EBS Snapshots & Backup

Snapshot Basics

Point-in-Time

Capture volume state at specific moment

Incremental

Only changed blocks since last snapshot

S3 Storage

Stored in Amazon S3 automatically

Region-Specific

Snapshots stored in same region

Snapshot Lifecycle

Create

Manual or automated creation

Copy

Cross-region and cross-account

Share with other AWS accounts

Delete

Manual deletion or lifecycle policies

Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR)

Instant Performance

Full performance immediately

• No initialization penalty
• Full IOPS from start
• Per-AZ enablement

Use Cases

Critical workload recovery

• Database restores
• Dev/test environments
• Backup validation

Cost Considerations

Additional charges apply

• $0.75 per DSU per month
• Per AZ pricing
• Monitor usage

Cross-Region Copy

Disaster Recovery

Geographic backup distribution

Encryption

Re-encrypt with destination keys

Automation

Lambda and EventBridge integration

Data Transfer

Cross-region data transfer costs

Automated Backups

Data Lifecycle Manager

Automated snapshot policies

Schedule-Based

Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly

Retention Policies

Automatic cleanup of old snapshots

Tag-Based

Target volumes by tags

Snapshot Security & Best Practices

Encryption

Encrypted volumes create encrypted snapshots

Access Control

IAM policies for snapshot operations

Consistent Snapshots

Pause I/O or use application-consistent methods

Testing

Regularly test snapshot restore procedures

Snapshots & Backup Exam Tips

• Snapshots are incremental and stored in S3, but you cannot access them directly
• First snapshot is a full copy, subsequent snapshots only store changed blocks
• Fast Snapshot Restore eliminates initialization latency for immediate full performance
• Cross-region snapshot copying enables disaster recovery and compliance
• Data Lifecycle Manager automates snapshot creation and retention policies

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