin up a clone of an instance the image was created from.

CPM does exactly that. For each backup policy the instance is under, it creates one AMI. In our example we have four backup policies, that will result in four AMIs for each of the instances. Every AMI has to have at least one storage volume. So CPM will include the root volume of each instance into AMI, just because it has to. But AMIs are required only to restore EC2 instance configuration. Data is restored from volume snapshots, that can be used to create new volumes from them and then attach them to the instance. You can click on the View button under Snapshots to find the corresponding snapshot and AMI IDs.

There is a backup log for each job run as well that is helpful for issue troubleshooting.

Restore

To perform a restore click on the Recover button next to the backup job and you will get the list of the instances you can recover. CPM offers you three options: instance recovery, volume recovery and file recovery. Let’s go back to front.

File recovery is probably the most used recovery option. As it lets you restore individual files. When you click on the “Explore” button, CPM creates new volumes from the snapshots you are restoring from and mount them to the CPM instance. You are then presented with a simple file system browser where you can find the file and click on the green down arrow icon in Download column to save the file to your computer.

If you click on “Volume Only”, you can restore particular volumes. Restored volumes are not attached to any instance, unless you specify it under “Attach to Instance” column. You can then select under “Attach Behaviour” what CPM should do if such volume is already attached to the instance or if you want to automatically detach the original volume, but the instance is running (you can do it only if instance is stopped).

And the last option is “Instance”. It will create a clone of the original instance using the pre-generated AMI and volume snapshots, as we discussed in the Backup section of this blog post. You can specify many options under Advanced Options section, including recovery to another VPC or different availability zone. If anything, make sure you specify a new IP address for the instance, otherwise you’ll have a conflict and your restore will fail. Ideally you should also shut down the original EC2 instance before spinning up a restore clone.

Advanced Features

There are quite a few worth mentioning. So far we have looked at simple EC2 instance restore. But you don’t have to backup whole instances, you can also backup individual volumes. On top of that, CPM supports RDS database, Aurora and Redshift cluster backups.

If you run MS Exchange, Sharepoint or SQL on your EC2 instances, you can install CPM backup agent on them to ensure you have application-consistent backups via VSS, as opposed to crash-consistent backups you get if agent is not used. If you install the agent, you can also run a script on the instance before and after the backup is taken.

Last but not least is DR. Restoring to another availability zone within the region is already supported on instance recovery level. You can choose availability zone you want to restore to. It is not possible to recover to another region, though. Because AWS snapshots and AMIs are local to the region they are created in. If you want to be able to recover to another region, you can configure DR in CPM, which will utilise AWS AMI and snapshot copy functionality to copy backups to another region at configured frequency.

Conclusion

Overall, I found Cloud Protection Manager very easy to install, configure and use. If you come from infrastructure background, at first glance CPM may look to you like a very basic tool, compared to such feature-rich solutions like Veeam or Commvault. But that feeling is misleading. CPM is simple, because AWS simple. All infrastructure complexity is hidden under the covers. As a result, all AWS backup tools need to do is create snapshots and CPM does it well.

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First Look at AWS Management Portal for vCenter Part 2: Administration

In part 1 of the series we looked at the Management Portal deployment. Let’s move on to an overview of the portal functionality.

Portal Dashboard

Once you open the portal you are asked to pick your region (region preferences can later be changed only from Web Client). You then proceed to the dashboard where you can see all instances you already have running in AWS. If you don’t see your VPCs, make sure the user you’re using to log in is on the list of administrators in AMP (user and domain names are case sensitive).

Here you can find detailed configuration information of each instance (Summary page), performance metrics (pulled from CloudWatch) and do some simple tasks, such as stopping/rebooting/terminating an instance, creating an AMI (Amazon Machine Image). You can also generate a Windows password from a key pair if you need to connect to VM via RDP or SSH.

Virtual Private Cloud Configuration

If the dashboard tab is more operational-focused, VPC tab is configuration-centric. Here you can create new VPCs, subnets and security groups. This can be handy if you want to add a rule to a security group to for instance allow RDP access to AWS instances from a certain IP.

If you spend most of the time in vCenter this can be helpful as you don’t need to go to AWS console every time to perform such simple day to day tasks.

Virtual Machine Provisioning

Portal supports simple instance provisioning from Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). You start with creating an environment (Default Environment can’t be used to deploy new instances). Then you create a template, where you can pick an AMI and specify configuration options, such as instance type, subnets and security groups.

Note: when creating a template, make sure to search for AMIs by AMI ID. AMI IDs in quick start list are not up-to-date and will cause instance deployment to fail with the following error:

Failed to launch instance due to EC2 error: The specified AMI is no longer available or you are not authorized to use it.

You can then go ahead and deploy an instance from a template.

Virtual Machine Migration

Saving the best for the last. VM migration – this is probably one of the coolest portal features. Right-click on a VM in vCenter inventory and select Migrate to EC2. You will be asked where you want to place the VM and how AWS instance should be configured.

When you hit the button AMP will first export VM as an OVF image and then upload the image to AWS. As a result, you get a copy of your VM in AWS VPC with minimal effort.

When it comes to VM migration to AWS, there is, of course, much more to it than just copying the data. Machine gets a new SID, which not all applications and services like. There are compatibility considerations, data gravity, network connectivity and others. But all the heavy lifting AMP does for you.

Conclusion

I can’t say that I was overly impressed with the tool, it’s very basic and somewhat limited. Security Groups can be created, but cannot be applied to running instances. Similarly, templates can be created, but not edited.

But I would still recommend to give it a go. Maybe you will find it useful in your day to day operations. It gives you visibility into your AWS environment, saving time jumping between two management consoles. And don’t underestimate the migration feature. Where other vendors ask for a premium, AWS Management Portal for vCenter gives it to you for free.