In this blog, post I will show you how to take a backup of the compute instance and schedule it.
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There are 2 Backup Types Available:
Full = Includes all changes since the volume was created
Incremental = Includes only the changes since the last backup
So a backup of compute instance means backup of “Boot volume + block volume.”
This is the point-in-time backup of data to Object Storage.
Steps:
1. Create a Backup policy:
First, we need to create a backup policy to attach to the volume group, so it automatically takes backups as per policy.
Go to OCI –> Click on Storage –> Block Storage –> Backup Policy
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You will see we already have 3 Oracle-defined policies.
Note: Oracle-defined backup policies are not supported for scheduled volume group backups.
So let’s create a user-defined backup policy:
Click on Create Backup Policy and provide any name, I am not using any cross-region copy target so keep None and click on Create Backup Policy.
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Now we need to add a schedule for backups, click Add Schedule
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Add Schedule for full backup (I am taking a weekly full backup), click add schedule.
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Now click again on add a schedule and add for incremental backup
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You can see both schedules
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2. Create a Volume Group:
A volume group can include both types of volumes, boot volumes, which are the system disks for your compute instances, and block volumes for your data storage.
Go to OCI –> Click on Storage –> Block Storage –> Volume Groups
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Click on Create Volume Group, give any name select availability domain, and click next
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Next, select the volumes used in the compute instance (boot volume + if you are using any block volume)
I have one block volume attached to my VM, so I select boot volume + one block volume. If you are using more block volumes, add all here.
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click next, I am not enabling cross-region replication
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Next, select the backup policy we created earlier
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Next review the summary page for all info and click Create
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It takes a few seconds and the volume group will be created.
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3. After a few days when you Click on Volume Group Backups you will see the volume group backups as per the job policy.
something like that
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This way we can take or schedule compute instance backups.
In the next blog, I will show you how to restore from volume group backup and create a new instance.