Manage Data Protection of Amazon Redshift Data Warehouse using AWS Backup

Overview

AWS Backup is a fully managed backup service that automates and centralizes data backup across AWS services. It allows us to configure backup policies and monitor the activity of AWS resources in one place. You can eliminate the need to write unique scripts and manual procedures by automating and combining backup tasks that were previously completed service by service.

Earlier, AWS backup is supported by Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon FSx file systems, Amazon EC2, Amazon EFS, Amazon EBS, Amazon RDS and Aurora, AWS Storage Gateway, Amazon DocumentDB, Amazon Neptune, AWS CloudFormation, VMware CloudTM on AWS and on-premises VMware virtual machines and AWS BackInt.

Introduction

Amazon has announced that AWS Backup now also supports Amazon Redshift. It will help us to protect data warehouses with immutable backups, separate access policies, and centralized organizational governance of backup and restore jobs. It can be done using AWS Backup console or CLI or by using API. The Redshift Clusters can be backed up based on schedule or they can be backed up as needed via on-demand backup.

You can restore the tables or entire clusters using AWS CLI or AWS Backup Console. The original cluster settings are automatically entered into the console when you restore an Amazon Redshift cluster. Additional settings must be added based on requirements. The source and target databases must be specified when restoring a table.

Steps to create and restore AWS Backup on-demand

Step 1: Sign in to AWS Management Console. In Search Bar, enter Backup, and from the search results choose AWS Backup.

Step 2: Navigate to the left side of the pane and then Choose Protected resources. Next, click on Create on-demand backup.

Step 3: On the Create on-demand backup page,

• Choose the resource type as Redshift.
• Under Cluster identifier, choose the name or ID of the resource that you want to protect.
• In the Backup window, choose to Create backup now which will start creating a backup of the resources immediately. If you want, you can also customize the backup window.
• Choose a retention period as per your requirements.
• For the Backup vault, Choose Default. Otherwise, you can create a new backup vault.

• Under the IAM role, choose the Default role or a role of your choice.
• Next, click on Create on-demand backup

Step 4: In the Protected resources section, you can see details about the cluster snapshots.

Step 5: Restore Amazon Redshift Cluster.

• In the Recovery Points pane, choose the recovery point ID and Click on Restore.
• Under Restore options, choose Restore Cluster from Snapshot.
• Specify your new cluster configuration settings. However, it will take default values from the existing cluster. You can change it by providing the Cluster identifier, Node type, and Number of nodes.
• You can associate additional roles by clicking Associate IAM roles.
• Next, click on Restore backup.
• Navigate to the left side of the pane and select Jobs.
• On the Jobs page, under the Restore Jobs pane, you can see the job created for restoring of Amazon Redshift Cluster.

Conclusion

AWS announces support for Amazon Redshift in AWS Backup, which makes it easier to centrally manage the data protection of your Amazon Redshift data warehouse. AWS Backup allows us to schedule and restore Redshift manual snapshots. Using this feature, you can automate the creation of Amazon Redshift backups and store them in an encrypted backup vault. It allows us to restore a table to an existing cluster or a cluster to a new cluster which simplifies data recovery.

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