ec2backup

A simple Go application to automate backup of Amazon EC2 volumes.

It scans all your instances and performs backups of the attached volumes.

It supports a few options to help keeping backups under control.

Building

Just clone this repository in your $GOPATH and run the following lines:

go get gopkg.in/alecthomas/kingpin.v2
go get github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws
go build

Usage

usage: ec2backup [<flags>] <region>

Flags:
      --help                Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
  -v, --verbose             Verbose mode.
  -t, --tagged              Backup only volumes tagged with the Backup=true tag
  -p, --purge               Purge old backups
  -a, --purgeauto           Purge automated backups only. Will ignore manual backups
  -d, --dryrun              Simulates creation and deletion of snapshots.
  -b, --backup              Perform backup
  -x, --nonexistingvolumes  Purge snapshots of no longer existing volumes
  -n, --notusedvolumes      Purge snapshots of volumes no longer attached to instances
      --version             Show application version.

Args:
  <region>  AWS region.

Retention policy

We currently support only one retention policy at the moment. This is something that could be expanded on. Pull requests are welcome!

The current policy is as follows:

• Keep last 30 days
• Keep first day of each month
• Keep first day of each year

Everything else is being deleted.

Requirements

Just like every application using the AWS SDK, we have a few requirements.

IAM User with the correct policies

This application requires an IAM user that can interact with Instances, Volumes and Snapshots. Here's an example of the IAM security policy required:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "Stmt1426256275000",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "ec2:CreateSnapshot",
                "ec2:CreateTags",
                "ec2:DeleteSnapshot",
                "ec2:DescribeSnapshots",
                "ec2:DescribeVolumes",
                "ec2:DescribeInstances"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

AWS credentials

You should put the credentials of the IAM user that you're using to run this application in the correct configuration file. Please refer to Configuring Credentials

Manually selecting the volumes to backup

You can select manually which volumes to backup by adding a new tag called Backup and setting it to the value true on the volume that you want to backup. You will then need to run ec2backup with the -t flag. This way it will only pick up those volumes that have the Backup tag set to true.

Purging old backups

By default this application doesn't purge old backups. You can turn it on by adding the -p flag. The old backups will be purged based on the default retention policy. Please note that all old snapshots will be checked, not just those created by this application. If you want to delete only those created by this application, you have to add the -a flag. This way it will only delete those snapshots that have the CreatedBy tag set to AutomatedBackup which is set by this applicaton when the new snapshots are created.

Purging backups of no longer existing volumes

You can remove all the snapshots of volumes that no longer exist by adding the -x flag. The old backups will be purged based on the default retention policy. Please note that all old snapshots will be checked, not just those created by this application. If you want to delete only those created by this application, you have to add the -a flag. This way it will only delete those snapshots that have the CreatedBy tag set to AutomatedBackup which is set by this applicaton when the new snapshots are created.

Purging backups of volumes no longer attached

You can remove all the snapshots of volumes that are no longer attached to instances by adding the -n flag. The old backups will be purged based on the default retention policy. Please note that all old snapshots will be checked, not just those created by this application. If you want to delete only those created by this application, you have to add the -a flag. This way it will only delete those snapshots that have the CreatedBy tag set to AutomatedBackup which is set by this applicaton when the new snapshots are created.

Simulating

The -d flag can be added to simulate the creation and deletion of snapshots. This is useful to check that you're actually passing the correct parameters and that everything is fine.

Changelog

0.2.0

• Added the -x switch to remove backups of no longer existing volumes
• Added the -n switch to remove backups of no volumes that are no longer attached to instances

0.1.2

• Added a 200ms delay between requests to AWS API to avoid being blocked by the rate limiter
• Added the -b switch to run the backup so that we can just run a purge pass if needed

0.1.1

• First release

License

This application is distributed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, see LICENSE.txt and NOTICE.txt for more information.