Backing up Cloud Volumes ONTAP data to Amazon S3

06/30/2021 Contributors Download PDF of this page

Complete a few steps to get started backing up data from Cloud Volumes ONTAP to Amazon S3.

Quick start

Get started quickly by following these steps or scroll down to the remaining sections for full details.

Verify support for your configuration

You’re running Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.6 or later in AWS.
You have a valid cloud provider subscription for the storage space where your backups will be located.
You have subscribed to the Cloud Manager Marketplace Backup offering, or you have purchased and activated a Cloud Backup BYOL license from NetApp.
The IAM role that provides Cloud Manager with permissions includes S3 permissions from the latest Cloud Manager policy.

Enable Cloud Backup on your new or existing system

New systems: Cloud Backup is enabled by default in the working environment wizard. Be sure to keep the option enabled.
Existing systems: Select the working environment and click Enable next to the Backup & Restore service in the right-panel, and then follow the setup wizard.

Enter the provider details

Select the AWS Account and the region where you want to create the backups.

A screenshot that shows the cloud provider details when backing up volumes from an ONTAP cluster to an AWS S3

Define the backup policy

The default policy backs up volumes every day and retains the most recent 30 backup copies of each volume. Change to daily, weekly, or monthly backups, or select one of the system-defined policies that provide more options. You can also change the number of backup copies to retain.

A screenshot that shows the Cloud Backup settings where you can choose your backup schedule and retention period.

Select the volumes that you want to back up

Identify which volumes you want to back up in the Select Volumes page.

Restore your data, as needed

Choose to restore an entire backup to a new volume, or to restore individual files from the backup to an existing volume. You can restore data to a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system in AWS, or to an on-premises ONTAP system.

See Restoring volume data from backup files for details.

Requirements

Read the following requirements to make sure that you have a supported configuration before you start backing up volumes to S3.

The following image shows each component and the connections that you need to prepare between them:

A diagram showing how Cloud Backup communicates with the volumes on the source systems and the destination storage where the backup files are located.

When the Cloud Restore instance is deployed in the cloud, it is located in the same subnet as the Connector.

Supported ONTAP versions

Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.6 and later.

License requirements

For Cloud Backup PAYGO licensing, a Cloud Manager subscription is available in the AWS Marketplace that enables deployments of Cloud Volumes ONTAP and Cloud Backup. You need to subscribe to this Cloud Manager subscription before you enable Cloud Backup. Billing for Cloud Backup is done through this subscription.

For an annual contract that enables you to back up both Cloud Volumes ONTAP data and on-premises ONTAP data, you need to subscribe from the AWS Marketplace page and then associate the subscription with your AWS credentials.

For an annual contract that enables you to bundle Cloud Volumes ONTAP and Cloud Backup Service by using an annual contract, you must set up the annual contract when you create a Cloud Volumes ONTAP working environment. This option doesn’t enable you to back up on-prem data.

For Cloud Backup BYOL licensing, you do not need an AWS Cloud Backup subscription. You need the serial number from NetApp that enables you to use the service for the duration and capacity of the license. See Managing your Backup BYOL license.

And you need to have an AWS account for the storage space where your backups will be located.

Supported AWS regions

Cloud Backup is supported in all AWS regions where Cloud Volumes ONTAP is supported.

Required setup for creating backups in a different AWS account

By default, backups are created using the same account as the one used for your Cloud Volumes ONTAP system. If you want to use a different AWS account for your backups, you must log in to the AWS portal and link the two accounts.

AWS Backup permissions required

The IAM role that provides Cloud Manager with permissions must include S3 permissions from the latest Cloud Manager policy.

Here are the specific permissions from the policy:

{
            "Sid": "backupPolicy",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:DeleteBucket",
                "s3:GetLifecycleConfiguration",
                "s3:PutLifecycleConfiguration",
                "s3:PutBucketTagging",
                "s3:ListBucketVersions",
                "s3:GetObject",
                "s3:DeleteObject",
                "s3:ListBucket",
                "s3:ListAllMyBuckets",
                "s3:GetBucketTagging",
                "s3:GetBucketLocation",
                "s3:GetBucketPolicyStatus",
                "s3:GetBucketPublicAccessBlock",
                "s3:GetBucketAcl",
                "s3:GetBucketPolicy",
                "s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::netapp-backup-*"
            ]
        },

AWS Restore permissions required

The following permissions are needed in the policy for the Cloud Restore instance:

          "Action": [
              "ec2:DescribeInstanceTypeOfferings",
              "ec2:StartInstances",
              "ec2:StopInstances",
              "ec2:TerminateInstances"
          ],

Required outbound internet access for AWS deployments

The Cloud Restore instance requires outbound internet access. If your virtual or physical network uses a proxy server for internet access, ensure that the instance has outbound internet access to contact the following endpoints.

Endpoints	Purpose
http://amazonlinux.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/2/extras/docker/stable/x86_64/4bf88ee77c395ffe1e0c3ca68530dfb3a683ec65a4a1ce9c0ff394be50e922b2/	CentOS package for the Cloud Restore Instance AMI.
http://cloudmanagerinfraprod.azurecr.io https://cloudmanagerinfraprod.azurecr.io	Cloud Restore Instance image repository.

Endpoints

Purpose

http://amazonlinux.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/2/extras/docker/stable/x86_64/4bf88ee77c395ffe1e0c3ca68530dfb3a683ec65a4a1ce9c0ff394be50e922b2/

CentOS package for the Cloud Restore Instance AMI.

http://cloudmanagerinfraprod.azurecr.io
https://cloudmanagerinfraprod.azurecr.io

Cloud Restore Instance image repository.

Enabling Cloud Backup on a new system

Cloud Backup is enabled by default in the working environment wizard. Be sure to keep the option enabled.

See Launching Cloud Volumes ONTAP in AWS for requirements and details for creating your Cloud Volumes ONTAP system.

Steps

Click Create Cloud Volumes ONTAP.
Select Amazon Web Services as the cloud provider and then choose a single node or HA system.
Fill out the Details & Credentials page.
On the Services page, leave the service enabled and click Continue.
Complete the pages in the wizard to deploy the system.

Result

Cloud Backup is enabled on the system and backs up volumes every day and retains the most recent 30 backup copies.

What’s next?

You can start and stop backups for volumes or change the backup schedule and you can restore entire volumes or individual files from a backup file.

Enabling Cloud Backup on an existing system

Enable Cloud Backup at any time directly from the working environment.

Steps

Select the working environment and click Enable next to the Backup & Restore service in the right-panel.
Select the AWS Account and the region where you want to create the backups, and click Next.

This can be a different AWS Account and region than where the Cloud Volumes ONTAP system resides. If you want to use a different AWS account for your backups, you must log in to the AWS portal and link the two accounts.
Define the backup schedule and retention value and click Next.

See the list of existing policies.
Select the volumes that you want to back up and click Activate Backup.
- To back up all volumes, check the box in the title row ().
- To back up individual volumes, check the box for each volume ().

Result

Cloud Backup starts taking the initial backups of each selected volume and the Backup Dashboard is displayed so you can monitor the state of the backups.

What’s next?

You can start and stop backups for volumes or change the backup schedule and you can restore entire volumes or individual files from a backup file.