Minimum backup plan for a small business: what, how often and how long to keep

Almost every small business with something in AWS is in one of these two situations: they make no backups, or they make some without really knowing of what, how often or for how long they are kept. Both end the same way the day someone deletes what they should not have or an update breaks the shop. The difference between losing an afternoon and losing the business is having a plan, and it does not need to be complicated.

Here is one that fits on a sheet of paper. It is designed for Lightsail machines running a website, a shop or a management application, with or without a separate database. At the end there is a complete example for a website with a shop that you can copy as is and adjust.

Step by step

1. Understand the 3-2-1 rule and adapt it to the cloud

   The rule says: three copies of every piece of data, on two different media, and one off-site. It was born in the age of tapes, but translated to AWS it looks like this:

   • Three copies: the original in use, a recent copy in the same region and one more copy.
   • Two media: there are no tapes in the cloud, but there are two different things: the machine's disk (where the original lives) and the snapshot store or S3 (where the copies live). A snapshot is not on the same disk as the machine, so this part comes almost for free.
   • One off-site: this is what almost nobody does. All Lightsail snapshots are stored in the same region as the machine. If you want a copy elsewhere, you have to copy it to another region (Ireland if you are in Paris, for example). It is one more step, but it is the one that saves you if the whole region has a problem.

   You do not need to follow it to the letter from day one, but it is worth knowing where you stand.

2. Decide what to back up for each thing

   Each type of data has its natural form of backup. Mixing them up is the most common mistake (for example, trusting that the machine snapshot protects a database that lives in another service).

   • Whole machine (system, programs, configuration, website): a snapshot of the machine. It is what lets you recreate it just as it was in minutes.
   • Database (orders, customers, content): if the database is inside the machine, the snapshot includes it, although a daily dump (export) is also advisable because a snapshot taken while writing can leave the database in an odd state. If it is a managed database (Lightsail Databases or RDS), it has its own automatic backups and they have to be turned on separately.
   • Loose files (documents, uploaded photos, PDF invoices, exports): an S3 bucket with versioning enabled. If these files already live on the machine, the snapshot covers them too, but S3 is cheaper and lets you recover a single file without spinning up a whole machine.

   Make a short list: for each thing it would hurt to lose, write down where it is and how it gets backed up. If something falls into no category, you have a gap.

3. Set sensible frequencies and retention

   For a small business, this scheme covers almost every case without blowing up the spend:

   • Daily, keeping the last 7 days. Protects you from yesterday's or the day before's mistake.
   • Weekly, keeping the last 4 weeks. For when the problem is discovered late (a piece of data that has been wrong for two weeks).
   • Monthly, keeping the last 12 months. For audits, claims or simply being able to look at how something was six months ago.

   If you sell online, maybe a day of lost orders is too much. Then the database needs more frequent backups (hourly, or point-in-time recovery, which is what managed databases give you). The machine itself can stay daily: it changes little.

   Lightsail snapshots are charged per GB per month, but only for what changes between one and the next, so 7 daily copies cost quite a bit less than seven disks. If the budget is tight, cut the monthly ones first, never the daily ones.

4. Turn on Lightsail automatic snapshots

   Lightsail can take a daily snapshot of each machine without you doing anything. In the Lightsail console, open the machine, Snapshots tab, and in the Automatic snapshots block turn on the switch. Choose the time (best in the small hours, when the least is being written). Lightsail keeps the last 7 and deletes the oldest one every day; that number cannot be changed.

   This gives you the daily part of the plan and nothing else. What Lightsail does not do on its own:

   • The weekly and monthly copies: if you want one from three weeks ago, you will have to have made it by hand (Create snapshot in the same tab) or have it scheduled by other means. Manual snapshots do not delete themselves, so write down when to delete them.
   • The copy in another region: it has to be copied by hand from the snapshot's menu, every time.
   • Warning you if one day the automatic snapshot does not happen.

   If you have a Lightsail database, go to it, Snapshots tab, and check that automatic backups are on: it keeps 7 days and lets you restore to any minute within that week. It is independent of the machine snapshot.

5. If you have RDS, check the retention

   With a database in Amazon RDS, automatic backups come enabled with 7 days of retention by default, but it is worth checking. In the RDS console, open the database, Modify button, Backup section: there is the retention period (0 to 35 days) and the time window. If it is at 0, there are no backups. Raise it to 7 at least; to 14 or more if the database is the heart of the business. The change does not require a reboot.

   For the monthly part, create a manual snapshot on the 1st (Actions, Take snapshot): manual ones do not expire; delete them yourself after a year.

6. Write down how to restore and test it

   A backup that has never been restored is an assumption. Before considering the plan done, do each restore at least once and write down how it is done:

   • Machine: from the Snapshots tab, a snapshot's menu, Create new instance. Choose the same plan, wait for it to boot, log in through the browser or over SSH and check that the website loads. Then delete it.
   • Managed database: Restore to point in time creates a new database with a different name; connect, check that yesterday's orders are there, delete it.
   • Files in S3: open the bucket, turn on Show versions, recover an earlier version of any file.

   Note how long each one took and who knows how to do it. Repeat the test every three or six months.

Sample plan for a website with a shop

Imagine an online shop on a 4 GB Lightsail machine (WordPress with WooCommerce, or PrestaShop) with the database on a separate Lightsail database, and the product photos on the machine itself. The minimum plan would look like this:

• Shop machine: Lightsail automatic daily snapshot (7 copies). Manual snapshot first thing on Monday, deleting the one from 5 weeks ago (4 copies). Manual snapshot on the 1st of each month, deleting the one from 13 months ago (12 copies). Once a week, copy Monday's snapshot to Ireland and delete the previous month's one there.
• Lightsail database: automatic backups on (7 days with recovery to any minute). Manual monthly snapshot on the 1st, keeping 12.
• Photos and documents: they are inside the machine, so the snapshot covers them. If they grow beyond a few GB, moving them to S3 with versioning makes the machine and the snapshots cheaper.
• Restore test: the first Monday of each quarter, create a machine from the latest snapshot in Ireland, check it loads, delete it.

Indicative cost: with an 80 GB disk, the whole plan comes to a few euros a month; the copy in Ireland, a little more. What takes discipline is the manual copies, the copy to another region and deleting the old ones: put it on a specific person's calendar, or automate it (below).

What can go wrong